Cookies

As mentioned early, cookies are small text files that are written to a user’s hard disk by their web browser. Here is the sample of the typical cookie file in MS Internet Explorer:

   .netscape.com TRUE / FALSE 978307207 NS_REG
   SHA1=%A6f%03%CF%23%95%F4%98%E8%13%E8r%9C6%C0Dv%BEAE
   [-]UR%5FEMAIL=go%40for%2Eit[-]UR%5FREG%5
   FID=12266056%3ASWDv1

This information cannot contain a virus and used by a web server as your ID. You get the cookie on your first visit to the site. After that site can read the cookie to identify a user. Sure, you can switch cookies off in your browser. For Internet Explorer choose Tools > Internet Options. Then click the 'Security' tab. Click 'Custom Level'. Then scroll down to Cookies and click the 'enable' checkbox. Answer 'yes' to the confirmation question. You can always reverse this action later.

But remember there a lot of sites that require cookies turned on. For example: a page with a login box. After you entered the name, server writes it into a cookie file on your computer. On next visit the browser will analyze cookie's values and you'll see a personal greeting (if the right cookie is found).

So, cookies help you to personalization of information but also increase the possibility to find out your Internet tracks.