Today I am writing about your privacy when surfing internet, focus more on http/browser cookies.
Many of us may not aware that when we are browsing a website, there are some pieces of information are sending to the web servers, automatically, so they can know about your browsing behaviour, such as your IP address, domain name, your software details, your visited web pages...etc.
Your web browser (eg. Internet Explorer, Firefox) may have stored the web cookies, which contain information about your interests or favorite websites. Many of us may not concern about this privacy risks about protecting their personal information may disclosed to the third parties, especially they do not know about some websites visited which can not be trusted, or when we register to websites, that they do not concern about our browsing safety.
So, what could be the privacy risks to us? That can be range from the statistics gathered on visited users, or issue the malicious acts such as the spreading of spyware and various forms of bug exploitation. Therefore, whether we register a website, we need to understand the privacy issues (usually stated in the Terms and conditions).
Most browsers allow you to decide to accept cookies, but rejection will makes some websites not working/displaying. Those stored cookies can enhance your browsing experience because those web servers can help the user to personalize/customize user preferences, and provide navigation in the websites.
Besides privacy concerns, the cookies also have some technical drawbacks, especially, when they do not always accurately identify users, they can be used for security attacks or sometime, cookie hijicking, such as some web servers do not implement HTTPS, for encrypted/secure communications which can resulting the cookies being stolen by another parties. There are many more about the security issues about the cookies, so we need to protect ourself by changing our browser cookie settings, see this page on how to secure your web browser.
Many of us may not aware that when we are browsing a website, there are some pieces of information are sending to the web servers, automatically, so they can know about your browsing behaviour, such as your IP address, domain name, your software details, your visited web pages...etc.
Your web browser (eg. Internet Explorer, Firefox) may have stored the web cookies, which contain information about your interests or favorite websites. Many of us may not concern about this privacy risks about protecting their personal information may disclosed to the third parties, especially they do not know about some websites visited which can not be trusted, or when we register to websites, that they do not concern about our browsing safety.
So, what could be the privacy risks to us? That can be range from the statistics gathered on visited users, or issue the malicious acts such as the spreading of spyware and various forms of bug exploitation. Therefore, whether we register a website, we need to understand the privacy issues (usually stated in the Terms and conditions).
Most browsers allow you to decide to accept cookies, but rejection will makes some websites not working/displaying. Those stored cookies can enhance your browsing experience because those web servers can help the user to personalize/customize user preferences, and provide navigation in the websites.
Besides privacy concerns, the cookies also have some technical drawbacks, especially, when they do not always accurately identify users, they can be used for security attacks or sometime, cookie hijicking, such as some web servers do not implement HTTPS, for encrypted/secure communications which can resulting the cookies being stolen by another parties. There are many more about the security issues about the cookies, so we need to protect ourself by changing our browser cookie settings, see this page on how to secure your web browser.
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