Internet Cookies by: Ilangovan Chellaya 07142001

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Internet Cookiesby Ilangovan Chellaya
07/14/2001
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Agenda

• Misconception about cookies
• What are cookies?
• How does a cookie really work?
• Why do sites uses cookies?
• Some Tips to Enable/Disable Cookies
• Q A

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Where did term cookies come from?

• The name cookie derives from UNIX objects called
  magic cookies.
• These are tokens that are attached to a user or
  program and change depending on the areas entered
  by the user or program.
• Cookies are also sometimes called persistent
  cookies because they typically stay in the
  browser for long periods of time.

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Misconception

• Cookies are programs that web sites put on your
  hard disk. They sit on your computer gathering
  information about you and everything you do on
  the Internet, and whenever the web site wants to
  it can download all of the information the cookie
  has collected.

• In fact
• It is not a program or plug-in
• Cannot run like a program code
• Cannot gather any information on their own.
• Cannot collect any personal information about
  you from
• your machine.

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What is Internet Cookies?
1. Is a message given to a web browser by a web
Server
2. The browser stores the message in a text file
3. The message is then sent back to the server
each time the browser requests a page from the
server
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Examples of Internet Cookies

• username_at_coolsite.txt
• UserID A9A3BECE0563982D www.coolsite.com/
• session-id-time 954242000 amazon.com/
• session-id 002-4135256-7625846 amazon.com/
• x-main eKQIfwnxuF7qtmX52x6VWAXh_at_Ih6Uo5H
  amazon.com/
• ubid-main 077-9263437-9645324 amazon.com/

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Components of Cookies

• A typical cookie contains more than simply a
  name and a value. In fact, a cookie has 6
  parameters that can be passed to it
•  The NAME of the cookie,
• The VALUE of the cookie,
• The expiration DATE of the cookie,
• The PATH the cookie is valid for,
• The DOMAIN the cookie is valid for,
• The need for a secure connection to exist to use
  the cookie.
•  Example
• Set-Cookie NAMEVALUE expiresDATEpathPATH
  domainDOMAIN_NAME secure

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Why do sites uses cookies?

• Web sites use cookies in many different ways
• Cookies provide capabilities that make the Web
  much easier to navigate.
• Cookie allows a site to store state information
  on your machine
• Determine how many visitors arrive
• Determine how many are new vs. repeat visitors
• Determine how often a visitor has visited

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Why do sites uses cookies? (cont.)

• Cookies can store database information, custom
  page settings, or just about anything that would
  make a site individual and customizable.
• For Example
• Ability to provide personalize information
• My Yahoo, MSN etc
• Help with on-line sales/services
• Amazon Books etc..
• Track popular links or demographic

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Why do sites uses cookies? (cont.)

• Cookies also provide programmers with a quick
  and convenient means of keeping site content
  fresh and relevant to the user's interests.
• The newest servers use cookies to help with
  back-end interaction as well, which can improve
  the utility of a site by being able to securely
  store any personal data that the user has shared
  with a site.

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Internet Explorer Browser
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Internet Explorer Browser
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Netscape browser
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Tips Netscape browser
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Conclusion

• A cookies alone cannot read your hard drive to
  find out who you are, what you income is or where
  you live. The only way the information could end
  up in a cookie is if YOU provide it to a site and
  that site saves it to a cookie.
• While cookies themselves are not gathering that
  data, they are, unfortunately, used as a
  tracking device to help the people who are
  gathering that information. As information is
  gathered about you, it is associated with the
  value they keep in your cookie .
• It is wise to consider carefully the information
  you collect and share over the Internet.

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References
 

• http//www.webopedia.com/TERM/c/cookie.html
• http//www.cookiecentral.com/faq/
• http//websearch.about.com/library/howto/ht_cookie
  sie.htm
• http//snoop.cdt.org

 
 
 
 
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Questions