Cookie
Monsters and Online Goblins
How the Cookie Crumbles
You surf to your favorite online store which greets you,
"Welcome back!" It remembers both your name and
your password and recommends a newly released novel from
one of your favorite authors. You put the book in your
shopping cart along with several you picked out last week.
When you check out, all you have to do is click
"OK;" the store knows not only your address, but
your credit card number and what type of shipping you
prefer for your purchase. All these conveniences that make
your online experience personalized and seamless are
because of little strings of code called
"cookies."
What Are Cookies For?.
Cookies began as a Web designer's tool for learning more
about site visitors and helping a site remember your
computer when you return. The name "cookie" was
adopted from computer science lingo and the term was
introduced to the general population courtesy of Web
browsers. By using cookies, Web programmers can find out
which pages are visited most frequently and for how long,
which visits to the site are repeat ones, and which site
the visitor came from last. Shopping carts, server-chosen
news stories, and custom tailored stock reports are all
possible because of cookies. As the methods of tracking
surfer behavior become increasingly sophisticated,
protecting your privacy online is becoming more difficult.
What Information Can Be Stored in
Cookies?
- Your email address and password
- Your address and phone number
- Your employerčs name
- Your Internet-protocol (IP) address
- What operating system your computer
is running
- What browser you are using
- What other pages you have viewed
during that browser session
- Any other information you have
provided to a Web site in response to a request
How Does That Information Get There?
- Registration. People commonly
enter their full names, addresses and other
information into a browser or other software when
installing it or "registering" it. That
information can be accessible to snoops who have a
cookie to read all your cookies.
- Free gifts. Web sites
frequently offer "sign-on" bonuses like free
T-shirts, CDs, and sweepstakes. When you fill out that
form so they can mail your prize, your address and
other personal info is stored in a cookie. At one time
or another you might have filled out identifying data,
such as your income, age, or gender.
- Members only. Many sites now
have "memberships" that ask you for an
impressive battery of personal facts before you can
view material, listen to music, or buy products. Then
they remember terms you used to search their site,
they know which items you bought, and afterwards use
this information to offer you something youčre more
likely to buy.
Change the Way Your Browser Handles
Cookies
Using either Netscape or Internet Explorer, you have
control over how your browser reacts to cookies and access
to the files on your hard drive that store your cookies.
You can delete these files if you like. Just remember that
if you don't shut off your cookies, those files will be
recreated or filled back up with new cookies as soon as
you get back online. You can adjust the way your computer
handles cookies by changing your browser settings.
Netscape stores cookies in a single text
file. It's often located in C:\Program Files\Netscape\cookies.txt.
If you open this document, you can view your cookies,
choose which sites you want to keep cookies to, or clear
the whole thing out. To change the way Netscape handles
future cookies, go to the Edit menu in the browser, under
Preferences/Advanced. You have several options about how
you'd like to handle cookies, from accepting all to
accepting none.
Internet Explorer stores each Web sitečs
cookies in a separate folder in C:\Documents and
Settings\cookies. You can delete the individual folders,
or all of them. On IE, you can change your cookie settings
on the Tools menu of the browser, under Internet
Options/Security/Custom. IE breaks cookies down into two
categories -- those stored on your computer permanently
and those used temporarily. Both kinds can be turned on,
off, or you can choose to be prompted when your computer
encounters a cookie.
Disable ActiveX & Java
ActiveX and Java endanger your privacy and security online
by allowing access to local files, seizing cookies, or
embedding malicious code within emails and other files.
You can disable them both to varying degrees in the Edit
menu under Preferences/Advanced (Netscape), and the Tools
menu under Options/Security/Custom (IE).
Use an Internet Security Program.
Using an Internet security product like Norton Internet
Security helps you handle cookies quickly and easily,
while protecting your computer against viruses, malicious
ActiveX controls, Java programs and other dangerous code.
It also includes the new automatic LiveUpdate technology
that checks for new virus definitions when youčre online.
Norton Internet Security lets you keep personal
information from being sent to Web sites without your
permission, control Internet cookies, and block banner ads
to accelerate download speeds.
Turn Off AutoComplete
Although it makes filling out forms online much
quicker, "auto complete" also makes those forms
less secure because passwords sometimes show up in plain
text. You can elect to shut it off just for passwords, or
to shut if off completely. The settings for this tool are
under the Edit or Tools menu in your browser
Read the Privacy Statement
Most sites have Privacy Statements in which they tell you
what they will or will not do with your personal
information. Many of them tell you they will use your
information for one purpose or another, but few people
read the fine print. See if the site has an
"opt-out" button that will prevent them from
legally using your personal information.
Use Your Head
You can be a lot safer simply by being aware of how easy
it is for people to know what you are doing online. Ask
yourself when you quickly jump to fill in a form to become
a "member" of a site, how is this information
going to be used? Who else may see this? Would it be okay
if everyone knew that I was involved with this site? In
order to maintain even a little bit of privacy online, youčve
got to pretend that you have none. If you follow these
suggestions, while also being aware of your vulnerability
online, you can surf safely.
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