HTTP Cookies: Standards, Privacy, and Politics
Software Engineering
2016-08-31 v1 Computers and Society
Abstract
How did we get from a world where cookies were something you ate and where "non-techies" were unaware of "Netscape cookies" to a world where cookies are a hot-button privacy issue for many computer users? This paper will describe how HTTP "cookies" work, and how Netscape's original specification evolved into an IETF Proposed Standard. I will also offer a personal perspective on how what began as a straightforward technical specification turned into a political flashpoint when it tried to address non-technical issues such as privacy.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cs/0105018,
title = {HTTP Cookies: Standards, Privacy, and Politics},
author = {David M. Kristol},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cs/0105018},
year = {2016}
}