No longer are cookies made up of flour, sugar, and water. They now consist of a series of strings providing information to a Web server. A cookie is a piece of information that is placed on the user's machine during a visit to a Web site that establishes cookies. This information can be one of many things. Initially, without any user input, the cookie can store some initial information like user's browser type, the date, the platform the user is currently on, and the number of times the user has visited that particular site.
Cookies can also store user-specified information through the use of forms.
This involves the user actually inputting the information through the Web site to the server that sets the cookie on the user's machine. The concern is that the information collected within a cookie is accessible by other Web sites. For example, individuals who visit sites that set cookies are concerned that other Web sites can obtain such private information like names, addresses, email addresses, and credit card numbers. This has caused the users to make movements to stop the use of cookies. Other concerns from the user's point of view are about the fact that information is stored on their machines, as well as the cryptic nature of the cookies that are placed on their machines.