These Cookies are not Those Cookies

Cookies

I love cookies; I mean butter cookies, especially those from Denmark. Those cookies are yummy to most of us. But the internet cookies are not necessary for the delight of everyone. When you visit a website you may notice that it is telling you: "Welcome back for your second visit.” This is the work of a cookie.

 A cookie is a small text file stored on your computer’s hard drive when you visit a website. A cookie is like an identification card. It is uniquely yours. Uses of cookies It allows a website to know the pages and the services you use when you are there. Cookies provide information for websites about the things that are important to the customers. It is also used to keep track of you and your shopping cart by Internet shopping sites. You can also customize your home page with the help of cookies. Every time you request for your custom home page your cookies are sent along with results to tell the server which items to display. 

 Accept a cookie. You can decide not to accept a cookie whenever a cookie is offered. When you block cookies you also prevent some online services from working. What a cookie cannot do It cannot deliver computer viruses and it will not damage your files or systems. It can’t erase data and scan your hard drive and gather information about your passwords, credit card numbers. This is not an executable program and it cannot do anything to your computer. A cookie is only sent back to the server that originally sent it to the browser and to no one else. Most cookies are removed when you quit your browser. There is another type of cookie known as a persistent cookie which is stored until its expiration date. 

Third-party cookies All cookies have an owner and the owner is the domain specified in the cookie. When you visit a website, say, http://www.abc.com/, and the server places a cookie on your computer which is http://www.abc.com/. It is a first-party cookie. However, when you visit http://www.abc.com/ and a cookie which belongs to http://www.123.com/ is placed on your website. That is a third-party cookie. More and more people are blocking third-party cookies. 

 Your cookie files You can view your cookie files in IE7. Just go to Tools and then Internet Options. While you are at the General tab, under Browsing history, click Settings and click the View files button.

Image source: https://ophtek.com/how-do-cookies-affect-your-cyber-security/