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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    February 01, 2001

    Wisconsin Lawyer February 2001: Cookies - Ugly Monsters or Helpful Darlings?

    Cookies – Ugly Monsters or Helpful Darlings?


    What exactly are cookies, and what do they do?

    A cookie is a small bit of information a Web site places on your computer. Cookies help identify you to the Web site and identify you the next time you visit that Web site. They can store your user name and password for a site, track purchases, record how many times you have seen a particular banner advertisement, record the operating system software you use, record the Web browser you use, the Internet address you are using, the last Web site you visited, and other information.

    Are cookies similar to viruses?

    No. Cookies are a line of text stored in a file generated by the Web servers that your browser visits. Because cookies are text files, they do not act like viruses on your computer and are not malicious, as viruses can be.

    Are cookies useful?

    Generally, yes. Cookies frequently are used for verification purposes. For example, Amazon.com uses cookies to collect a visitor's email address, password, purchase history, and full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through, and from its Web site, including date and time. The gathering of some of this information (such as password and user identification) allows visitors to return to a site multiple times without having to reenter their personal data.

    Can cookies be deleted?

    Yes. By default, most Internet browsers accept all cookies. You can change your browser's security settings to accept all, reject all, or be prompted whenever a cookie is encountered. Both Internet Explorer and Netscape allow you to delete cookies, although these cookies are likely to be recreated when you visit the Web site the next time. Several software programs allow you to get more information on the cookies on your computer. The software programs allow you to see the issuing site, expiration date, and other details of cookies stored on your computer. The programs also let you set filters for accepting or rejecting cookies from Internet sites.


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