Talk:HTTP cookie

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HTTP cookie is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on May 8, 2006.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
January 16, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
January 28, 2006	Featured article candidate	Promoted
April 7, 2009	Featured article review	Demoted
June 6, 2011	Good article nominee	Not listed
Current status: Former featured article

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.

On 16 October 2023, it was proposed that this article be moved to Cookies. The result of the discussion was not moved.

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"Alternatives to cookies" should be split out into a separate article

The section "Alternatives to cookies" list various identifiers and cache records stored by the client (and metadata like IP). These things can be used for tracking (one application of cookies), but they don't actually substitute cookies in general. Also, this list is missing a few entries, like:

- favicon cache:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/02/new-browser-tracking-hack-works-even-when-you-flush-caches-or-go-incognito/

- HSTS tracking, see

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/02/02/anatomy-of-a-browser-dilemma-how-hsts-supercookies-make-you-choose-between-privacy-or-security/

https://webkit.org/blog/8146/protecting-against-hsts-abuse/

- redirect tracking, see

https://digiday.com/marketing/wtf-what-is-redirect-tracking/

Also see: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Privacy/Redirect_tracking_protection#what_data_is_cleared

Semi-protected edit request on 3 April 2025

It is requested that an edit be made to the semi-protected article at HTTP cookie. (edit · history · last · links · protection log)

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In the Browser fingerprint paragraph, it would be nice to specify that "While the collection of fingerprinting data occurs client-side, the analysis and identification of users based on this data are performed server-side." Please, see the resource here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365268626_A_Survey_of_Browser_Fingerprint_Research_and_Application

Also, according to Wikipedia's Guidelines, an example could be done. Here is my attempy: "A well-known application of browser fingerprinting is in online banking systems. This technology enables the creation of unique identifiers for customers' devices during the login phase to detect suspicious activities, such as attempts to access accounts from unrecognized or potentially fraudulent devices."

Thanks! Ate Keurentjes (talk) 08:41, 3 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"Created by a web server" in the first paragraph may not always be correct

Current first paragraph: "HTTP cookie [...] is a small block of data created by a web server while a user is browsing a website [...]"

Problem: "created by a web server" may not always be correct and could potentially be misleading, especially if it's in the first paragraph.

As mentioned later down in the article: "Although cookies are usually set by the web server, they can also be set by the client using a scripting language such as JavaScript".

That is, it may be more correct to say something along the lines of "usually created by a web server or browser-side script" ("usually", since we could in theory consider cases like manually adding a cookie to browser's SQLite database, or curl's cookies.txt file, etc.). UkuSormus (talk) 05:38, 10 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"user's web browser" v.s. other types of client

Current first paragraph: "HTTP cookie [...] is a small block of data [...] placed on the user's computer or other device by the user's web browser [...]"

The current wording explicitly uses "user's web browser".

Should we consider non-browser clients such as curl to be mentioned in the article? (see, e.g., curl - HTTP cookies)

If so, should we also consider modifying the first paragraph to use something like "by the client, usually the user's web browser", or it could get too abstract for the intro? UkuSormus (talk) 05:40, 10 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

New browser-side CookieStore API

In the current version of the article, only the document.cookie browser API is mentioned for manipulating cookies. Nowadays, there's also the new CookieStore API (see MDN), supported by Chromium-based browsers and soon in Firefox. UkuSormus (talk) 05:41, 10 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]