cookies?

[firestar18]

i'm stil sort of new to the whole internet thing, i would love to know waht cookies are, and how do u turn them off, why do u need to turn them off, can they be turned on once tuened off, and what are they used for.

[xyzzyplugh]

2 websites re: cookies and privacy. http://pages.zdnet.com/hampsi/Articles/cookie.htm
http://www.windows-sucks.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml :-)

[Worker]

I shouldn't give cookies another thought. They're very very small programs implanted into your computer from websites in which you've given details of yourself. They do harm at all and the website recognises you when returning. Just forget all about them.

[Pinotage]

I'll agree with worker not to worry about them. But they're not programs, just a line of text. Suppose you come to my site and fill in some details about yourself, name etc. I leave a cookie on your computer - say PINOTAGE 20030224 77751.

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Next time you come to my site I look for my cookie, identified with PINOTAGE, I looke for the date last visited - 24/02/2003 and I look for the idientification number. Now I've got that my site can recall all the details you entered previously - I can say 'Hi Firestar, did you know since you last visited we've added this' etc etc.

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You can turn cookies of - some sites won't let you use their facilities, and the ones that do you'll have to enter all sorts of details again.

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They don't do any harm, and make you're browsing easier and more enjoyable. Just leave 'em be.

[sft42]

a bit of a simple view of cookies i'm afraid but it all depends on your surfing habits and if anyone else uses the computer that you might not want to know what sites you've been visiting. Cookies will give a easy record to anyone of where you've been on the web, and some software which you can unwittingly download with other packages will frequently send back info from these cookies collected on your machine without your knowledge to the site that they originated from, therefor reporting to a third party on your surfing habits without you being aware of it.