Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

HTTP COOKIE

Specialty Definition: HTTP COOKIE

Domain	Definition
Computing	HTTP cookie A packet of information sent by an HTTP server to a World-Wide Web browser and then sent back by the browser each time it accesses that server. Cookies can contain any arbitrary information the server chooses and are used to maintain state between otherwise stateless HTTP transactions. Typically this is used to authenticate or identify a registered user of a web site without requiring them to sign in again every time they access that site. Other uses are, e.g. maintaining a "shopping basket" of goods you have selected to purchase during a session at a site, site personalisation (presenting different pages to different users), tracking a particular user's access to a site. (http://www.illuminatus.com/cookie). (1997-01-15). Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Specialty Definition: HTTP cookie

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

A HTTP cookie (usually called simply a cookie) is a packet of information sent by an server to a World Wide Web browser and then sent back by the browser each time it accesses that server.

Purpose

Cookies can contain any arbitrary information the server chooses and are used to maintain state between otherwise stateless HTTP transactions. Typically this is used to authenticate or identify a registered user of a web site without requiring them to sign in again every time they access that site. Other uses are maintaining a "shopping basket" of goods selected for purchase during a session at a site, site personalisation (presenting different pages to different users), and tracking a particular user's access to a site.

Opposition to cookies

Some people are opposed to the use of cookies on the Web. Below are some of their reasons.

Inaccurate identification

Perhaps the most fundamental objection is that cookies don't identify a person, but merely a web browser. For example, they do not differentiate between multiple users who share a user account. Also, a single person who uses multiple computers will have a distinct set of cookies on each of those computers.

Privacy, anonymity and advertising

Cookies also have some important implications with respect to a user's privacy and anonymity on the web. One way is that some companies monitor users' visits to disparate web sites for marketing purposes. Some sites contain images called web bugs (that are transparent and 1x1 pixels in size, so that they are not visible) that place cookies on all computers that access them. E-commerce websites can then read those cookies, find out what websites placed them, and send e-mail spam advertisements for products related to those websites.

Companies that use this system defend it as an effective way to give consumers access to products in which they are likely to be interested. If sites that place these tracking cookies are paid by the commercial operator, the revenue can allow them to place their content online at no cost to the creators.

This article (or an earlier version of it) contains material from FOLDOC, used with permission.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "HTTP cookie."

Anagrams: HTTP COOKIE

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-e-h-i-k-o-o-p-t-t"
	-1 letter: toothpick.
	-3 letters: ketotic, potiche, thicket.
	-4 letters: cookie, cootie, octopi, ophite, photic, picket, pocket, poetic, ptotic, thetic, ticket, tiptoe.
	-5 letters: choke, chook, chott, coopt, epoch, ethic, hoick, ketch, kithe, octet, optic, petit, petti, petto, photo, picot, pitch, pooch, potto, thick, tithe, tooth, tophe, tophi, topic, topoi.
	Words containing the letters "c-e-h-i-k-o-o-p-t-t"
	+2 letters: photokinetic.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Alternative Orthography: HTTP COOKIE

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

48 54 54 50 43 4F 4F 4B 49 45

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01001000 01010100 01010100 01010000 00100000 01000011 01001111 01001111 01001011 01001001 01000101

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#72 &#84 &#84 &#80 &#32 &#67 &#79 &#79 &#75 &#73 &#69

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0048 0054 0054 0050 0043 004F 004F 004B 0049 0045

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

425454502374949454339

INDEX

1. Anagrams
2. Orthography
3. Bibliography

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.