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Computer cookies are small text files that contain a unique ID tag placed on a computer by a website. They store information about a user’s activities on a website and can be temporary or permanent. Persistent cookies allow a site to recognize a user and track their browsing habits, leading to concerns about privacy. However, users have control over accepting, blocking, and deleting cookies through browser settings. Cookies were first introduced in 1994 and have since become widely used in website operations.
A computer cookie, also known as an “HTTP cookie”, is a small text file that contains a unique ID tag, placed on your computer by a website. Various information can be stored in this file, from the pages visited on the site to information voluntarily provided to the site. These small files offer practical benefits to both users and website operators and generally make surfing the net a smoother experience than it otherwise would be. However, privacy advocates tend to be wary of them, as many users are unaware of exactly what information is being collected and how the information may be used or shared.
Types of cookies
There are two types of computer cookies: temporary and permanent. Temporary cookies, also called session cookies, are stored for a short time and then removed when the browser is closed. Permanent cookies, also called persistent cookies, are stored for a long time on the user’s hard drive and, if deleted, will be replaced at the next visit to the respective site.
The temporary cookie is very simple. It works by setting aside some browser cache memory to hold information about a user’s activities during their visit. For example, after placing a selected purchase in a shopping cart, the user could continue to search the site for other products without having to go through a separate checkout for each item. However, once the browser is closed, all temporary cookies are lost. Returning surfers are not recognised, shopping carts are empty and any other forms or information will need to be provided again.
Persistent cookies, on the other hand, allow a site to constantly recognize a surfer. This is achieved by transferring a text file with a unique ID tag to the visitor’s hard drive while maintaining a corresponding file on the server. On subsequent visits, the browser automatically delivers this cookie, allowing the site to instantly retrieve the corresponding file. Persistent cookies can exist for years, unless they are deleted, or until the cookie’s internally defined lifetime has expired. Today permanent cookies are the most used type of cookie.
How cookies are used
At their most basic level, a website uses computer cookies to record when an individual visits, what pages they view, and how long the visitor stays. If he returns later, the visitor cookie activates the log of previous visits and modifies it to include what happened during the new visit. If personal information is offered during one of these visits, this is immediately associated with the “anonymous” ID tag and, consequently, with the entire profile. This way, a site can more easily track evolving trends and other statistics among its visitors. Over time, persistent cookies have also led to some initially unexpected uses, such as web profiling.
Marketers have developed a substantially broader application for cookie profiling. Having advertising rights on many of the most popular websites, marketers can now pass third-party cookies to surfers. This allows them to recognize people as they travel between different sites, recording comprehensive profiles of people’s browsing habits over a period of months or even years. Sophisticated profiling programs quickly order the information provided by computer cookies, classifying the targets in different areas on the basis of statistical data. Age, income level and even sexual orientation can often be determined with varying degrees of accuracy through cookie profiling, along with many other characteristics. A lot depends on how much a person surfs and where they choose to go online.
Following public outcry in response to hidden profiling, cookie controls are now included in web browsers to allow users to opt out of cookies, options that weren’t available in 1995 when persistent cookie technology was first introduced . Cookie controls also allow for user-created lists of exceptions, so a user can opt out of most cookies, for example, but allow them from sites where cookies on your computer are placed for a desired purpose. Third party cookies often have their own controls, as they are normally placed by marketers.
Origin
As a concept, the computer cookie dates back to 1994. In that year, it was adapted as a tool for the World Wide Web by Leo Montulli from a similar technique called the “magic cookie” that was used in UNIX® systems. This is also the origin of the term itself. It wasn’t for another couple of years, however, that cookies became widely known to the general public. In 1996, articles about them began appearing in the mainstream press, many of which raised privacy concerns and, in turn, inspired changes in web browsers that eventually gave users more control over how cookies were implemented on their individual computers.
Are cookies dangerous?
By themselves, computer cookies are not harmful; they typically make browsing smoother and help websites run more profitably and more efficiently. There are legitimate concerns, however, about the ways cookies can be used to follow users from site to site, forming comprehensive profiles. Some consider this an invasion of privacy and in the wrong hands information can potentially be exploited for questionable purposes. Very similar to managing privacy settings on social networking sites, however, each user has the power to decide for himself whether to accept cookies, whether to block certain types and how often to delete them. Most modern browsers, as well as many Internet security products, give users easy and flexible control over all of these decisions. Many websites detail their cookie process, if any, in their privacy policy.
