HTTP cookie: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:06, 1 June 2025

Revision as of 05:57, 19 June 2025

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{{HTTP}}

An '''HTTP cookie''' (also called '''web cookie''', '''Internet cookie''', '''browser cookie''', or simply '''cookie''') is a small block of [[data (computing)|data]] created by a [[web server]] while a [[user (computing)|user]] is [[browsing]] a [[website]] and placed on the user's computer or other device by the user's [[web browser]]. Cookies are placed on the device used to access a website, and more than one cookie may be placed on a user's device during a session.

Cookies serve useful and sometimes essential functions on the [[World Wide Web|web]]. They enable web servers to store [[program state|stateful]] information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an [[Online shopping|online store]]) on the user's device or to track the user's browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, [[access control|logging in]], or recording which [[Web browsing history|pages were visited in the past]]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=What are cookies? What are the differences between them (session vs. persistent)?|url=https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/web-security-appliance/117925-technote-csc-00.html|id=117925|date=2018-07-17|website=Cisco|language=en}}</ref> They can also be used to save information that the user previously entered into [[Form (HTML)|form field]]s, such as names, addresses, [[password]]s, and [[payment card number]]s for subsequent use.