A small text file stored on a client machine that may later be retrieved by a web server from the machine. Cookies allow web servers to keep track of the end user’s browser activities, and connect individual web requests into a session. Cookies can also be used to prevent users from having to be authorized for every password protected page they access during a session by recording that they have successfully supplied their username and password already.
Cookies may be referred to as:
– “first-party” — if they are placed by the website that is visited;
– “third-party” — if they are placed by a party other than the visited website;
– “session cookies” — if they are deleted when a session ends; or
– “persistent cookies” — if they remain longer.
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