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Cookie Privacy
The Issue:
Some people think that cookies, those magical little bits of text that store information about you, are a major threat to computer privacy. They are basically little sentences that store things like "heīs already seen this ad," or "his nameīs bob johnson." The key is, however, that these little bits of text can only be sent back to the server you gave the info to.
The Controversy:
Cookies have been around for a long time as part of Common Gateway Interface (CGI), which is a way for web browsers to interact with web servers. The real controversy, however, errupted when Netscape introduced a way for cookies to be stored using Javascript, making any website capable of using cookies.
Privacy advocates insisted that cookies could be used to track users -- and well they could. The main protection factor with cookies, however, is that they can only be sent back to the server they originated from. So, if server a.com uses cookies to track you, server b.com canīt use a.comīs data.
The Solution:
Cookies arenīt very harmfull, but you can turn them off if you like.
Method One (Netscape 4+):
Go to the Edit menu, then to Preferences.
Click on Advanced in the left pane of the Preferences window.
Under Cookies, click on the radio button next to Disable Cookies. You can, if you like, accept only cookies you approve -- but itīs a real bother when some sites issue ten cookies at a time or every other site you visit tries to lay cookies in your lap.
Click Okay.
Method Two (Internet Explorer 4+):
Go to the Tools menu, then to Internet Options.
Go to the Security tab, then select Custom Level.
Scroll down to where it says Cookies and select Disable under both types of cookies. Again, if you like, you can allow IE to prompt you for each cookie -- but this becomes a real pain in the behind.
Click Okay and Okay again.
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