What is a cookie?
A cookie is a harmless text file that is stored in your browser when you visit almost any website. The purpose of the cookie is for the website to be able to remember your visit when you return to that page. Although many people do not know it, cookies have been used for 20 years, when the first browsers for the World Wide Web appeared.
What is NOT a cookie?
It is not a virus, a trojan, a worm, spam, spyware, or pop-up windows.
What information does a cookie store?
Cookies do not usually store sensitive information about you, such as credit card or bank details, photographs, your ID or personal information, etc. The data they do store is of a technical nature, personal preferences, personalisation of content, etc. The web server does not associate you as a person but your web browser. In fact, if you usually browse with Internet Explorer and try browsing the same website with Firefox or Chrome you will see that the web does not realise that you are the same person because it is actually associating the browser, not the person.