I recently started doing a weekly segment on a TV show named Young at Heart. While the show can obviously be of interest to any age group, its target audience is Seniors who feel ‘young at heart’ (thus the show’s name) who are active in today’s technological world and who are willing learn new things and take on new challenges.
My part in the show, so far, has been to talk about computers. I can and will cover almost any topic of interest, but, given my background in computer security, the first 3 shows mostly cover topics of computer security.
This past week I spoke briefly on two subjects: Disk Cleaners and Cookies. Because cookies are a bit more complex, I wanted to follow up with a blog post, to give additional detail to those who are interested or concerned about cookies.
Let’s start with a definition of a cookie. As cookies relate to computers, Wikipedia defines a cookie as follows:
“A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is used for an origin website to send state information to a user’s browser and for the browser to return the state information to the origin site.”
In layman’s terms what does this mean and why would a website do this? Maybe it is easier to explain by a simple (and theoretical) example:
Imagine that you visit Amazon.com in search of a rare book. After 15 minutes of searching using the book’s common title and slight variations thereof, you find nothing. You try searching based on the author’s name but still you can not find the book. Finally, you type in some esoteric word or topic and voila, the book for which you are searching appears in the search results page! Yay! Then suddenly the power in your house goes out. Or an emergency phone call comes in. Or the dog has an accident on the living room floor because you were intent on finding a rare book. In other words, you become distracted such that the next time you are at your computer you simply can not remember how you found that darned book.
Fortunately for you, Amazon.com remembers because it placed a cookie on your computer. The cookie file, which is sent up to Amazon.com the next time you visit the site, contains crumbs of information about your previous visit. Keep in mind, this is a theoretical example, and Amazon.com doesn’t necesarily work this way, so another quick example:
A very common example of cookie usage is to visit a website where you can set preferences. For example, instead of viewing the website in 10 point font (which is tiny and may be difficult to read) you prefer to view the website in large font. The first time you visit the site, all text appears tiny. The website however, allows you set a preference to view it in large font. That preference is placed in a ‘cookie’ file which is then placed on your hard drive. A month later when you revisit the site your preference to view in large font is recalled because you have a cookie file on your computer that (basically) says: When visiting this site I prefer to view it in large font.
Cookies are obviously meant to be helpful. But what are the drawbacks, if any? Can cookies be disabled?
There are a couple of drawbacks to the usage of cookies, and they are mainly from a computer security point of view. At one time the belief was that cookies could carry viruses, other forms of malware or personally identifying information. The good news is a) they can’t, b) there is no proof-of-concept of cookie malware and c) a website developer would have to be a real louse to record personally-identifying information within a plain-text cookie file. Without writing a paper on the subject of cookies and how they relate to computer insecurity, enough said.
Still don’t like the idea of cookies on your computer? Good news! Most modern browsers allow you to disable the cookie feature. Interested in disabling cookies in your browser? I invite you to reply to this blog or send an email to shane@letstalkgraphics.com. Let me know which browser you are using, and which version it is. If you live in Pahrump and would like a house call, where I will help you to secure your computer from cookies, viruses, the neighbor’s kids, etc., I am more than willing to make that visit. Call me at 775-513-1402 for additional information.
Best,
Shane Coursen
