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By Ingrid Tugwell
“Cookies”
are derived from a computer science term used when describing an opaque piece of
data held by a “go-between.”
Web
sites use cookies to simulate a continuous connection to that site. This makes
it more convenient for users by allowing them to visit pages within a site
without having to reintroduce themselves with each mouse click.
Contrary
to popular fears and misconceptions, cookies were not created to spy on or
otherwise invade the privacy of Internet users. Cookies contain only information
that users volunteer and they do not have the capability of infiltrating a
user’s hard drive and sneaking away with personal information.
The
simple function of a cookie is that of helping the user navigate a web site with
as little obstruction as possible.
When
someone accesses a server on the web, such as the local library, the user’s
web browser will send an information request to the local web server. The server
will respond to the request by transmitting the desired information to the
user’s computer. There, the user’s browser will display the received
information on the user’s screen.
Cookies
were implemented to allow user-side customization of web information. For
example, cookies are used to personalize Web search engines and to store
shopping lists of items a user has selected while browsing through a virtual
shopping mall.
Essentially,
cookies make use of user-specific information transmitted by the web server onto
the user’s computer so that the information might be available for later
access. In most cases, not only
does the storage of personal information into a cookie go unnoticed, so does
access to it. Web servers automatically gain access to relevant cookies whenever
the user establishes a connection to them, usually in the form of web requests.
Cookies
are based on a two-step process. First, the cookie is stored in the user’s
computer without their consent or knowledge. For example, with customizable web
search engines like My Yahoo!, a user selects categories of interest from the
web page. The web server then creates a specific cookie, essentially a tagged
string of text containing the user’s preferences, and transmits it to the
user’s computer.
The
user’s web browser receives the cookie and stores it in a special file. This
happens without any notification or user consent. As a result, personal
information (in this case the user’s category preferences) is formatted by the
web server, transmitted and saved by the user’s computer.
During
the second stage, the cookie is secretly and automatically transferred from the
user’s machine to a web server. Whenever a user directs the web browser to
display a certain web page from the server, the browser will, without the
user’s knowledge, transmit the cookie containing personal information to the
web server.
Some
people consider this an invasion of privacy, particularly by marketing companies
collecting data. Others aren’t concerned about privacy issues, but prefer to
control who knows what regarding their web usage. There are software programs
which allow you to block cookies completely, or you can simply delete them.
To
delete cookies on a computer, you can go to “Internet Options” under the
“Tools” menu and click the “Delete Cookies” button. Once you have done
so, however, any web sites requiring login and/or password will have
“forgotten” your login information, even if you choose the “Remember
login/password” feature (such as with Internet Explorer), so you will have to
recall this information on your own.
Ingrid Tugwell is president of PST Inc., a local technology training company. She can be reached at itugwell@trainwithpst.com.