What is a Cookie?

Cookies are small files which are stored on a user's computer. They are designed to hold a modest amount of data specific to a particular client and website, and can be accessed either by the web server or the client computer. This allows the server to deliver a page tailored to a particular user, or the page itself can contain some script which is aware of the data in the cookie and so is able to carry information from one visit to the website (or related site) to the next.

What's in a Cookie?

Each cookie is effectively a small lookup table containing pairs of (key, data) values - for example (firstname, John) (lastname, Smith). Once the cookie has been read by the code on the server or client computer, the data can be retrieved and used to customise the web page appropriately.

How to Disable Cookies

Cookies are typically stored on your computer's Internet browser by default. The purpose of cookies is to store settings and information for web pages that you have accessed. You may want to disable cookies on your web browser from being stored in your computer for privacy reasons, or to free up space on your hard drive.