Hey, such is this machine we call the internet. If I didn't write it, I can't read it. If you visit my page once with Explorer and again with Netscape, you'll have two cookies, each working independently of the other. Your browser makes it possible for me to leave small notes on your computer. All my cookies put together can take up less than 6K on your machine.
Cookies are each very small.
A server can only read a cookie that it has written, and not one written by another server. I'll never know it, with or without a cookie. Still, the thought that I put a mark on your computer when you visit once, and change the mark when you visit again, can be unnerving. Just show me the number next time you visit, and I'll show you the next column. That's the deal.