Impertinence Of Cookies

[Coldicote]

Many websites I visit these days ‘warn’ me that they use cookies. Why do they warn me? As far as I’m aware they don’t do me any good. I regard them as just a **** cheek cluttering up my computer. Is there a way I can stop them or get rid of them please?

[Tuvok]

The EU introduced a law that sites have to inform viewers

[factor-fiction]

Some sites need cookies to operate. E.g. cashback sites and probably your online banking. I think AB needs them too.

[SlackAlice]

There are normally settings in internet browsers to either reject all cookies or delete them when you've finished browsing. If you do that you will need to remember all your log-ins and passwords and use them every time. Many 'cookies' help in viewing websites correctly and speed up the process.

It's a legal requirement to be notified of them and your choice to accept or ignore.

[bibblebub]

If you are using Firefox then the add-on Self-Destructive Cookies is very worthwhile https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/self-destructing-cookies/?src=api but it won't stop sites from displaying warnings.

[VHG]

The reason web sites warn you about cookies is because they were told to.

They don't "clutter up your computer" as they are very small so take up no room at all.

They are useful to save things like logon information (the reason you don't need to logon every time you use AB and other web sites is because the info is saved in cookies).

You can set your browser to delete all your cookies every time you exit your browser if you want to, but I think you will soon get fed up with having to re-logon to every web site you visit.

[jake-the-peg]

They are 'useful' to marketing people - they can be used to track you through the web.

Ever wondered why it is that you do a search on Google for something and then hey presto 10 minutes later when you're on AB you start seeing adverts for that very thing?

Cookies.

Here's how to stop the little blighters

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20042703-285/disable-third-party-cookies-in-ie-firefox-and-google-chrome/

or 3rd party ones

Personally I use adblock plus to stop all adverts

[Coldicote]

Thank you very much for your answers which have given me a better understanding of the reason for cookies and how to deal with them. Apparently 'deleting browsing history on exit' is why I have to keep signing in to AnswerBank! It's just one of those things. I like Jakes reference to 'the little blighters'.