Knight Bytes
James Osborne
That's the Way the Cookies Crumble
Your personal computers (PCs) at work and home may be serving up a fresh batch of “cookies” each day. But you can choose to keep to a stricter PC diet.Background: The identification numbers that track the activities on web sites you visit—commonly known as cookies—are generally passed to your computer. A web site that places a cookie keeps a database of all the computers visiting that particular site. While some sites track their cookies internally, others track your cookies wherever you travel on the information highway, mainly for advertising purposes.
Note that cookies are not always a bad thing. For example, if a particular web site tracks your activities, it may offer goods or services similar to the offerings you have investigated before. This may simplify or even improve your online shopping habits.
On the other hand, you might prefer to use your computer without this intrusion. In that case, you may refuse cookies or request notification of their presence from web sites that you visit. Depending on the site, access may be restricted when you make this choice.
