Internet Privacy: Federal Agency Use of Cookies

Linda D. Koontz

ene 2000 · United States General Accounting Office

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As requested by your office, we have been reviewing selected federal agencies' use of cookies on their web sites. A cookie is a short string of text-not a program-that is sent from a web server to a web browser when the browser accesses a web page. The use of cookies allows the server to recognize returning users, track on-line purchases, or maintain and serve customized web pages. Domain cookies are cookies placed by the visited web site. However, some web sites also allow the placement of third-party cookies--cookies placed on a visitor's computer by a domain other than the site being visited. The domain and third-party cookies may be further grouped into session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are short-lived, are used only during the browsing session, and expire when the user quits the browser. Persistent cookies specify expiration dates, remain stored on the client's computer until the expiration date, and can be used to track users' browsing behavior by identifying their Internet addresses whenever they return to a site.