A cookie was first used to store information relating to a user ID and password for a web site so that we wouldn't have to enter information every time we logged onto that particular site.  This is still the most common use of cookies today.  For example, if you have a personalized start page, or a personalized news page, the only way your personalized page will appear rather than the standard page is by a cookie on your hard drive.

When you go to a personalized site, your browser looks for a cookie on your hard drive identifying you as a certain user and it sends that information to the server storing the page you are requesting, and the server knows to return your personalized page.  If your browser doesn't find a cookie to send along, a regular page is returned from the server, and all of your hard work personalizing your page is gone!

For example, I have a cookie from Excite.com which contains my User ID that identifies my personalized page. It looks like this:

UID
8A40F371347F5763
excite.com/
0
2419613696
29315974
654443904
29240926
*

When I go to www.excite.com, my browser finds that ID on my computer, sends it to the Excite server, and Excite sends me back my page. And, yes, you can access my personal page with this information, but most people don't post it to their Web sites.    

A Very Cool Cookie

This currently only works with an Internet Explorer browser, (I'm working on it), but if you are using that, see My Start Page and click the "Leave Yourself a Sticky Note" link.  You can type yourself a note or reminder, and as long as you accept the cookie, your note is saved in the cookie to your hard drive.  You can come back to the page days later, click the Sticky Note link, and there is your note!  Try it! :-)

Nothing is sent to me, and I have no way of knowing what is in your cookie.  It doesn't report back to me; it just remembers you, and your note if you come back.  It's on your personal hard drive, so no one else can see it.  Others will have their own cookie.

Visitor Counter Cookies

I have put a visitor counter on this page to show you an example of a cookie that counts visitors and collects harmless statistics.  See it below, right.  I have made the statistics public, so you can go to my counter page and see exactly what I see.   If you are accepting cookies, it counted you - but not really "you" - just "someone."

Marketers and advertisers are using cookies to track personal preferences.  They don't know who we are, but they may know our viewing, and, if we buy online, our shopping habits. This information is used to target us with ads they think we would be interested in based on previous buying and visiting habits. Someone whose habits showed an interest in gardening would see different ads than someone whose main interest seemed to be computers - while viewing the same page on the same site.

Excite.com had this comment on cookies:

"We develop summary - not individual - reports for our advertisers.  An example of a summary report might be "12,000 people clicked on Advertisement "X" today and of those people, 35% had previously indicated they had an interest in sports." The people that make it possible for you to use Excite for free - our advertisers - need this information to determine how effective their advertising investments are. We never tell our advertisers who it was that saw or clicked on their advertisements unless you have specifically told us this is acceptable."

Amazon.com  uses cookies to save your account information and purchases between visits at their site.  A record is kept of your purchases which you can review, and which Amazon uses to provide instant recommendations for future purchases based on your prior purchases.

Amazon.com also uses this snapshot of your interests to pull certain ads from the server.

You can add items to your shopping cart, leave Amazon.com, close your browser, go back to Amazon.com and add some more items to the ones selected on your earlier trip - - if you have accepted the cookie.  

If you've ever clicked on a Barnes and Noble link or search box on a site other than Barnes and Noble, and then purchased something, a cookie lets Barnes and Noble know what site referred you, and they get a small credit for the sale.

Log Files

Even without cookies, Web site owners can tell a lot from "log files" which most servers provide to them.   When you visit a Web site, a log file is generated listing your Internet Service Provider, or which server you are on, your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the date and time of your visit, the file (Web page) you requested from the server, the type of browser you are using, and the Web address you came from - not your e-mail address, just the Web page address you were at last.  If you came to a site from a search engine, a good log will also most likely record the keywords you entered in your search that brought you to that page.  But, again, it's not really "you" to the people seeing these reports.  It's just "someone."

Something I have recently noticed is that because I use a local ISP - not one of the biggies like AOL, or  Earthlink, when someone I know sees a visitor from "denco.rmi.net"  in their logs, they can be pretty sure it was me who visited!  And, "denco" means Denver, Colorado.

A log can also record your movement within the site, which pages you visit, in what order, and what page you leave the site from.  Designers use this information to make their site more usable and friendly.  For example, a designer might notice from this information that a certain page is rarely visited, and will know to make some changes.

On some of the bigger shopping sites, a designer can sometimes tell if you had trouble finding what you were looking for, and we hope they will use that information to improve the navigation on that site.

With an additional cookie or two, they can know if you have been there before, and how many times, if you have ever purchased anything on any visit there, and where you went when you left. It is this cookie that the marketers love.  Advertisers want to know if the 10 hits to their ad were 10 different people, or the same 2 people 5 times.   This can only be measured with cookies.

Not Acceptable - "Tracking Cookies"

Generally, a cookie cannot give information back to any site except the site that deposited it.  However, a concern has arisen lately regarding the new technology of "tracking cookies." Tracking cookies are not exclusive to the site that gives them to you because the site you visit is not actually giving them to you!  Ads containing cookies are downloaded from separate servers at the time the Web page is requested. 

Right click on the top banner ad at Space.com for example, go to properties, and see that it was downloaded from http://m.doubleclick.net.  Try this on a few ads at other sites, and you will see ads downloaded from http://image.eimg.com, http://ad.preferences.com among others.  So, the cookies you are receiving come from these servers when the ads are loaded, not the site you are visiting.

DoubleClick tracking cookies are given at all of their clients' sites, and are reported back to DoubleClick each time someone visits one of those clients.  DoubleClick is a global marketer and says on its site that they "deliver 10 billion ads every month."    When you visit a site with a DoubleClick cookie, that visit and any information offered, purchases, etc., are recorded.  Then, the next minute, day, or a month later, if you visit another DoubleClick site, that information is captured, until eventually, sooner than you think, DoubleClick has a profile on someone's Internet habits - which they use for marketing and advertising purposes.

Here is a paragraph from PBS.org discussing this marketing use of cookies:

"PBS ONLINE is a member of the DoubleClick Network which places sponsorship banners on certain, non-kids related Web pages of PBS ONLINE. DoubleClick utilizes special software to track user activity on our site. This software is called a "cookie." DoubleClick's cookie contains no information about you - only a unique number with no meaning whatsoever outside of the DoubleClick Network. DoubleClick uses this number to track the exposure of sponsor banners so a user is not bombarded with the same sponsor message over and over again. DoubleClick does not know the name, email address, phone number, or home address of anybody who visits PBS ONLINE. All users who receive a sponsor message targeted by DoubleClick's technology remain completely anonymous. To find out more about DoubleClick's policy or to learn how to opt out from cookies, visit DoubleClick's site for additional information.

Read what DoubleClick says about their cookie use. The last time I visited this page, I was offered 17 cookies.  They do say how to block cookies if you object to their gathering statistics on your preferences, and they insist they have no names to go with the information they gather.

Opt out of being tracked at DoubleClick.  Instead of the tracking cookie, an opt_out cookie is placed on your hard drive.  When you click to opt out, they will tell you if a tracking cookie is currently present on your computer.  I'd be surprised if anyone checking did not already have a tracking cookie.  They are pervasive.

DoubleClick stresses that this is completely anonymous - they still don't know your name.  However, could it be possible that if you fill out an on-line form with your name, address, e-mail, credit card number, etc. with a tracking cookie working on your system, it can add that information to the other data it has collected about your habits, and you are no longer anonymous? I wrote to Doubleclick on this subject (Dec. 22, 1998) and received this reassuring answer.

2000 update - 8/26/00 - This is an old letter.  DoubleClick has proven they cannot be trusted.  I highly recommend everyone opt out.   Here are a couple of links to stories: From Tech Law Journal and from Wired Magazine.

2002 update 8/26/2002  2 years later:   DoubleClick said on Monday that it agreed to pay $450,000 and alter its policies to settle a 30-month, multistate investigation into the online advertising company's use of consumers' personal data.

Businessweek.com's home page offered 20 cookies.  I wrote, and they wrote back.

Advertisers need demographic information.  Marketers are persistent, and are going to continue to look for ways to categorize us, target ads to our interests, and develop mailing or e-mailing lists.  While I don't like some cookies, it is the advertisers who enable us to enjoy the Web for free.  If they can't track us, will they quit advertising, and will we lose our free Web?  Let's at least make them inform us, and use the technology ethically, and with our consent.

Read privacy statements (or privacy policies) and don't shop or give out personal information unless you are satisfied.  Look for contact names, addresses and phone numbers that can be used if you have a problem. Remember, when you use a form on a Web site, they have your e-mail, and any additional information you provide, but you don't have theirs, unless they have posted it on their site and you verified it.  (A good habit to get into when filling out forms is to print it before sending it, or cut and paste it into a Notepad, Word, or some other program page, and be sure to note the Web site you wrote to.  Once you submit that form, it's gone, and does not show up in your sent mail.)

Opt out of tracking cookies, or use a cookie management tool.

At least be an informed Web user.  Know who is giving you cookies.  Cookies may be harmless now; but, we need to keep alert to the potential for abuse.

Currently, I am using Cookie Pal to monitor and manage cookies.  I have it set to accept cookies from a few trusted servers where I have account information or personalization features.  It is set to reject all others.  Cookie Pal sits on your task bar, and can be set to say "yum" when she accepts a cookie and "ppffft" when she rejects one.

The casual user may not be interested, but Cookie Pal is an excellent learning tool, in addition to cookie management.

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