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What is Role Of Cookie,types, uses, setting and Privacy Concerns About Cookies

What is Role Of Cookie,types, uses, setting and Privacy Concerns About Cookiesby Learn Koding  30/10/2014 | 8:47 0 Posted in Articles  What is Role Of Cookie,types, uses, setting and Privacy Concerns About Cookies A Cookie is used to maintain information about a user state. Cookies can be used to store user preferences and user information that can be used across pages in the website. A cookie is also knows as Web Cookie, Browser Cookie and HTTP Cookie.   A Cookie is stored as Text Strings on the computer. A Web Server sends a cookie and then browser stores it. The browser returns the cookie to the server when the page is referenced again. The most common use of a cookie is to store a user ID. A cookie may contain the string such as ID=96352398. Example The website www.amazon.com uses cookies. The user fills a form with name and address to order a book. Amazon assigns an ID, stores user’s information with the ID in its database to the server. It also sends the ID to user’s browser as a cookie. The browser stores ID on the hard disk. The browser sends then ID back to the server when the user visits Amazon again. The server customizes the web page according to the user ID. Types Of Cookies Cookies can be temporarily and persistent. Temporary Cookie: Temporary cookie is also called Session Cookie. It is stored temporarily in browser’s memory and it deleted when the session ends or the browser is closed. Permanent Cookie: Permanent cookie is also called Persistent Cookie. It is stored permanently on computer’s hard drive. If it is deleted, it will be recreated when the user visits the website again. Uses Of Cookies: Cookies are used for different purposes such as follows: Most websites use them for personalization of user preferences. For example, a news website may allow the user to customize the page to display the news of his interests. The website stores user preference in cookies. Some websites also use cookies to store user’s passwords. The users do not need to enter the password again and again. Some website use cookies to track visits of users and web pages visited by the users. Online shopping sites generally use session cookies to keep the track of items in a user’s shopping cart. Some website may use cookies to target advertisement. These sites store a user’s interests and browsing habits in the cookie and display related ads on the pages. Browser Setting For Cookies The browser can be set to accept cookies as follows: The user can set the browser to accept cookies automatically. It can be used to prompt the user to accept a cookie. It can be set to disable the use of cookies altogether. However, the user may not be able to use many of e-commerce web sites if cookies are disabled. Privacy Concerns About Cookies             Webmasters obtain information about user’s IP addresses, Browser type, last pages visited using cookies. It allows web server to recognize a user who has already visited the website from the same computer. It allows the compilation of user profiles and large amounts of data related to the interested of the user.             Advertisers and webmasters are currently using cookies to develop detailed profiles of users and their browsing habits. Each click on a particular type of page in a website is added to the profile. The information is primarily used for website design and placement of banner advertisements. However, this information be sold for other commercial purpose that creates a concern to personal privacy.