A cookie is a small file stored on your
computer by an Internet web site that you visited. Not all
cookies are bad. Cookies are used by web sites to identify
your computer, "remember" your login or member name, your
preferences, and other information. A good example of this is when
you visit a web site for a weather update. A cookie might store your zip
code or city information and immediately give you the weather for that area.
Every time you visit the weather site, it looks for its cookie.
If it finds it, you go right to the weather map and forecast. If
it can't find it, you go right to a login or registration
screen! If you deleted the cookie, you would have to enter your
zip code or other requested information each time you visited the site. So, in this case,
cookies can speed up your internet browsing. This is a good
thing!
A cookie becomes a bad thing when it
stores other types of information, such as the web sites you visit,
and sends that information back to its "parent company,"
without you even knowing it. The parent company can glean a lot
about you, and might sell this information to advertising companies,
which may then bombard you with pop-up ads or e-mail spam on certain topics of
interest. This is not only an invasion of privacy, it is also
very annoying and slows down your internet browsing. This is a bad
thing!
I think it's a good thing to be
vigilant, and check the cookie files often. I delete any cookie
I don't recognize. I especially delete any cookie with the words
"ads", "hit" or "hitbox," or
"stats" in
them. I delete any "third party" cookies.
(cookies from websites I have NOT visited!) It can't hurt, and it may save you some hassle down the road.
Related Topic: Deleting
a Cookie
