HTTP cookies, also called web cookies or browser cookies, are small pieces of data sent from a website and stored on the user’s computer by the user’s web browser. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember stateful information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an online store) or to record the user’s browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited in the past). They can also be used to remember arbitrary data the user has previously entered into form fields, such as names, addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers.
Cookies can also be used by third-party websites (for example, advertising companies) to track users across multiple websites. This is done to build a profile of the user’s browsing habits and target them with relevant advertising.
