What are Cookies?
Cookies are something that a lot of people seem to be scared of, partly because they are placed on your computer by outside sources, namely websites. Cookies are used by websites to remember who you are. In other words, if you register at Amazon.com, they send a cookie, and the next time you visit the site, it knows who you are. The ycan then customize the page you are viewing based on your past visits.Generally, cookies are OK. They CAN, however, be used by advertisers to track your Internet browsing, so they can place ads that they think will interest you. The bad cookies will be deleted when you run a spyware scan using Ad-Aware, Spybot or Windows Defender.
The key thing when handling cookies is to prevent third-party cookies from loading. These are from a location beyond the site that you are currently visiting. For example, you are currently viewing a page on papamike.com. If I had a link to CNN on this page, and they wanted to load a cookie through that link, even though you never visited there, it would load. That is a third-party cookie.
So can we control how the browser handles cookies? You bet your Oreos.
CONTROLLING COOKIES IN INTERNET EXPLORER (IE)
1. To control how IE handles cookies, open the browser. Click Tools, then Internet Options.
2. Select the Privacy tab.
3. Click the Advanced... button.
4. Check Override automatic cookie handling, and select Block under Third-party Cookies.
Click OK until you are back at your browser window.
CONTROLLING COOKIES IN FIREFOX
1. To control how Firefox handles cookies, open the browser. Click Tools, then Options.
2. Select the Privacy tab.
3. Select the Cookies tab.
4. Check Allow sites to set cookies , and select for the originating site only.
Click OK until you are back at your browser window.
NOTE: If you tell a browser to prompt you whenever a cookie is written, you'll soon go crazy and throw your monitor across the room, because you will be BOMBARDED with cookie requests. You won't get anything else done. If you're worried about harmful cookies, do frequent spyware scans. That'll keep things in check.