| Disclaimer: We do not propose to have all the answers
nor represent ourselves as legal advisors. Any information provide in the
Field of Dreams site is meant to assist our growing businesses, not to
place ourselves in legal battle. Enter at your own risk! All comments are
welcome. Please address questions and comments to Deb
Nyberg, Webmistress .
What exactly is a cookie?
Are they fattening? Do they have chocolate chips and nuts? Did your
mother bake them?
The answer is no. Perhaps you have heard the term "magic cookies". It
was originated when a mischievous programmer wrote a program called "magic
cookie" which persisted in saying "me want cookie" several times during
user sessions. If the user didn't answer "cookie" the program did minor
damage to the user's work. Internet cookies, which are not magic and not
baked by your mother, have been around for some time now but the public
was unaware of them. These cookies, made on the Internet, are often thought
of as intrusive and a way for unscrupulous people to get personal information
about you such as your credit card number. Magic cookies - Internet cookies
- no wonder there is controversy surrounding them.
What are the facts?
A cookie is information that is sent to your browser (for example:
Netscape or MSIE) from a site on the Internet that you are visiting. This
information is accepted by your browser, checked for length (no more than
4000, most often only a few characters), expiration date, path (for example
http://www.greatsite.com/fun), and domain (for example http://www.greatsite.com)
then saves it on your PC in a file named "cookies.txt".
When you click on a link to a site you want to visit, your browser checks
the domain (URL) of the link against the cookie file. If it finds a cookie
that matches the domain and path of the site you want to visit, it will
send the cookie information back to the site along with your request for
the page.
Cookies can not contain viruses or program code to run a program
on your PC. They cannot search your PC to get data personal information,
get your email address or steal sensitive information about you and put
it into the cookie file.
Cookies are used primarily to save session information between the times
you visit the same site. They reside on your PC either until they expire
or if they have no expiration date, until you end your browsing session.
What does a cookie mean to you?
Cookies cannot be used to track your visits from one site to another,
although a cookie can be used to track what pages you visit on a particular
site. This tracking can be easily done without using cookies; using them
makes the tracking information more consistent.
It's true, a cookie can contain your email address or personal
information. If you visit a site that asks for your email address (in a
form) it could send a cookie which contains your email address to your
browser. Your email address or any other personal information you entered
into the form would then be sent back to that same site every time you
visit it.
Cookies can save a 'flag' that say you already entered your password
and were validated -- so you don't have to enter your password for every
page you access in a given session or even for future sessions. Cookies
can save information so that facts or news that you previously requested
from a service is sent to you using your personal profile. If you are "buying
on the web" (and we hope you do), shopping cart programs use cookies to
hold the products you are ordering until you submit your order.
What about your privacy?
Cookies cannot be used to find out the identity of any visitor
and cannot be used to collect any more information than is available to
the server that you are using to browse the Internet. Such information
can include your "logon" information and the name of your online service
or ISP and browser.
Cookies are designed so that NO other site
can access the information sent from another site.
Can another domain find out what is in a cookie? This is the question that
many people think of when the issues of privacy and cookies are brought
to their attention. No matter how many sites you've visited or how many
cookies you've accepted, information contained in the cookies can NOT be
given to a server from another domain.
It is very easy to delete cookies from your PC. Just make sure
your browser is not running and delete the file called cookies.txt.
How can you control cookies?
There is no way to stop them, however, you can restrict cookies:
With Version 3.0 or greater of Netscape
-
Go to the Options Menu
-
Select the Network Preferences
-
Select the Protocols tab
-
Check the box labeled "Accepting a Cookie"
With Version 3.0 or greater of MSIE
-
Go the View Menu
-
Select Options
-
Select the Advanced tab
-
Check the box labeled "Warn before accepting cookies"
With either browser, you will get an alert box telling you that a server
is trying to set a cookie at your browser. It will tell you what the cookie
value is and how long it will last before your browser deletes it.
Finally, you can get a copy of ZDNet's
CookieMaster, which allows you to monitor cookie activity.
You've done all that and now are aware that you are getting cookies
from web sites that you have not visited. What is going on here? Look no
further than the top of the page you are visiting. See that banner? It's
the culprit. Most often banners are being sent to the site you are visiting
(http://www.greatsite.com) from another site (http:www.advertising.com).
These advertisers are managing the presentation of their ads so that you
don't always see the same banner over and over. Cookies make that possible.
Copyright ©1997 The ShoppingPlace. All rights reserved.
by Shari Rosefelt, one
of three directors of Buy it on the Web™ and the webmaster and content
developer of The ShoppingPlace |
