Danger #7: Cookies and Tracking Cookies

Cookies are small text files that many websites use to store very small amounts of data on your PC. For example, if you use the "Customise This Site" option you'll find in the link on the left had side of this page, our website will use a cookie to store your website colour preferences, whether your want to see the date and time and so on, on your PC. And when you next visit our site this information is automatically read by our systems and used to make sure that our website is shown in the way you want. Our systems may also use cookies to store information like the search engine you used to find our site, or the address of the site containing an advert for us (which you clicked on). This information is used by us to help us figure out which search engines are providing the best results for us, and which websites or adverts are working best for us. Cookies like this are totally harmless and are not a security or privacy threat.

But there are other uses for cookies: For example the ad syndicates whose adverts you see when visiting some websites (including ours) often use what's known as "tracking cookies", also known as "third party cookies". These cookies can be used to see if you re-visit that website, visit or re-visit a different website also containing adverts from the same or an associated syndicate, and visit or re-visit the website of a company whose advert was displayed on a website and on which you clicked to find out more. This practice is generally harmless and can actually be very useful: Imagine that you see an advert on a website. You find it interesting so click on it and are transferred to the advertiser's website. You have a look around but you don't buy anything or sign up for something immediately. But then, at some point in the future, you go back to that website and you do buy something. If a tracking cookie was used by the advertiser then the owner of the original website you visited (the one containing the advert you clicked on) can be given a commission for the sale (if this is part of the advertising contract).

However it is possible for tracking cookies to used to build up a very detailed picture of the types of sites you visit over time. For example, if an ad syndicate uses tracking cookies and has adverts on a lot of the sites you visit, it is possible for them to use cookies to build up a list of the addresses of all the website containing their adverts that you visited, when you visited them, in what order and so on. But there is no way to link you, as an individual with a name and address, with any or all those websites or any of that data. And as such this does not represent a real privacy or security threat as all that is known is that *someone* has visited these particular sites, in a particular order, on particular dates and times (though it should be noted that some people would disagree that this does not represent a privacy threat).

But if you actually buy something from one of the advertisers promoted by such a company, it is then theoretically possible for a link to be made between your name and address to the data that has been collected, as you'll have provided your name and address when purchasing. However in order to do this the owner of the website that you used to purchase the product would have to pass your personal information to the company doing the tracking, and this would probably be illegal in most cases and is therefore unlikely to occur as long as you buy from reputable companies. So again it is not really something to worry about too much (again some would disagree with this view).

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The bottom line is that unless you are paranoid about your privacy, in our opinion there's no harm in cookies or even tracking cookies as long as you don't visit websites that are off the beaten track.. And if you are paranoid about your privacy you can always configure your Web Browser (e.g. Internet Explorer) to either refuse all cookies or to refuse all cookies from "third parties" (which would include tracking cookies).

Completely disabling cookies can cause you problems when surfing the Internet, however, as many websites make use of cookies for a number of very useful and non-threatening reasons and may not work at all with them disabled (this is particularly true of sites with online shopping baskets). We therefore suggest you do not completely disable cookies, and only disable third party cookies completely if you really, really must and are really worried about your privacy. In fact we strongly recommend (if you use Internet Explorer as your web browser) that you leave the default "Medium" Security setting in place (From Internet Explorer click on Tools, then Internet Options, then click on the Security Tab to change settings). "Medium" provides a sensible level of privacy and will not prevent websites from working, and under normal circumstances it will only allow normal cookies (which are usually completely safe) and third party cookies that do not contain personally identifiable data to be stored on your PC. However, for enhanced security you may wish to try the Medium High mode as it provides even better privacy protection, but please be aware that unfortunately this mode is likely to stop some websites from working correctly.

In fact if you are really concerned about your privacy in our opinion the best option of all is to leave your Internet Browser cookie settings on "medium" and use a spyware/privacy/adware removal tool. Since these can be considered a privacy threat, most spyware and adware programs detect and remove most third party cookies for you, without you having to change your browser settings.

For more information on cookies, what they are and how they work, please visit the Webopedia.com definition of a cookie The page also has links to additional information on the subject. Alternatively why not visit www.howstuffworks.com/cookie.htm which also provides some interesting information on cookies.

You may also like to watch the following YouTube.com video, produced by Google, which explains what cookies are, how they work, and what they do: Google Privacy: A look at cookies

And for more even more information on how cookies work, along with information on how to configure Internet Explorer to reject third party cookies, try visiting: www.cookiecentral.com/faq/

And that brings us to the end of our exploration of the dangers and threats that the Internet can pose to users. We hope you have found it useful. But please remember that what we describe on these pages is merely our opinion of what the most important things you need to know and do in order to keep your Internet experience as safe as possible. You should therefore not treat it as a definitive text on Internet security, nor as being necessarily 100% accurate, but instead simply as a general guide. And don't be too alarmed by what you've read either: By following our advice, especially in relation to Viruses, you should be as protected as any individual possibly can be on the Internet.

NOTE: What we describe on these pages is merely our opinion of what the most important things you need to know and do in order to keep your Internet experience as safe as possible. You should therefore not treat it as a definitive text on Internet security, nor as being necessarily 100% accurate, but instead simply as a general guide.

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