All of these definitions miss a very important point about cookies: A "cookie" is a piece of information sent to your browser by a website you visit, and your

All of these definitions miss a very important point about cookies: A "cookie" is a piece of information sent to your browser by a website you visit, and your browser is required to send that information back to the website when you encounter that website's content (visible or hidden) throughout the web. Sending this information back to the website also informs the website of where you were on the web at that time. As of 2009 it was difficult to disable 3rd party cookies.