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eLearning Series
Internet Security
Why
Do Websites Use Cookies?
A
cookie is a small file that contains only text. It attaches itself to your hard drive for each website
you visit during any given browser session. They are essentially
messages for web sites that stay on your hard drive until you
manually delete them, by yourself or with the help of software
cleaning program. These cookies keep track of your activities
on the web site itself. The message stored in the cookie file
is an HTTP header that can be opened by the host web server
at any point in time. The term “cookie,” is one well known
within computer science lingo. It describes a clear piece of
information held by an intermediary.
There are a number of different reasons a website might use
cookies. Most sites use them to collect demographic
data about the viewers. They look at how long you stay on their website,
how often you come, and which pages you look at while you do.
This can help companies refine their marketing strategies to
meet consumer needs. For example, if you always visit the website
after one a.m., and lots of other customers do too, they might
launch a new ad campaign based on that information.
Another
reason a website might use cookies is to offer you a personalized
experience at the web site. The host server
automatically assumes this is the first time you've visited
the site if no cookies are present in your system. However,
if the site deposits cookies on your hard drive, the host server
knows you are a returning customer. You might have seen this
before when you return to a website where you've made purchases
in the past, and the header at the top says “Hello, Mr. Jones!”
You may have wondered how they knew your name. It was the cookies
they deposited on your system. Shopping websites may also make
recommendations based on other purchases you've made from them
in the past as the host server stores which pages you looked
at and which pages you purchased from.
One
final reason a website may use cookies is to monitor your
advertising messages. Most sites run several banner ads at
once. The cookies can help tell the host server which banner
ads you've seen and which you have not. This can help the company
from a business standpoint because they can tell advertisers
that site viewers will see each of their ads an approximate
number of times each time they visit the site.
Cookies
do not compromise your internet security. In some
fashion, they do compromise your privacy, but because cookies
are simple text files, they cannot hurt your computer in any
fashion. It is not a program. It is not a plug-in. It is not
malware. It is not spyware. It cannot spread a virus. It cannot
even access your hard drive information. Cookies only have
six parameters that can be stored within them. Cookies can
contain the name of the cookie. They can also contain the value
of the cookie and the expiration date of the cookie. This is
how long the cookie will stay active on your system.
For
example, if you visit a shopping website, they may deposit
a cookie
on your system that will stay active for seven days. After
that, the cookie remains on your system, but the host server
will no longer recognize it after that point. Cookies can
also contain a path or URL. This means that any websites
outside
of this path are recognized as invalid, and other host servers
cannot recognize a cookie from a different website. Cookies
can also contain a domain. If one host server works for multiple
sites, the cookie's domain can tell it which of the sites
to access. For example, if one company runs a banking website,
a shopping website, and a charity website, the cookie will
only be valid for one of the websites. If you use the shopping
website, the cookie deposited to your system will not be
good
for the banking website. The final information a cookie can
store is the need for a secure connection. Secure connections
are used on websites where sensitive personal information
is transmitted. A cookie with this information would prompt
the
host server to allow you to log in to their secure connection. If you do not want your system to accept cookies, most browsers
have a setting in their options menu that can help you reject
cookies from websites to ensure your privacy from companies
who deposit cookies on your system. It is a good idea to clean
your cookies file on a regular basis.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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