What are Web Cookies?
Cookies are text files that contain various information about you that was sent by a web server or website to your browser. Your browser, in turn, saves it into your hard drive. These little text files have numerous functions. Among its many uses are tracking your sessions with websites that require log-ins, authenticating sessions, and maintaining your personal preferences like text size, page layout, and other website features. The main purpose of cookies is to “remember” and differentiate users from each other. It “remembers” that the user has already provided log-in details like a username and password so that it will allow that person to access the website's services. Cookies are simply text files, not executable codes; however, many misconceptions about cookies still circulate. For instance, cookies are not:
•Viruses or spyware
•Causing pop-ups or abusive online advertisements (For pop-up removal, learn how to get rid of pop-ups)
•Causing spam
•Only used for advertising purposes
Cookies may contain sensitive information and can be prone to a number of exploits like XSS or Cross-site scripting and cookie hijacking through packet sniffing.
Other Uses of Cookies
Cookies are everywhere. When you customize a webpage, such as in a search engine, you can choose which language you want to use and how many search results per page can be made available. If you also want filtered results, all these preferences are “remembered” using cookies. Aside from these, cookies can be also be used to track previously-visited websites. These types of cookies are known as third-party cookies. The use of such cookies today are quite a huge privacy concern already, especially because of the rise of spyware, a type of malicious software.
Privacy and Security Concerns
When you browse websites that use cookies, these are sent back and forth from your computer to the web server. Since these cookies may contain sensitive information like your username and password, it can be easily intercepted and the data contained can be used fraudulently. It is also a privacy concern because cookies are also capable of tracking the websites that a user has visited. Most Internet browsers today have the ability to be customized --- you can automatically accept or reject cookies or be advised accordingly. If you are really worried about privacy and security online, you can simply set your browser to automatically reject cookies; however, it will render websites that use cookies unusable. For example, you may not be able to log into web services like email, online banking, or your social network website (Want to learn other uses of social networking sites, read 12 snazzy uses for social networking websites). Since you can't really browse the Internet (Tips on how to use the internet) with cookies disabled all the time, the best way to make sure you are secure and anonymous online is to get rid of the cookies stored in your computer after you are done surfing.
Getting Rid of Cookies
It is easy to get rid of cookies in your computer. You don't have to download additional software or mess around with complicated settings. Cookies are stored differently across browsers and user accounts in your computer. If you use two or more browsers in your computer and you have more than one user account too, then you will have to open each browser in each account to get rid of the web cookies stored. If you use Internet Explorer, you can get rid of cookies through the following ways:
1.Open Internet Explorer and go to the Tools menu. Make sure only one instance of IE is running.
2.Select “Internet Options”.
3.On the “General” tab, click the “Delete Cookies” button.
4.Click OK.
You can also easily delete cookies from Internet Explorer by right-clicking its icon on your desktop and selecting properties. Then follow steps three and four. For Firefox:
1.Open the Firefox browser and click on the “Tools” menu.
2.Select “Options”.
3.Go to the “Privacy Tab” and click on the “Clear Private Data Now” button.
4.A small menu will appear. Make sure the check box for cookies are checked, then click OK.
You can also press CTRL+SHIFT+DEL in Firefox. It can also automatically delete cookies and other private data when you close the browser. You can do this through the following ways:
1.Click on Tools, then Options.
2.Go to the Privacy tab and click on the box that says “Always clear my private data when I close Firefox”.
3.Click on the Settings button and make sure the check box of “Cookies” is checked.
Avoid using public computers when you need to access secure online services. If you really have to, make sure you also delete the cookies after you use it. If you have restricted access, request the owner to delete the cookies before you leave. Anyone with physical access to that computer coupled with the right knowledge can easily steal those cookies and use them fraudulently, so you need to be very careful.