HTTP cookies – a promising technology
| Date | 01 April 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520010330346 |
| Published date | 01 April 2000 |
| Pages | 150-153 |
| Author | Weihong Peng,Jennifer Cisna |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
HTTP cookies ± a
promising technology
Weihong Peng and
Jennifer Cisna
Introduction
The emerging technology of cookies has
penetrated into a huge number of Web sites at
an astonishing speed. Cookies contribute a
great deal to a user-friendly network
paradigm: designed to maintain state in a
stateless environment (HTML), cookies can
allow a Website to track a user as the Web site
is viewed. On the other hand, the placement
of cookies on a client-side computer is a cause
for concern. We discuss both sides of the
technology in this paper.
What are cookies?
Definition
Peters and Sikorski (1997) offer a clear
definition of a cookie: ``Cookies are small data
structures sent from a Web server to your
browser and saved on your hard drive in a text
file. They are nothing more than a string of
characters (letters and numbers) that store
certain pieces of information about you.''
Cookies are placed on the hard drive of a
Website user without the user's consent to the
placement. In fact, many users are unaware
that cookies have been stored on their hard
drives by the Web server.
The information that the cookie stores is
usually related to browser usage such as
passwords or information filled out in a form.
When a user accesses a Web site with a cookie
function for the first time, a cookie is sent
from server to the browser and stored with the
browser in the local computer. With
additional information about the state of the
user side, the cookie is sent back to the server.
Later, when the user accesses the Web pages
of the same server with the same browser
from the same computer (all three conditions
are necessary), he will always be recognised
because of the matching cookie. To make it
easier to understand, a cookie is much like a
laundry ``claim-check'' ± you drop something
off and get a ticket, then when you return with
the ticket, you get the same object back
(Whalen, 1999). The difference is that one is
aware of taking items to the laundry and
receiving a check to claim the items later.
The authors
Weihong Peng is a PhD student at the Graduate School
of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA.
Jennifer Cisna is the Community Services Librarian for
the Bensenville Community Public Library, Chicago,
Illinois, USA.
Keywords
Privacy, Internet, Information retrieval
Abstract
This paper discusses the introduction of cookies into Web
technology and their role as a user-tracking device. While
cookies contribute to the user-friendliness of Web sites,
their placement on client-side computers is a cause for
concern. The authors look at both sides of the technology,
pointing out benefits and drawbacks.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com
We wish to thank Professor Martha Williams for
her great efforts in advising us and editing this
article.
Received March 2000
Accepted April 2000
150
Online Information Review
Volume 24 .Number 2 .2000 .pp. 150±153
#MCB University Press .ISSN 1468-4527
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