Cookies

Can you tell good cookie from bad?

[walrus]

Hope someone can tell me ,
I have a site using some free content, I knew there would be advertising in it for them as thats usually why things are free. Seemed like a good trade, good content for me, extra exposure for them, I but didnt
expect that they were storing cookies on my visitors computers.
Is it just so the pages load faster, or do they see all my visitors search string and user info as well?

[Lord Majestic]

Cookie security is based on per-domain basis, ie: cookies set by domain A will only be send to it, and they can not be seen (unless there is a bug in clients implementation) by any other domain.

More here: [wp.netscape.com...]

[Mardi_Gras]

>Is it just so the pages load faster, or do they see all my visitors search string and user info as well?

It has nothing to do with the first part of your question and everything to do with the second.

And while it is true that cookies can only be read by the domain that set them, there is no reason that cookies set by a third party can't be read by that third party. In fact, that is exactly what is happening in your case.

[walrus]

So they cant see search strings or user agents and can only track hits on the page i embedded the script in?

[walrus]

Exactly what info can be collected using cookies?
Some of the sites i've seen will load a dozen or so just on the home page and what concerns me is ive read they can track you even after you've left the website.
If this is true ,how can you tell a harmless cookie from one with the ability to do that?

[dcrombie]

A cookie doesn't _do_ anything. It's simply a text string that a site can ask your browser to store for a limited time. Only the site that sets the cookie (or sometimes those sharing the same domain) can access the value.

It's the equivalent of a garage placing a sticker inside your car to show when your last check-up was. When you go back, they can read the information. The difference being that anyone can read a sticker while only certain sites can read your cookies.

So, a cookie might be used to store the referer from your first visit, what you've bought from the site previously, information you've entered in forms, etc.

These days a cookie is more likely to be a database key linking your browser to session information or a database record. If you're worried, you can use any number of tools to delete cookies. Just don't be surprised if a big chunk of the web stops working for you.

[walrus]

Thanks for the replies!
Im thought i read somewhere that people are being tracked from website to website.That maybe that prompt for a cookie from some sites isnt really a cookie but a spoof,
like when you see a pop saying you need to download some dll from microsoft but its not really from them.
Im afraid im paranoid. :)

[dcrombie]

IMHO you're quite right to be paranoid about anything ending in DLL or coming from M$ ;)

For some background on cookies and why there's so much fuss about them,
google for "doubleclick cookie paranoia [google.com]"

[walrus]

Seems the more i learn about computers or the internet the more i realize how little i know.

Thanks again!