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Delete Cookies to Protect Your Privacy!

A cookie is simply a small amount of information that is generated by a web server and stored on your computer for future use. Initially, cookies were created to allow users to personalize web search engines, to store shopping lists, to store login names, or to store items in shopping carts to make it easier for users to shop online.

Why, then, should you delete cookies when they appear to be so useful? One down-side is that, while Microsoft does have a maximum default size for the folder that cookies are stored in, this folder can still take up as much as two percent of your hard drive. If you don't delete cookies regularly, this adds up to about a million cookies that you will never use. All of this seems relatively harmless, but cookie placement is a two-stage process that can have serious impacts on a user's privacy.

In the first stage, the cookie is stored on your computer without your consent. For instance, some customizable search engines allow a user to select likes and dislikes. After you punch in your interest, the web server then creates a specific cookie directed entirely at you. Your web browser then saves this information in a cookie list. All this happens behind the scenes, without giving you any way to prevent it.

If you delete cookies diligently, then this is the largest impact that cookies have on your privacy. If you fail to delete cookies, however, the cookie can be transferred from your machine to a web server. After this happens, your browser will transmit this specialized cookie to the new server, without notifying you.

"What's the harm in that," you might ask? New services, like doubleclick.com, solicit random Web sites to generate their cookie. Once you have the cookie, (called doubleclick.net) and you hit a doubleclick enabled site, that Web site then uses the doubleclick cookie to search all your other cookies (remember there could be up to a million of them) for marketing information available about you. This allows the site to target you with special pop-ups and banners. The only way to avoid this is to delete cookies regularly (especially doubleclicks), and make sure they stay deleted

There are several ways to delete cookies, which vary in terms of ease and success. Microsoft recommends that you use Internet Explorer to do this. To delete cookies in Explorer, simply go to the Tools menu, and select Internet Options . Then click the General tab. In the temporary Internet files section, click Delete Cookies , and then click ok.

Both Netscape and Internet Explorer have various levels of options that allow the user to select which cookies they are willing to accept. Good cookies generally have a privacy policy attached to them. The downside of both of these, while they give the user more control than the cookie purveyors would perhaps prefer, is that they don't necessarily give the user full authority. Additionally, they can be complicated options for new users.

The best method for maintaining your internet privacy is using Privacy Guardian which manages to not only delete cookies, but also take care of cache files so that your surfing can't be traced by anyone. In any case, to avoid having your personal information and preferences sold without your consent to unscrupulous companies, it is extremely important to manage and delete cookies.

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