Cookies are little strings of text that Web sites store on your computer as a means to identify you to that site later. This is handy, as it means not entering your passwords for sites over and over again. However, you may not want all the cookies that sites want to place with you on the Internet tracking you. Cookies won’t store anything personal unless you hand the info over via a Web form; however, just visiting a Web site allows it to put a cookie that stores your browser type and IP address onto your computer, assuming your browser is set to allow that.
Why is that a big deal? Maybe it isn’t. Cookies are neither good nor evil. They’re a convenience, and like most conveniences, they come at a price. Consider this: Your e-mail program, even Gmail, suppresses the images in your messages by default. The reason is that spammers and marketers put special images containing URLs into those messages. Each URL is specific to just the message sent to each recipient. These are called Web bugs or Web beacons. If the image loads, even if it’s an invisible, singlepixel picture, the server that supplies the image may also look for cookies it can read, associating your IP address with that URL, and for other images (advertisements) you may have seen. The marketers will know about your browsing history in an instant.
Browser preferences/options let you opt to accept all cookies, accept only those from sites you visit (eliminating those from third-party advertisers, for example), or never accept them at all. The latter is a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot move; go for the “from sites I visit” option and, if you’re paranoid, check the box to be asked for permission before the browser allows the installation of cookies. But even that gets old fast. A button reading “manage” or “show” cookies will provide some granular control of cookies on a site-by-site basis.
Why is that a big deal? Maybe it isn’t. Cookies are neither good nor evil. They’re a convenience, and like most conveniences, they come at a price. Consider this: Your e-mail program, even Gmail, suppresses the images in your messages by default. The reason is that spammers and marketers put special images containing URLs into those messages. Each URL is specific to just the message sent to each recipient. These are called Web bugs or Web beacons. If the image loads, even if it’s an invisible, singlepixel picture, the server that supplies the image may also look for cookies it can read, associating your IP address with that URL, and for other images (advertisements) you may have seen. The marketers will know about your browsing history in an instant.
Browser preferences/options let you opt to accept all cookies, accept only those from sites you visit (eliminating those from third-party advertisers, for example), or never accept them at all. The latter is a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot move; go for the “from sites I visit” option and, if you’re paranoid, check the box to be asked for permission before the browser allows the installation of cookies. But even that gets old fast. A button reading “manage” or “show” cookies will provide some granular control of cookies on a site-by-site basis.
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