What is a cookie?

A "cookie" is a small piece of information that a Web site can store in a designated file on your computer. It can be used, among other things, to identify you when you log in to a Web site. When you visit a site, that site can access only the information which it stored in your cookie -- not information put in your cookie by other sites. The Brown Journal of World Affairs is one of many sites that use cookies. The cookie helps us determine, for example, whether you are a paying subscriber to the Journal.