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Web site Cookies - Cookies, what they are and what they are not. Using cookies and their benifits |
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What is a Cookie | What are they for | Controling Cookies | Abuse |
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What is a Cookie?An Internet cookie is not something you eat, but is a small bit of information that a web site sends to your browser. Your browser keeps this information in order to send it back to the web site when it is requested. Your browser will keep that cookie either in memory, or it will save it to a special area of your hard disk reserved for cookies. Cookies that are written to your hard drive are called persistent cookies. Many sites use temporary cookies that are never written to your hard drive, and are lost as soon as you exit your browser. If a cookie is written to your hard drive, it cannot be executed because it is not a program; therefore your computer does absolutely nothing with it, other than send it back to the web site when requested. Since it cannot be executed in any way, it cannot transmit a virus to your computer. A virus can only be transmitted by something that is executed (i.e., a program, or a Word macro, etc). It's also important to note that the only information that can be sent to your computer in the form of a cookie is information that the web site provides. As such, it can only be information that it already knows, or that it has access to. The only information they have access to is information like what kind of web browser you are using, your IP address (your network address on the Internet, which looks like 200.100.100.5), and some of the recent web sites you have visited. Of all of this information, the only information that I would consider to be private, and would rather not let out, is where I have been on the web. However, this information is available through your web browser, and is not the result of cookies. Any other information that may be available is anything that you may have provided by filling out a form. You should always be careful about providing information over the Internet, just as you would be careful about giving information to a person over the phone, or even in person. Another important fact to note is that the only cookie a web site can read from your computer is one that it previously wrote to your computer. If I visit www.yahoo.com, it will not be able to see any other cookies from any other websites, simply because the URL will be different. What this boils down to is that when you visit a web site, it can write a small bit of harmless information to your computer, and when you return, it can read that information back. No one else can see it. It’s information that is already known or available to the web site. It cannot cause harm to your computer or data. What are Cookies for?Cookies help a web site remember you. When you visit a web site, there is no information available that can uniquely identify you. The closest anything comes is your IP address. An IP address is a unique Internet network address that identifies where to send packets of data when you are communicating over the net. The problem is that there are limited IP numbers available, so ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) reuse their IP addresses. When you disconnect from the Internet, you free up your IP address, which allows the ISP to let another one of their customers to use that address. As the web has developed, web developers have continued to look for ways to improve their sites. One way to make sure a web site has what someone wants is to present exactly what that person wants. This may sound a little circular, but what I mean is that if a web site can deliver custom content to each visitor, perhaps content that was even requested by that visitor, the more likely they are to entice that person to return on a regular basis. In fact, some sites will go so far as to create a completely custom home page to registered visitors. Say, for example, that I want to provide a stock ticker tape to people visiting my web site, and I want to display stock symbols they have requested. The first time someone visited my site, I would assign them a unique ID, store it as a cookie on their computer, and store in a file or database on my web site a default set of stock symbols. Now, as the visitor adds or deletes symbols from the ticker, I would reflect those changes in the file I’m keeping. When that person returns to my web site, I can read their ID number from the cookie, and display the stock ticker symbols exactly as they were the last time they were at my site. This is an example where a web site wants to remember something about me over a long period of time. A cookie can also be used to store more temporary information. It might be used to keep track of me while I shop at a web site. As I choose items to purchase, the site will remember what I have chosen. However, if I return a week later, it may not want to remember what was in my shopping cart the last time I was there. After all, availability has changed, and pricing may have changed. In this case, the cookie is used mainly to track me as I move from one web page to another on their site. This is a lot easier and more reliable than writing CGI scripts to control my movement through every page. Can you Control Cookies?The web browsers that support cookies do allow you to turn them off. More accurately, they allow you to turn on warnings that allow you to select, on a per-cookie basis, if you want to receive the cookie. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, versions 3.0 and above, select View from the menu bar, then select the menu item Options… This will open up the Internet Explorer Options control panel. Select the tab labeled Advanced, and you will see a group of radio buttons entitled Warnings. In this group, check the box that reads, "Warn before accepting "cookies"." If you are using Netscape Navigator, versions 3.0 and above, select Options from the menu bar, then select the menu item Network Preferences… This will open the Navigator Network Preferences control panel. Select the tab labeled, Protocols, and you will see a group of radio buttons entitled Show an alert before. In this group, check the box that reads, "Accepting a Cookie." If you turn on the warnings for cookies, your browser will open a dialog box every time you are sent a cookie. In general, when a computer program presents you with an alert like this, if it is written well, it will present it with the default selection being the safest. In both Netscape and Internet Explorer, the default option is to accept the cookie. You should be aware that if you reject cookies, the page you are viewing may not work properly. This may be visible, or you may not notice it. Can cookies be Abused?Cookies can work a little bit like the tags they use to track packages in shipments. Some sites that place ads on several web pages can track you as you work your way through the web. Some ad exchanges for example, is in the position to do this; however, they do not, nor do they intend to use cookies this way. They could place a cookie on your computer when you visit a web site with their ad. Now, if you visit another site with one of their ads, they could see that you are now on a new site. Again, as you visit sites with their ads, they could detect your movement through the web. However, unless you have let them know who you are by visiting their site, they would only know that someone went from Site A to Site B to Site C. In the world of marketing, this could be valuable demographic information, which could effect where companies place ads, and how much they are willing to pay. While you could consider this an invasion of your privacy, I consider it a benefit. If I fit a certain demographic category, and ads are set up to be displayed for people like me, there's a better chance I will see ads of interest to me, rather than stuff I'm just going to ignore. Cookie SummarySo, what’s all the hub-bub over cookies lately. Internet Security. It’s a real concern. Since the Internet makes it so easy to gather and publish information, worldwide, at the same time, it makes it harder to protect that information. You have probably heard about secure web servers, firewalls, and other security related issues on the Internet. You may also know (and certainly should know) that E-Mail transmitted over the Internet goes through several other computers before it hits its destination. If the mail is not encrypted (and it usually is not), someone can view it along the way. With all of this security concern, cookies got caught in the spot light. However, if you really look at them, with the spot light shining on them, you will see that they are not a threat. I, for one, like cookies. I do not have my browsers alert me to the use of cookies, and I sleep just fine. |
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