1.0 Background
Web Logs are files maintained on the server that includes name and IP address of your computer, your browser type, operating system, Web page URL you accessed, and the URL of the last page you viewed.

There are valid reasons to keep such logs including:

• Help to track security breaches
• Counting how often documents are accessed
• Recording types of browsers being used

Every individual file your server sends to the client gets a line in the web log. That means every gif, jpeg and html file that the users browser requests fills up your log file. If your web site got many concurrent users, then the log file will look like a mess, since the files requested by the users will be mixed up in between each others lines. An average web page contains about 1 html file and maybe 10-20 gifs and jpegs - resulting in each page viewed generates 11-21 lines of data in your log file.

That makes log file analysis quite hard. You have to keep track of each individual users separate log file lines. In most cases you will have to use a software package to analyze the web log.

The web log is primarily comprised of two P3P elements called clickstream and HTTP Protocol. Depending on how information is collated and combined with other data such as personally identifiable information and the reason why you collect the data, there may be P3P implications that can affect how browsers treat your cookies.