The company's web server then searches your PC for a cookie. If you have visited this site in the past and they find a cookie on your machine, the company can send you customized web pages, greet you with any name information you have previously supplied, as well as target you with advertisements and pages on their site according to your choices in the past. Online purchases can even be made easier using any previous credit card information you have supplied with past purchases. If you are a new customer or no cookie information is found on your machine, the web server will deposit a cookie on your machine with a unique ID and typically a counter to begin counting the number of visits to their web site. For the web business, cookies make the authentication process easier and assist with advertising and marketing.
Authentication is a means for the company to identify an individual.
The information that is collected by the web site pertains to the pages you visit on the site, items you have selected on the site and information you provide on online data-collecting forms. Although this may all sound convenient and harmless, there are problems with the usage of cookies. The most common problems that exist with the usage of cookies are with shared machines, cookies that get deleted and for individuals who use multiple machines. Shared machines, such as in libraries or businesses, pose a problem because the machine has no way of identifying separate users. For instance, if you were to make a purchase from a web site using your own personal credit card information, the next user who accesses the machine could also make purchases from that web site using the same credit card information.