A cookie is used in computing and it is also known as browser cookie, tracking cookie or HTTP cookie. It is small piece of data stored on the computer by the web browser. A cookie usually has more than one name-value pairs, which contains information about the user’s preference, the contents of shopping cart and an identifier for the entire server-based sessions. Every time a person uses server, an HTTP header is sent through a web server, and is sent back again unchanged. A cookie is mostly used for the authentication of various tracking sessions, and for remembering certain information about the user. The word ‘cookie’ is derived from the ‘magic cookie’. It is a very famous concept in the UNIX computer systems. Cookies are simple and minute pieces of texts and hence, they are not easy to execute. They are not viruses or spyware, however many anti-spyware products detect cookies from certain sites.
Many new browsers let the users choose on which file they want to accept a cookie and the time limit to keep them. Cookies are very useful for maintaining the data, which is used during navigation through multiple websites. These cookies were introduced in the market to start a new system called ’shopping cart’. Cookies are used for remembering certain information about the person, who has visited your website for future relevance. If the user wants, they can remove the tracking cookies as well. Here are some easy steps on how to remove tracking cookies.
Steps:
- Delete some temporary files of the internet from the internet explorer folder. Open the internet explorer page and choose the ‘tools’ option on your browser. Select the details option and you will get a list of all the available options. Always make sure that the option ‘cookies’ have a check mark in the box, and then select the ‘delete’ option to delete the entire history.
- In Firefox, you will have to delete the internet cache option. Now, you will again have to open the browser page and chose the ‘tools’ option. Select the ‘privacy’ option, which is on the top and select the ’settings’ option from the private data section. Always make sure that you have checked the cookie box and then click on ‘ok’. Select the ‘clear now’ button from the private data section and delete all the private data.
- If you want to delete cookies from more than two internet browsers, then you will have to use a third-party program. There is a program called CCleaner, which is very easy to use and works quickly. Once you have downloaded the program, select the program from the desktop icon. Once the program page opens up, check on all the cookies from all the different browsers. Select the ‘run cleaner’ option to delete the cookies and all the other files that you want to delete.
- You can also use an anti-spyware program known as ‘Spybot- search and destroy’ or Ad-Aware to delete all the unwanted tracking cookies. Any anti-spyware program will properly scan the entire system and choose all the tracking cookies, which are harmful for the computer, and delete them.
- To avoid any website from storing certain cookies, you must take help of a third-party program. There is a program called the Spyware Blaster, which blocks all the harmful sites from launching any cookie in your computer and it does not store them as well. Open the Spyware Blaster program and choose ‘enable all protection’ to avoid cookies from being automatically saved by some supported browsers.
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