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Cookies, And Not The Good Kind
Websites Use "Cookies" to Woo Online Users
By Suzon
Walton
Publisher of Connected Now Inc.
 Cookies have always been a treat. I?m not talking about the kind that you buy at the mall or bake with kiddos. I'm talking about the kind that millions of websites can attach to your computer's hard drive without you ever knowing it. What is up with the edible acronyms for computer jargin? Cookies... Spam? I digress.
What is a Cookie?
We define a cookie as a unique identifier that a web server places on your computer—a serial number for you? Personally that can be used to retrieve your records from their databases. It's usually a string of random-looking letters long enough to be unique. Once a cookie is attached or set in your computer, it tracks your movement around the website that sets it and provides this information back to the site's owners. You can remove cookies too.
No Cookies For You
I hope you don’t mind typing in your
personal information every time you wish to browse a
favorite website. Without the cookie, it is like you
have never been there before. One benefit of cookies
is that they help you navigate websites, especially
those where you purchase goods or services. Cookies
have memory and keep this personal information so that
you don’t have to fill out the same form over and over
again every time you make a new purchase. Unfortunately,
other cookies help some websites far more than they
help you.
They provide personal information that you may not want other people to know. Depending on the flavor of a cookie, it can identify the type of computer you?re working on, the software you're using, and in some cases may even be able to get your email address. Depending on a site's privacy policy, this data may or may not be made available for sale to outside advertisers, marketing firms, junk emailers, and more. Many cookies remain in your computer for years or even decades.
I liken this cookie collection to many nameless grocery stores. They have you sign up to be a member in order to save you money. They in turn track your spending, your purchases, your shopping habits and collect this data for future marketing. Hopefully they don't resell your info. Information-gathering cookies are not nearly so obvious, but this is essentially what they do once they get inside your computer.
Fortunately, you can fight back against these invasions
of privacy. Visit www.junkbusters.com/declare.html to
help keep you off the top cookie pushers list. They
post an excellent article about cookies that teaches,
among other things, how to either disable or monitor
cookies on your browser.
Do you have your computer set to notify you whenever any website tries to set a cookie in your computer? You have the option of either accepting or declining the invitation to have the gift (the term used loosely) of their cookie. I make this decision in much the same way as I do in real life. If I'm asking for help, making a purchase, or requesting information or services, I usually accept the cookie. If I'd rather look around first, make my decisions later, or find that the site has nothing to offer, I usually decline the cookie. This turns the tables on the cookie-setters. You find out who they are before they find out who you are. You watch them as they follow you around and tell them to leave you alone whenever they get too nosy.
If you decide to monitor cookies, you'll quickly discover a small but significant percentage of cookie-monster-happy websites. Most sites let you in with few or no requests for cookies. Some, however, attempt to set cookies dozens of times. You'll have to decline their requests over and over again in order to get in. Why they think I'll say yes on the 119th time after I've already said no 118 times is one of the great mysteries of life, like how does sand get between your toes when you have socks and shoes on? Maybe they think they can wear me down. I am more stubborn than they are clever.
Another situation when you should think twice before giving out personal information: Junk emails that ask you to reply in order not to receive any future mailings. NEVER reply to junk emails; NEVER reply to "unsubscribe" options. Replying is the only way the senders get your email address. They also learn that you read their garbage and reply to it rather than delete it without ever looking.
For more information, contact Suzon Walton at
Suzon@ConnectedNow.com.
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