Internet and Its Uses · 4 question types
Past paper frequency (2018 to 2024)
This topic accounts for approximately 3% of your exam marks.
The difference between the internet and the WWW, and cookie/browser functions, are typical questions.
A cookie is a small text file stored on the user's device by a website, used to remember information about the user across page loads and visits.
Cookies are set by the web server (sent in an HTTP response) and stored by the browser on the user's device. The browser sends them back with future requests to the same site, so the server can recognise the user.
What cookies typically hold:
A cookie is a plain text file, not a program. Cookies cannot themselves run code or directly attack the user's computer. (Whether the information they carry is privacy-friendly is a separate question; see "Privacy concerns" below.)
Cookies come in two types: session and persistent cookies.
| Session cookie | Persistent cookie | |
|---|---|---|
| Stored in | RAM (the browser's memory) | Hard disk / SSD (a file on the user's device) |
| Lifespan | Lasts only while the browser is open | Has an expiry date; can survive for days, weeks or years |
| Discarded | Once the user closes the browser | When the expiry date passes, or when the user clears them manually |
Session cookie vs persistent cookie (fill-in-the-blank / describe)
What comes up: A fill-in-the-blank passage worth several marks asking you to complete statements about the two types of cookie, using terms from a word list. Also appears as a "give examples of cookie uses" question (3 marks).
Write (key points): Cookies are small text files stored by a web browser. A session cookie is a temporary file — it is deleted when the web browser is closed. A persistent cookie is a permanent file — it is stored on the user's secondary storage device until it is manually deleted or it expires. Examples of cookie uses: storing login details, recording user preferences, holding items in a shopping cart, storing payment details.
Do not say a session cookie is stored on the hard drive — it lives in memory (RAM) and is gone when the browser closes. "Permanent" and "persistent" are both accepted for the second type, but "temporary" and "session" are the credited terms for the first type.
Cookies started out as simple tools for site convenience. Over time, they became a major privacy issue:
| Typical use | Keeping the user logged in for one visit; remembering shopping-cart contents during the same browsing session | Remembering login between visits ("remember me"); remembering preferences (e.g. language, theme); long-term analytics and advertising IDs |
Two related ideas often confused:
Both improve the browsing experience, but they do different jobs. Mark schemes can ask for the difference.