[LINK] What Do I tell the Public About Cookies?

[Roger Clarke]

At 4:17 PM +1000 26/8/15, Frank O'Connor wrote:
>Cookies were created because HTTP as a protocol can't maintain 'state'. This was both a good thing - because it allows the Web to simply drop the connection once it has passed the requested Web page - and a bad thing, because sometimes you need to do things in sessions, or even across sessions, that require the Web server to interact with the remote client, and keep track of 'state'.
>
>Cookies were invented to remedy this deficiency, and allow 'state' to be maintained between server and client
>
>That said, cookies can also be used to store any number of data items and information, and to be persistent (always there) and to report back on any amount of things that have little or nothing to do with allowing you to run a seamless interaction between server and client across session(s) the next time you connect to a server capable of reading them
>
>And that's where they can be a danger to privacy and leave you vulnerable to marketers and the like.

I thought I was going to hve some disagreements, but by the end of it no.

Here's the version that I originally wrote in mid-1996, plus bits to 2001:
http://www.rogerclarke.com/II/Cookies.html

The earliest archived copy of the Netscape spec is from Oct 1996:
https://web.archive.org/web/19961027104920/http://www3.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html

And the earliest bit in Javascript documentation is from Aug 2000:
https://web.archive.org/web/20000816092701/http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/communicator/jsref/doc1.htm

_____________________________________________

>> On 26 Aug 2015, at 3:21 pm, Tom Worthington <tom.worthington at tomw.net.au> wrote:
>> 
>> I will speaking about HTTP cookies on ABC Radio Canberra (666), Friday 
>> morning. What should I say?
>> 
>> Here is all the advice I could find from the Australian Government:
>> 
>> "Cookies are small bits of information left on your computer by websites 
>> you have visited which let the website 'remember' things about you. Even 
>> temporary information, such as the items you have in your shopping cart 
>> at a web retailer, may depend on cookies." 
>> https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/internet/stay-smart-online/computers/secure-your-internet-connection
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Tom Worthington FACS CP, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
>> The Higher Education Whisperer http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/
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>> Legislation
>> 
>> Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
>> Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
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-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			             
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University