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Sesame Street knew more than they thought when they created the Cookie Monster. Cookies are truly a monster when it comes to personal privacy and computer security.

What are Cookies? They are small files that web sites create to track you. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – if you’re on (say) Amazon and you choose your items and then want to pay for them and get them delivered, Amazon uses cookies to track your choices so when you arrive at Checkout, the site knows what you want to buy.

Other cookies might keep track of your preferences for your favorite sites, so when you visit, things are as you left them.

But cookies can also tell the world out there all about your online presence and what you do. The war between those wanting to get access and those trying to prevent them is ongoing and surprisingly active. The general public impression is that (for most of us) what we do isn’t all that important or valuable, but the amount of effort going into keeping track of it all would tend to contradict that opinion.

The US government (and others) is VERY anxious to know what you’re up to. They have legislation that requires ISP’s to keep data about everything your account does for two years. New ways to get into your personal information and track your internet actions are coming out constantly, and these aren’t all nerdy kids in bedrooms behind it all.

So, what to do…?

First, Upgrade to the latest version of your browser. My personal preference is for Firefox. Internet Explorer is playing catch-up with the other browsers, and as you will see below, IE doesn’t allow you auto-clear cookies. As you will see in a future post about Windows and how it tracks everything you do, Microsoft may just have their reasons for leaving out that feature.

There are two ways to deal with things.
Turn off cookies. Then only allow sites you’re sure of to set cookies. To do this, there is an ‘Allow Exceptions’ in most browsers.
Alternatively, you can clear all cookies now then set the browser to automatically clear cookies when you log out.

To turn cookies on or off -
Internet Explorer {Tools}{Internet Options}{Privacy}{Advanced}
Firefox {Tools}{Options}{Privacy}{Cookies}
Opera {Tools}{Quick Preferences}{Enable Cookies}
K-Meleon {Tools}{Privacy}{Block Cookies}
SeaMonkey {Edit}{Preferences}{Privacy & Security}{Cookies}
To allow specific web sites to set cookies -
Internet Explorer {Tools}{Internet Options}{Privacy}{Edit}
Firefox {Tools}{Options}{Privacy}{Cookies}{Exceptions}
Opera {Tools}{Preferences}{Advanced}{Cookies}{Manage cookies}
K-Meleon Edit}{Preferences}{Privacy}
SeaMonkey {Tools}{Cookie Manager}
To “clear” (erase) all cookies currently for the specified browser -
Internet Explorer {Tools}{Internet Options}{General}{Delete Cookies}
Firefox {Tools}{Clear Private Data}
Opera {Tools}{Preferences}{Advanced}{Cookies}
K-Meleon {Tools}{Privacy}{Clear Cookies}
SeaMonkey {Tools}{Cookie Manager}{Manage Stored Cookies}{Remove All Cookies}
To automatically clear all cookies whenever you exit the browser -
Internet Explorer Not available
Firefox {Tools}{Options}{Privacy}{Cookies}{Settings}…
Opera {Tools}{Preferences}{Advanced}{Cookies}
K-Meleon {Tools}{Privacy}{Settings}…
SeaMonkey Not available

My thanks to Howard Fosdick for the table - I have only Firefox & IE installed.