• What are cookies (cookies, http cookies), where are cookies located and stored. Cookies: what are they and how do they work? Learning to use cookies correctly

    Cookies in browsers are not cookies at all, as it is literally translated from English! These are text files in which the site stores certain information about the user (settings, country, etc.) i.e. By using cookies, the website makes life easier for us and for ourselves. But using such relief can be fraught with dangers. Find out which ones you can from this article.

    How does this work

    Cookies store a lot of text information. Essentially these are key-value pairs. Technically it looks like this “cookie1=value1; cookie2=value2;" etc.

    Items are stored on the computer's hard drive. The storage location is always different - each browser creates a folder for its data. The lifespan of a file can be from 3 seconds to 4 years, depending on the developers. But cookies do not always live the full lifespan that is allotted to them. Browser settings allow you to set how long cookies will “live” or destroy them all at your first desire.

    Why do we need Cookies?

    Cookies are almost mandatory for most websites. They store information about settings, authorization form, various information(for example, if you turn them off, then when you go to another page of the online store, the cart will be cleared, because it does not have any data about you.)

    Permanent and third-party - what's the difference?

    Constants are often called “advertising” or “following”. Mostly them used to collect statistics about the user, his preferences, etc. Then, based on the collected data, advertising that is most suitable for the user’s interests is selected.

    Third parties. Installed by third party sites, but can be read by other sites. It could be both visit tracking counters from Google, Yandex and other services, and the “like” buttons at the bottom of the site. Third-party cookies can also lead to unwanted tracking!

    How to find cookies

    Such files may be needed for a variety of reasons. Finding them is not difficult. Below is the location of cookies in the most popular browsers on Windows 7, 8, 10.

    In all browsers these files are on the way C:\Users\Username\AppData\

    The path forward will vary depending on the browser.

    Google Chrome: Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default looking for an element called Cookies

    Opera:Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable. An element called "Cookies"

    Mozilla Firefox: Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\qx1fqa6b.Default User. An element called cookies.sqlite

    Yandex Browser: Local\Yandex\YandexBrowser\User Data\Default. An element called Cookies

    Internet Explorer. There are two ways:

    • Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCookies\
    • Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\

    Why is it necessary and how to clean it?

    Clearing cookies is necessary to prevent unwanted authorizations without the user's knowledge. Therefore, whenever you use a browser anywhere, clear your cookies when finished. This will protect your accounts from unwanted visitors (I think many people forgot to leave the same contact with friends.)

    To delete, just go to browser settings and find the treasured button. After which it will be possible to delete at least all the cookies at once, even selectively. How can you do this:

    GoogleChrome

    IN Google browser Chrome click on the icon settings(located on the right top corner site)

    At the bottom of the screen, enable the display of additional settings

    In the “Privacy and Security” options, find the ““ tab

    Select files cookie

    After these manipulations, we can delete cookies that we do not need.

    Opera

    To clear cookies in Opera, you need to follow steps very similar to the previous ones:

    Mozilla Firefox

    Click on the me button and select " Settings»

    Select panel " Privacy and Security" and select the "history" option

    Click on " show cookies«

    How to enable or disable Cookies

    Disabling cookies in your browser may cause incorrect operation many sites.

    But still, if they seem too scary, you can always turn them off. Disabling cookies won't be any more difficult than clearing them.

    Use permission can be set in the same manner.

    Google Chrome

    Go to the same settings block as when cleaning and disable the required element (indicated in the screenshot)

    If you disable this option, cookies will not be stored.

    Opera

    Carry out the same manipulations as during cleaning.

    Select the option " Prevent sites from storing data locally«

    Mozilla Firefox

    Like other browsers, you need to enter the same settings that are required for cleaning. Uncheck " accept cookies from websites«

    Myths and reality

    There are many myths and misconceptions around such useful files. It should be noted that in some countries they prohibited by privacy policy. Without a clear understanding of what is a myth and what is reality, it is impossible to make a constructive assessment.

    Attackers can steal cookies and use them for their own purposes

    Alas, This is true. The most risky are public networks. For example: wi-fi network in a cafe. Using specialized software, a hacker can intercept cookies and see the browsing history, as well as gain access to the accounts the user was logged into. But developers are trying to protect their users and are creating more and more advanced protection systems.

    These files store important information (logins, passwords)

    Misconception. It may have been possible to extract such data previously, but now it is impossible. At least because at the moment Almost everyone switched to a secure connection (https).

    Cookies are a type of virus, which means they can harm your computer.

    Not true! Because it itself is not a program, but text file! It simply physically cannot start on its own and perform any actions. This means that he is not able to launch the virus.

    For the most part, they are created for recording important information, making everyday tasks easier for the user.

    Precautionary rules

    To prevent cookies from causing harm, you should: simple rules when surfing the web:

    • Enable protection from third party cookies
    • Keep local data before exiting the browser
    • Periodically perform cleaning and check the browser folder for hidden threat(additional software such as CCleaner will make the process easier)
    • After finishing web surfing from other people's devices, always carry out cleaning!

    What to do if there is a problem with your cookie settings

    If the error “a problem has been detected in the cookie settings” pops up, don’t be afraid! After performing simple steps everything should work again, you need to:

    • Check whether cookies are enabled.
    • If strict site filtering is installed, add google.com or the site you need to exceptions.
    • Clear cache and other necessary partitions using CCleaner.

    This should help. If the problem persists even after performing the above steps, uninstall the browser, and then install its latest version.

    Cookies(cookies) are ordinary text files on a computer created by a web server that are located in hidden folder browser. They store data about sites visited by browsers. At first glance, they seem like useless garbage, but they greatly simplify the life of the average user.

    1. Why are Cookies needed?

    Cookies store service information, which most often contains:

    • Saved passwords and logins
    • Maintaining statistics about users
    • Settings for the site (themes, widgets, saves, past search queries etc.)
    • Clicks on advertisements may also be saved in Cookies for the purpose of later displaying other relevant advertisements
    • Addresses of pages visited by the user

    2. Cookie Security

    Cookies cannot be viruses or spyware, since they are just text files. However, they pose a threat, because contain encrypted passwords and logins.

    If traffic transmitted from a computer to the Internet is not encrypted, then hackers can read the cookie.

    Each user can disable the use of cookies in their browser settings or choose one of the following options:

    • Completely disabling cookies
    • Clear all cookies when exiting the browser
    • Prohibition or restriction on the use of third-party cookies
    • Creating a “white” and/or “black” list of sites from which cookies will either be allowed or blocked.
    • Setting limited cookie lifetimes.

    3. How to clear Cookies

    It is better to clean Cookies periodically so as not to clog your computer with information. Every browser has this feature. Let's look at the instructions for each browser.

    3.1. Clearing cookies in Opera

    1. Open "Tools" and click "Settings"

    2. Click "Security".

    3. Scroll down and find “All Cookies and Site Data”.

    4. Here we can delete individual cookies or clear the entire history.

    3.2. Cleaning cookies in Internet Explorer 8

    1. Select “Tools” from the menu and “Internet Options” from the drop-down menu.

    2. In the “General” tab in the “Browsing History” section, click the “Delete” button.

    3. Select the option to delete cookies.

    3.3. Clearing cookies in Mozilla Firefox

    2. Select "Privacy".

    4. Click "Delete all".

    3.4. Clearing cookies in Google Chrome

    1. Open "Settings".

    3. Select the Personal data section, here click on the “Clear history” button

    4. Select what we want to delete and click “Clear history”

    3.5. Universal cleaning method

    To clear cookies you can use special program Clean Master(you can download it from the official website). You may have already heard such a program from Android applications.

    The Clean Master program is free and in Russian. I recommend it to everyone to use.

    4. Where are cookies located on your computer?

    Cookie location in Google browser Chrome

    Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\(Your_profile)\Application Data\Chromium\ Windows 7 C:\Users\(Your_profile)\AppData\Local\Chromium\User Data\Default\Cache\

    Cookie location in the Opera browser

    Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\(Your_profile)\Application Data\Opera\ Windows 7 C:\Users\(Your_profile)\AppData\Local\Opera\Opera\cache\

    Cookie location in Firefox browser

    Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\(Your_profile)\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ Windows 7 C:\Users\(Your_profile)\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

    Cookie location in Internet Explorer browser

    Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\Cookies\ Windows 7 C:\Users\(Your_profile)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies\

    You've probably come across the term cookies while using the Internet. What is it? Essentially, cookies are a file or several small files that store text information. They are created when you visit sites that support this technology.

    How do cookies work?

    It's very simple. As soon as the browser receives a specific web page from the site, the connection between it and your PC is severed. If you decide to go to another page of the same resource or update the current one, a new connection will be established. On sites where there is no user authorization, this does not create any problems. But if it is necessary, without additional measures the resource is not able to “remember” the people visiting it and display information in accordance with the preferences of each of them. Cookies help to avoid a situation in which, when moving between different pages of a site, a person is not perceived by the service as a new, unauthorized visitor. You already know that this is text information. And cookies work very simply: when you move from one page to another, the server sends a request to the computer for the data from the cookies. Using them, he finds out who is going to perform such an action, and then, based on the information received, he grants or denies the request. Cookies are also used when creating online stores. It is thanks to them that the familiar shopping cart can exist, in which data about selected but not yet purchased goods can exist. And it is cookies that allow the specified products not to disappear from it while you are browsing other parts of the catalog and placing an order.

    How are cookies useful?

    You already know about several aspects of using cookies. We also managed to find out what it is. Now let's talk about what else can be useful this technology and in what cases you can’t do without it.

    Surely you know that now many services have so-called “affiliate programs”. Almost all of them are long-term and last for months or even years. Throughout this period, information is stored on the hard drive, thanks to which the partner will receive his percentage if the user who follows his link orders a service or product from the seller.

    When working with visit counters, rating and voting systems, cookies are also used. What does this give in in this case? Cookies are necessary so that the system can determine what this user Already followed the link or left your vote. That is, there is some kind of insurance against artificial markups. There are ways to bypass such protection, but to ordinary users this result is more than enough.

    What should you be wary of?

    When working with cookies, it is important to remember that in some cases, seemingly harmless text information can be dangerous.

    Cookies are one of the most important potential causes of online privacy violations. Why is this happening? Advertising sites always track which advertisements a particular user views. Cookies store data about which advertisements a person has already seen and track which topics are of interest to him. And while we are talking about cookies for a single site, there is no need to talk about the leakage of personal information. But if we are talking about large advertising networks, the codes of which are present on the vast majority of resources, everything becomes more complicated. Thus, thanks to the system, it can collect almost all the information about a person’s online activities. And if he enters his first and last name on some website, it becomes possible to connect all these actions with a real person.

    There are other problems associated with cookies. They are mostly encountered by programmers who write document code. cookies for different sites. Without first reading professional sources, you can allow logins and passwords for the site to be stored in cookies. As a result, it becomes very easy to seize them and use them for your own purposes. However, almost all more or less serious sites store passwords and logins in a database on the server. Cookies are used here simply as a conditional identifier for the user. Moreover, it is issued only for a short period of time. That is, even if a hacker manages to gain access to cookies, he will not find any valuable information there.

    How to enable, disable and clear cookies?

    If you decide to disable cookies, please note that you will have to re-enable them each time you visit a site that requires them.

    For Mozilla Firefox. Go to “Tools”. Next, you should find the “Settings” item, and in it - the “Privacy” tab. Opposite Firefox, in the “History” frame, you need to select “do not remember” from the list.

    For Google Chrome. Open “Options” by clicking on the button in the form. After that, go to “Advanced” -> “Content Settings”. In the window that appears, you need to select Cookie, and then check the box that prohibits sites from storing data.

    As you can see, disabling or re-enabling cookies in Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, the most popular browsers, is very simple. In other browsers, this is done in the same way, using the “Security”, “Privacy”, etc. tabs.

    If you need to clear cookies, it's faster and easier to do so without using standard means browser, and using special utility- cCleaner. Before cleaning, you need to close all browsers, otherwise you will not be able to delete all cookies.

    In general best option- install one of the programs that automates work with cookies. Nowadays there are a huge number of such applications, they weigh quite a lot and relieve users from the need to constantly change parameters manually.

    Baked cookies

    Most Internet users have, of course, come across such a concept as (http cookie), or simply cookies.

    What are cookies? A cookie is a special text file in which the site that created it and recorded it on hard drive user, stores necessary information. He does this mainly for the convenience of this user.

    The location of cookies on the user's disk may vary. Cookies are usually located in the browser folder through which they were installed. It is worth noting that different browsers They only recognize their own cookies and don’t interfere with others’, so, for example, if you are logged into VKontakte via Firefox, then in Opera you will have to re-enter your login and password.

    Technically, cookies are a string like "Cook1=value1;Cook2=value2;...CookN=valueN", i.e. name-value pairs separated by semicolons (there is no ";" at the end of the line) and written to the user's disk using client-side (usually JavaScript) or server-side (mostly PHP) web programming languages.

    Also, in addition to the value, the cookie has several more parameters, the most important of which for the user is the shelf life, or life.

    By default, a cookie from a website exists until the user closes the browser(not the tab with the open site, but the browser itself). After which it self-destructs. But you can force a cookie to “live” for 3 seconds or 3 years.

    For example, on some sites you can see a footnote next to the authorization form "remember me". If you do not check this box, the cookie will live until the browser is closed, otherwise, even after the browser is closed, for as long as desired at the discretion of the site creators.

    Still very important point from this area - the cookie can be read only the domain by which it was installed (this is a limitation of the HTTP protocol). The exception is subdomains of one site - for example, mail.yandex.ru can read cookies from yandex.ru. So you don't have to worry about bad sites reading your cookies. They cannot do this directly, only with some tricks.

    If you're concerned about the safety of your personal data online, don't worry about cookies. Better come up with a lot complex passwords and store them in a safe place, and also keep strangers away from your computer - this is important when protecting .

    Opera open the main menu, go to the “Settings” section and select the line “ General settings...". Or you can just press hot CTRL keys+ F12. This will open the browser settings window, where on the “Advanced” tab you need to click on the “Cookies” section in the left panel. In it you need to click the “Manage Cookies” button.

    In Mozilla FireFox, open the “Tools” section in the menu and select “Settings”. In the settings window, you need to go to the “Privacy” tab, find a button there that says “Show Cookies...” and click it to access the list of cookies stored by the browser. You can search and view them here.

    In Internet Explorer, expand the “Tools” section in the menu and select “Properties”. In the Properties settings window, go to the “General” tab and click the “Options” button in the “Browsing history” section. In this way, you will open another window (“Temporary Files Options”), in which you need to click the “Show Files” button.

    Click the "Name" heading in the list of contents of the Internet Explorer temporary files folder that opens - in this way you can group all the cookie files into one block in a common heap of heterogeneous files. Here you can find the file you are interested in and open it in standard Notepad for viewing or editing.

    In Google Chrome, click the wrench icon in the upper right corner of the window and select Options from the menu. The browser will open “Settings”, and you click the “Advanced” link in its left panel and on the advanced settings page, click the “Content Settings” button. This is not the last one on the way to the cookies stored by this browser.

    Google Chrome provides the ability to search, view, and delete cookies.

    IN Safari browser Click the gear icon in the upper right corner and select the “Settings...” line. In the window for changing settings, you need to go to the “Security” tab to click the “Show Cookies” button there. Safari only provides functions for searching and deleting cookies; the contents of these temporary files can only be partially seen here.

    Please note

    So, we have determined the path to the Cookies folder, now we need to determine the specific path to the Cookies file itself. In Mozilla Firefox this is the cookie.sqlite file, but it is located in the folder with the Profile for each user, and the folder name is generated “randomly”. By the way, I also have Vista and I also can’t find where the cookies are. Tell me??

    Useful advice

    Nobody knows for sure where the term “cookie” came from, although it is believed that at the time of the birth of Unix systems the phrase Magic Cookies was used somewhere. This meant “receipts” (token, ticket) that were exchanged between programs. If cookie values ​​that satisfy all the conditions are found, the browser sends them to the server as a name/value pair

    Sources:

    • where to find cookies in opera
    • Hacking VKontakte via cookies

    Cookies, or more simply, cookies, are temporary files that are stored on your computer while you browse. different pages site. Cookie support can be disabled, but when using many sites, enable cookie support mandatory for proper operation site. To enable cookies, your actions will depend on what Internet browser you are using.

    You will need

    • - a computer connected to the Internet;
    • - connected internet browser

    Instructions

    While in browser Windows Internet Explorer, to enable Cookies, click on the “gear” icon in the upper right corner of the screen. From the drop-down menu, select Internet Options. In the window that opens, go to the “Privacy” tab. With the left mouse button, move the security level lever for the Internet zone to the “Medium” level. Click OK.

    IN browser Mozilla Firefox Click on the orange Firefox icon at the top left of the screen. In the selection window that opens, click “Settings”. Select the "Privacy" tab. In the "History" line, select the "Firefox will use your history settings" option. Next, check the box next to “Accept cookies from sites” > OK. Or, in the “History” column, select the option “Firefox will remember the history” > OK.

    When using Opera browser Click on the Opera icon in the top left corner of the page. In the drop-down menu, select the “Settings” - “General Settings” section. Go to the "Advanced" tab. In the left menu, select “Cookies” and check the box next to the option “Accept only from the visited site” > OK.

    IN browser Google Chrome To enable Cookies, click on the “wrench” icon at the top right of the screen. Go to "Options" and then to the "Advanced" tab. In Content Settings, select Cookies and check the box next to Allow saving local data. Finally, click “Close”.

    Video on the topic

    Useful advice

    Sources:

    • How to enable cookies in 2019
    • How to enable cookies in 2019

    – pieces of data that are sent by a web server and stored on the user’s computer for later use. With their help, some data is saved, which is then used to access Internet resources or save special settings. In Internet Explorer (IE) this setting can be enabled using the corresponding menu item.

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