What are Cookies?

My favorite cookie is a chewy chocolate chip.  What's yours?

Excuse me, what does this have to do with the Internet?

On the Internet, a "cookie" is a morsel of information that some Web sites
put on your computer (often without your knowledge) to help keep track of
YOU. Most cookies are harmless; some are a bit nosey. If you are concerned
about your privacy on the Internet, you may want to learn more.

Some may find this routine stuff; others may not be aware of it.

1. What is a cookie?
2. How do cookies work?
3. What are they used for?
4. How to view your cookies files.
5. How to remove cookies.
6. How to disable cookies.

1. What is a cookie?   A cookie is a simple, passive text file stored on
your computer.  It may contain information such as user names, possibly your
e-mail address, and your preferences when visiting a Web site. Cookies often
contain no more than 25 or 30 characters, although they can range up to 255.
Much information in cookies comes from your answers to on-screen questions,
so be careful what you tell a Web site.

(NOTE: Cookies are NOT the same as graphics and text files that Web
sites also download onto your computer to make the site load faster the next
time you visit.  These files are stored in the "cache."  )



2.    How do cookies work?  You visit a Web site.  A script on that site
tells your browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) to
create a cookie with specific information.  The browser writes that file in
our hard drive.  (More about where in a minute.)  When you return to that Web
site, another script searches for "its" cookie, and reads it.

The cookie contains the site's domain name (such as "cnn.com") and is 
designed to be read ONLY by that site.

3. What are cookies used for?  Some cookies are limited to recognizing who
you are. Others do more.

a) User identity.  Some sites require you to "log-in" before showing you
their inside stuff.   Cookies save your ID so you do not have to type it in
every time you visit.

b)    Personal touches.  Have you ever been to a site that that tells you,
"Welcome, Stephen?  Your name and other preferences were stored in a cookie.

c)    Web site tracking. Here is where the controversy begins.  Using "log
files" site designers can tell which site you were visiting before you came
by their place. The server records every single request it gets, the time,
where it came from, and what pages were looked at. The log file will note
what site you were "referred" from, that is, the previous site.

Within a site, cookies are used to record internal tracking that tells what
parts of a site you visited before you got bored and wandered off.

d) Targeted marketing.  Companies can use cookies to indicate which of
their ads you have already looked at, so they can show you a new one the next
time you stop by.  A site that knows your identity could exchange it with
other companies that buy advertising space.  Over time, "data mining"
marketing firms can build detailed profiles of your interests and spending
habits.  Aha!  Perhaps this is the reason you have been getting so much
targeted junk mail recently.  (Actually, data mining software is one of the
big new trends in marketing across the board, not just the Internet.)

e)    Online ordering systems.  If you shop on the Internet, these types of
cookies can remember what you bought in the past, or what you have in your
"shopping basket" at the moment in case you get cut off or lose interest.

4.    How to view your cookies files. There are various ways to do this,
depending on the browser you are using.

Netscape products store cookies in a file named "cookie.txt" Use the Start
|Find Files feature to search for it.  The file will open in Notepad.  You
may be surprised to find some sites you never thought you visited.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0 stores cookies in folders named "Cookies,"
with files name "index.dat" or other text files.  Internet Explorer 5.0
stores a different cookie for each site, and each file ends with the .txt
extension.

Or, in Internet Explorer 4.0, go to View | Internet Options | General |
Temporary Internet Files | Settings | View Files.  Scroll through the list to
find not only graphics and text files downloaded from sites, but also files
labeled "cookie" this-or-that.

In Internet Explorer 5.0 start this path at Tools | Internet Options, etc.
(instead of beginning at "View").

Macintosh owners using Netscape browsers can employ "Finder" to search for a
folder named "MagicCookie."  Open it to see a list of cookies you have
collected.

Macintosh owners using Internet Explorer browsers should go (within the
program) to Edit | Preferences | Receiving Files | Cookies.  You will find a
Delete button to get rid of the cookies, and a "Settings" button to choose a
level of accepting (or rejecting) cookies.

5.  How to remove cookies. Again, this depends on the type of browser you are
using.

For Netscape products, the simplest thing to do is find the "cookies.txt"
file and delete it.

For Internet Explorer versions 4.0 and 5.0, if you follow the path described
above to view files, when you get to Temporary Internet Files, choose the
option "Delete Files."  In some cases, this will delete only the text and
graphics files downloaded to make sites load faster, NOT the cookies. You may
have to take the next step of clicking on Settings | View Files.  If you have
already clicked on "Delete Files" in the previous step, you may find the
graphics and text files gone, but the cookies remaining.  Make sure you are
in the folder labeled, "Temporary Internet Files." If this is the case, use
CTRL-A to select all the cookies and then delete them.

(Mac users, please see step four to find cookies and delete them.)

6. How to disable cookies.  Both the major browsers offer degrees of
control over cookies, enabling you to decide whether you want to accept them
or not, or just be warned if a site wants to download a cookie.

In Netscape 3.0 go to Options | Network Preferences | Protocols.  If you
wish, under Show an Alert Before put a check next to Accepting a Cookie.

In Netscape 4.0 up to 4.08, the path is Edit | Preferences | Advanced.  Click
on Never Accept Cookies (or) Warn Me before Accepting a Cookie.

In the Netscape 4.5 series, go to Edit | Preferences and click on the
Advanced box (not just the + plus sign next to it).  You will find four
options: Accept all cookies; Accept only cookies that get sent back to the
originating server; Disable cookies; and Warn me before accepting a cookie.

In Internet Explorer 3.0 go to View | Options | Advanced, where you will find
a box to be checked to Warn before accepting cookies.

In Internet Explorer 4.0, the path is View | Internet Options | Security. 
There you will find a sliding "Security" scale, with options ranging from Low
through Medium-Low, to Medium, to High. To block cookies altogether, you have
to choose the High option.

PLEASE NOTE: After all this talk about cookies, it is only fair to say they
are either a fact of modern life or a marketing nuisance, depending on your
point of view. In some respects, cookies are no different than the approach
used by a national supermarket chain that issues you a special discount card
and then uses it to track your purchases and send you "special offers."

After a bit of experimentation, you may find disabling cookies more trouble
than it is worth, because every time you go to some Web sites, you will be
required to pause and choose whether you want to accept a cookie or not.

For yet more information on cookies, here are some useful Web sites:

Cookie Central

Electronic Privacy Information Center

Google Guide

HTTP Cookie

The Ultimate Guide to Cookies

If it so happens you are interested in REAL, yummy cookies, go to:

Cookie Receipts