Managing Cookies

Pre-emptive Strategies

Most Web browsers, by default, accept any and all cookies that a server wants to place. Now let's be clear: You can leave that setting just the way it is, and chances are that nothing bad will happen except that, over time, your cookie file will become quite large. Eventually, this may slow down your browser or cause other performance problems. When and if that happens, you can simply delete all of them and start all over again. And life will go on.

Some people, however, prefer to take a more proactive approach to cookie management. If you choose to do so, you have several options:

1. Refuse all cookies. If you select this option, your browser will not allow servers to place any cookies at all on your browser. You will, as a result, be unable to save any login information, and will have to manually log into every site that requires it. You will also be unable to use security features which require cookies. And finally, some sites simply will not work without cookies.

2. Be prompted each time a server wants to place a cookie on your browser. If you select this option, then any time a server wants to give you a cookie, you will prompted either to accept it or reject it. We predict you will go mad after three days if you select this option.

3. Refuse all third-party cookies. If this option is selected, then only cookies placed by the site you happen to be on will be accepted. Other servers will be unable to place cookies. Since the great majority of third-party cookies are advertising-related, many people select this option. It allows them to visit sites that require cookies, allows them to save login and preference information without being continually prompted, and (usually) allows Web sites that they do visit to collect commissions on ads that they choose to click. But it prevents sites that they do not visit from doing any of these things.

4. Some browsers offer an additional option to accept all session cookies, regardless of which of the above options are selected. Since session cookies are only valid for one browsing session, most people choose to allow them so as to enable whatever functionality they may be tied to.

There are too many browsers, and too many versions within each browser, for this site to offer specific instructions regarding how to set cookie-handling options. The best advice we can give is to first decide how you would like to handle cookies, and then look in your browser's help files to determine how to make those settings for your particular browser. (Searching for "cookies" in the browser's help file index usually works.)

Reactive Strategies

Another approach to cookie management is to allow servers to plant cookies on your browser, and then periodically clean up the cookie file so you can keep those cookies you want and delete those that you don't. The problem is, how do you know which ones to keep?

Until a few years ago, the only real way to manage cookies was to use one of several "cookie editors" that sprang up to do this job. All any of them really did was display the cookies line-by-line, so you could choose which ones to keep. Still a very laborious job.

Then some people started writing programs which would automatically scan your browser for tracking cookies. These are cookies that track a user's Internet activity over time, and they are the cookies that most people object to. One of the most popular cookie-scanners available at this writing is Ad-Aware™ Plus, which detects and removes tracking cookies as part of a much larger search for adware and spyware in general.

There's no such thing as a free ride... usually

The free Internet is paid for by advertising. That's reality. If you decide to set cookie-handling options that disable a browser's ability to provide the information that will enable a Web site to be paid for the advertising it carries, then you are going to be locked out of some sites. Only you can decide whether the trade-off is worth it.

The same holds true for "free" software. Much of it contains adware. If you choose to remove the adware from a free program, then the program will probably stop working. Your choices are basically to either accept the adware (along with the loss of privacy and whatever effects it may have on your computer system), or else don't download the program in the first place.

And finally, a disclaimer

Programs written to remove adware and spyware are not perfect. On occasion, they can cause system instability if the offending files and components are removed without adequate attention being paid to registry entries and other delicate considerations. This is why removing spyware from a computer is best done by a skilled professional as part of a complete computer tune-up.

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