6.5 Cookies
The most major problem with the running of a web site is that you can work out how many people have accessed your site, but it is not so easy to calculate who has made these accessess.
A publishing company can calculate how many magazines they've sold, the shops they have sold from but know little about their readers unless these readers reply to further market research (such as a questionairre). This is not always so successful.
This is the same problem as a web company. Also, with the Internet becoming a more personal experience people are starting to demand their own options when they access their favourite pages,
A cookie is a selection of information that is sent by the web site to your browser, then stored by the browser, then sent back by the browser to the web site (server) when you next access the site.
The cookie information is actually stored within the web page itself, always before the <body> part of the html document. This way the server receives the cookie information before anything else occurs. Often cookies are also generated by CGI scripts, often Javascript is the most common script.
Your browser normally stores cookie information within a cookie drawer in a file called "cookie.txt".
A cookie should a allow you to personalise favourite pages, simplify the login to password protected web sites and to filter valuable information that you may require.Another example is where your favourite web site remembers the last time you accessed the site and presents you with "do you want to see the latest news or files since your last connection?". This option will save you so much time as you will be able to see the latest news and browse the latest uploads (in the case of a PD site) since you last connected.
Although cookies can't be used to access your computer, damage any information on your hard drive or can they monitor your non-web Internet activity, they can be used without the best intentions.
For example, although you want to allow cookie use on some of your favourite sites, cookies can also mean that other sites can be given your personal information without you being aware. It is also possible to build up a collection of information about the user and their "likes and dislikes". This can result in companies targetting you with information that you didn't ask for.
You'll also be suprised about the information that your Internet connection and your browser reveals about you! For example your email address, organisation, name etc - all a company needs to add you to their database.
6.54 Maintaining Cookie Security
What can be done to make sure that your personal information is not given at all or not given to the wrong web sites?