What are cookies?
A cookie is information that a website puts on your computer so that it can remember it at a later time. For example, cookies may be used to store your preferences for a particular website so that the site can be customised based on these preferences when you return.
The types of data stored depend on the sites you visit, but generally include:
- the name of the web server from which the cookie originated
- the lifetime of the cookie (ie whether it will be deleted as soon as you leave the site, or if it may stay on your hard drive for longer)
- a unique number which allows the website that set your cookie to remember your browser
Cookies, web beacons or similar technologies
Web beacons are small pieces of code placed on web pages that can be used, among other things, to count the users who visit that web page, or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a user viewing that page.
AOL and its advertisers may also use ad effectiveness technologies in conjunction with cookies to determine which advertisements users have seen and how users responded to them.
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Last Updated: Monday, 12 March 2007, 13:05 GMT