The client stores cookie data in one or more flat files on its local hard drive. Cookies help us evaluate visitors' use of our site, such as what customers want to see and what they never read. That information allows us to better focus our online product, to concentrate on information people are reading and products they are using. Cookies are designed to be read only by the site that provides them, not by other sites. Cookies cannot read information from a user's hard drive.
Cookies can only store data that is provided by the server or generated by an explicit user action.
Cookies can be used to store any information that the user volunteers. They cannot be used to gather sensitive information. Cookies are passive files that are delivered to the client, stored on the client's hard drive, and returned in certain situations to the same server that provided the information in the first place. If you accept a cookie, nothing affects you immediately. You get asked questions like who you are and your email address.