Cookies… not an internet snack
SO I have been trying to thin of something that I could write a technical blog on and it seemed to be an impossible task. I wanted to write about something I felt I had a surface level understanding of. In Flatiron we are currently learning about ruby, but I felt like writing about ruby would be redundant and maybe even incorrectly done. SO, I decided that the best thing to look into was interwebs mysterious cookies.
TO begin the cookies we are talking about are refered to as HTTP cookies. This already helped my understadning based on HTTP request/response. I would assume some amount of information is beign removed from these responses to be used at a later date. Now that I have abetter understanding of request repsonse cycle, understanding that someone is storing a text file with my inputed information is actually a tad alarming.
These cookies are text files that have the small pieces data (most comonly username/password) that can be autofilled moving forward. When you make a connection to the website the data is stored based on the servers connection. The data is based on an ID from yoyou computer.This stored ID is then used in the future.
THERES INTERNET MAGIC COOKIES GUYS! Why is no one talking about it ? seems a tad suspicious
Sadly these magic cookies are sumply an outdated version of the cookie we use today. It refered to an old computing term to replace send and reciving repeitive information. This was used mostly used for local logins to a companies system.
The HTTP Cookie(not nearly as cool sounding as a magic cookie) was created in 1994 by a man named Lou Montulli. Lou used his understanding of MAgic Cookies to make the internet cookie we refer to today. While it was invented to help an online shopping website not crash… it can be used to spy and access your information.
Now to stop/prevent this spying madness we have to develop our understanding of the COOKIE. So an internet cookie is able to track,personalize,and save information based on your indiviudal interactions with the website. Your cookies are stored locally in “name-value” pairs. This is to establish where the cookie is to be sent and what information it acutally stores. So when yoy revisit that website you love to go on and your account is already logged in. Thats a cookie. Some aspect of information about your account is stored on your browser and when you visit that site, the browser sends that information in its http request. This removes the users need to input information, but also develops a scary channel of information flowing between browser and server.
Now weve talked alot about logins and passwords which is awesome. I hate remebering passwords as much as the next person but cookies scope goes way beyond that. One of the more obvious functions of cookies is personalized ads. Cookies can store what on the site you viewed and then based off that info the site will try to give you ads that fit you. Also Cookies can be used for tracking. This is huge for purchasing as they can keep track of what youve looked at and what youve put in your cart and give you RECS off that.
Session cookies are cookies that have to deal with your current visit to a website. It helps the back function and other plug ins by tracking your session with that site.
Persistent cookies are those reallly strong willed cookies. those go door to door in a snow storm type cookies. Those im here til you tell google chrome to kill me type cookies. These are used for tracking and authentications.
So thats the basis of cookies, Cookies 101 if you would. NOW, lets discuss how the cookies can be harmful.
So rest assure no one is storing malware in your cookies, and since they are static bits of information stored in what sounds like objects theyre not going anywhere. The danger in cookies isnt the cookie itself, but the DATA it posseses. YOUR DATA is extremely valuable in today’s age and websites can use this collection of data to benefit themselves.
there are first party and third party cookies. First party being stored by the reputable website that you chose to go to, third party being the ads and other links in the website that you are currently on. So in the example in the article i am reading it states if you visit a website with 10 ads, 10 cookies will be devleoped even if you never interact with the ads.
the other type of cookie, a very scary cookie, a dangerous and unforgiven cookie is the… ZOMBIE COOKIE
zombie cookies are from third parties and are permanently stored on the users computer. They also reappear after being deleted. The used to be stored in an adobe flash storage bin so they are refered to as “flaash cookies”. these are commonly used to ban people from sites.
SOOOO those are cookies, and the ways to prevent damage from them is very straigh forward. Dont forget to clean up your crumbs and take the trash out.
Also you can avoid websites having your unique web address but utilizing a VPN. This will allow the cookies to be stored, but stored in a noter country versus tracing back directly to your local computer.
A tale as old as time (really only the last like decade or two but im 25 so thats all of time as far as im concerned) you must choose between conveince and privacy.
resources
https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/cookies
