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.