The Internet and the World Wide Web: Question 5
Syllabus 5.1
A privacy-conscious student changes the settings on their web browser so that it can no longer store any cookies at all, but every other browser feature is left switched on.
(a) State two functions of a web browser, other than storing cookies, that these settings would leave completely unaffected. [2]
(b) The student then browses the online shop "Foxglove Books", adding a novel to their basket and reading through three more pages before reaching the checkout, all within the same visit. Explain, with reference to session cookies, why the basket is now empty by the time they reach checkout, even though they never closed the browser tab. [3]
(c) The following week, the student visits Foxglove Books again on the same laptop. Explain why the site no longer displays a personalised welcome message using their name, even though it did so on previous visits before the cookie setting was changed. [2]
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Worked solution
Part (a): Browser functions unaffected by disabling cookies
Storing cookies is only one of several functions a web browser provides. Disabling it does not switch off the browser’s other, separate functions, which include: storing bookmarks/favourites, recording browsing history, allowing the use of multiple tabs, providing navigation tools such as back and forward buttons, and providing an address bar. Any two of these are unaffected, because none of them depend on a cookie being stored.
Part (b): Why the basket empties within the same visit
Holding items in a basket across several pages of the same visit relies on a session cookie. As the student moves from the product page, to three further pages, and finally to checkout, each new page is loaded as a separate request; without a stored cookie, nothing on the student’s device carries forward the fact that a novel was already added. Foxglove Books’ web server would normally read a session cookie on each new page to know what the customer had already chosen, but since cookies are switched off entirely, no such cookie exists to be read. The result is that the site has no memory of the earlier addition to the basket, so it appears empty by the time the student reaches checkout, even though the tab itself was never closed.
Part (c): Why the personalised welcome message disappears
Displaying a welcome message using the student’s name on a return visit, a week apart, depends on information saved beyond a single session, which is the role of a persistent cookie. On previous visits, before the setting was changed, a persistent cookie stored the student’s name as a small file on their device, and Foxglove Books read this file back on each new visit to greet them by name. Now that all cookies are disabled, this persistent cookie cannot be created, stored or read at all, so there is no saved name for the website to retrieve, and the personalised message no longer appears.
Final answers
- (a) Any two of: bookmarks/favourites, browsing history, multiple tabs, navigation tools, address bar.
- (b) With no session cookie available, the website cannot carry the basket contents forward from page to page during the visit, so the basket appears empty at checkout.
- (c) With no persistent cookie available, the student’s name can no longer be saved or read back on a later visit, so the personalised welcome message can no longer be shown.