Internet browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, let users determine whether they want to accept cookies.

Have you ever seen a message such as this on a Web site? "Hello, Willie Jo Smithers. Here are some things you may be interested in!"

The site was able to identify you because it put a cookie on your computer.

Prior to the Web, we all understood cookies. They were good to eat, but high in calories and fat. Computer cookies, on the other hand, are frequently misunderstood.

Cookies are bits of information placed on your computer by a Web site. When you return to a site that placed the cookies, their information is retrieved. It tells the Web site you were there before and what you did there. For example, if you added items to an electronic shopping cart but didn't finalize your purchase, cookies will remember the items in your shopping cart the next time you return to the site. Cookies can be used to suggest other items you might want to buy the next time you go shopping online.

Cookies are tiny text files. They are not program-type files called executables, so they can't be used to plant viruses.

How cookies work

When you tell your browser to go to a particular site, it checks your Internet browser's cookie file to see if you have a cookie for that site. If not, the server determines that you're a first-time visitor. It sends a cookie to your computer, assigning you a number. You're anonymous; the Web site knows only your number.

If a cookie already is on your computer, the browser sends it to the Web site's server. If you previously bought something at the site, or registered, the Web computer matches the cookie number to your account information. That's how it knows your name is Willie Jo Smithers — or whoever.

Cookies in general are pretty innocuous. They actually improve Web browsing. Take Amazon.com, for example. When I buy a book there, Amazon matches the number on my cookie to my name, address and credit card number, which it has in a database. I don't have to fill out any forms; the cookie takes care of that for me.

But there are aspects of cookies that you might not find so appealing. DoubleClick, an advertising company, places cookies on your computer that track your surfing. The information is anonymous; it knows you as a number. But the information can be used to tailor advertising for you.

You can set your browser to notify you when a site tries to download a cookie. That way, you could reject those from DoubleClick or other advertising companies. But cookie traffic is so prevalent that it's probably more trouble than it is worth to decide whether to accept every cookie.

Block cookies

It is possible to opt out of advertising cookies. The Network Advertising Initiative (www.networkadvertising.org) provides an easy site to drop DoubleClick and a second company, Avenue A Inc., at its site.

What's more, Ad-aware (www.lavasoftusa.com), a program that finds spyware, will detect and delete advertising cookies.

Your browser allows you to control cookie traffic. In Internet Explorer, click Tools, Internet Options, Privacy. You'll find numerous settings there. They range from blocking all cookies to accepting all of them. To see your cookies, click the General tab, instead of Privacy. Click Settings and View Files. You can see where the cookie files are from and delete any that you don't want.

In Netscape, click Edit and Preferences. Double-click Privacy & Security, then click Cookies. You can set the browser to refuse all cookies. It also lets you see your cookies and gives you the option of deleting them.

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2002

Answers

we use something called window washer...it let's you keep the ones you want, and washes the rest..then it does the wash and gives you back x amt. of space.. it seems to work pretty well!

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2002