![]() Many people don’t see much of an issue with cookies, but the potential threat is described succinctly on Cookie Central: … Information about where you come from and what Web pages you visit already exists in a Web server’s log files and could also be used to track users browsing habits, cookies just make it easier.” What is the threat?Ĭlearly cookies have an important function, and they make Web browsing much more convenient for us, since we don’t have to identify ourselves again every time we visit a website. Cookies can only tell a Web server if you have been there before and can pass short bits of information (such as a user number) from the Web server back to itself the next time you visit. Department of Energy Computer Incident Advisory Capability released an information bulletin, which included this assessment: “The vulnerability of systems to damage or snooping by using Web browser cookies is essentially nonexistent. The revelation generated enough fuss that in 1998, the U.S. Concerns focused on the fact that cookies were storing information on user’s computers without their knowledge or consent. The public didn’t really become aware of them until 1996, when the media started reporting on the potential threat to privacy. The cookies also presented a handy solution for virtual shopping carts, enabling e-commerce websites to remember what you were shopping for the last time you visited. They were first used to verify whether users had visited the Netscape website before, and they enabled websites to remember your preferences. ![]() Montulli had the idea to use a similar system in the Netscape browser for Web communications, and he used the familiar programming term, cookie. “The vulnerability of systems to damage or snoop by using Web browser cookies is essentially nonexistent.” The Jargon File describes a magic cookie as “something passed between routines or programs that enables the receiver to perform some operation a capability ticket or opaque identifier.” He was responsible for a variety of Web innovations including the blink tag, server push and client pull, HTTP proxying, and cookies.Īccording to the man himself, cookies are named after the computer science term “magic cookie,” as discovered by Clouseau on Google Answers. He developed one of the earliest Web browsers, Lynx, in 1991 and joined Mosaic Communications Corporation, later to become Netscape, in 1994. The man responsible for cookies is Lou Montulli. That law is still the subject of much debate, but before we get into it, let’s rewind and take a look at where cookies came from in the first place. In Europe, it generated so much concern that the European Union legislated in 2011, demanding that websites gain user consent to use cookies. ![]() Is jelly scrolling on the iPad Mini really normal behavior? We asked the experts We asked the experts if biological sex affects heart rate sensor accuracyĭuckDuckGo calls out Google privacy update for ‘creepy advertising’
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