What are HTTP cookies?
What is a HTTP cookie?
If you are an internet surfer, you've probably heard of cookies on the internet. But what exactly is a HTTP cookie?
HTTP cookies are website cookies which are often called as internet cookies, browser cookies, etc.
Before the advent of technology, when HTTP cookies were invented, they basically were little documents containing helpful information about you and your preferences. For example, imagine you selected a certain language for a website you'd visit. The website would then save that information to a little document - a HTTP cookie on your computer. Then the next time you would visit that website, it would be able to read the cookie it saved earlier to your computer. That way, the website could 'remember' your language and let you view the website in your preferred language, without you having to select your language again.
This way the quality and user experience increases.
What can a HTTP cookie do?
Cookies are not limited to remembering just the language you choose. A cookie can contain pretty much any kind of information. It can contain the time you visited a website or it can contain the items you added to your shopping cart. It can even contain all the links you clicked on a certain website, and much more. A HTTP cookie can only contain so much text, but apart from it's size the possibilities are endless. What exactly is saved to a cookie, is up to the creator of the website you are visiting.
Who can read your HTTP cookies?
There are endless things a HTTP cookie can contain, but there are limits to who can read your HTTP cookies. Imagine you first visit the website I mentioned earlier, and you tell that website your language. This is then saved to a cookie on your computer. If you'd visit a different website later, the another website wouldn't be able to read the cookie from the first website. In other words; only the same website that saves information to a cookie can access it. However, some websites who advertise, can view another cookies partially so that they know your choice.
What does a HTTP cookie cantain?
Since the beginning of HTTP cookies, the popularity of these add-ons have increased and they gradually evolved into a more complex, yet essential part of the internet.
During their evolution of HTTP cookies, the amount of data they stored started to grow. At first they contained just a few preferences like your language and maybe your preferred layout for a website. But soon developers realized that the more information they could store about you, the better they could suit your needs. This would mean better user experience. Cookies started containing more and more data, and eventually started pushing their size limitations.
But then website owners began storing cookies on their own systems, thus reducing the size of cookies on the user's devices.
Are HTTP cookies dangerous?
So is this a bad thing? Are HTTP cookies dangerous? That depends, really up to the creators of a website to determine what information they do and do not store, and more importantly; what they use that information for. Cookies are a tool. It can be used for the good or for the bad although it is intended to do good. The responsibility lies with the people putting them to use.
Conclusion:
HTTP cookies are small bits of your information that are like an add-on for content creators. It can enhance user experience without taking much space.
Posts before October 2021 have been marked as "Old Posts". Less likely, but they might have out dated or incorrect information, ugly looking bits of code, no labels, etc. Don't get me wrong, many of these posts are top-notch and interesting too.
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
Old Post