| Part 1-Your Private Data | Part 4a-Web Browser Cookies |
| Part 2-Web Browsing History | Part 4b-Managing Cookies |
| Part 3-Web Browser Cache | Part 5-Erasing Your Private Data |
Web browser cookies have become commonplace and unavoidable in common Web browsing tasks.
In the most basic sense, the term "cookie", when applied to computers, refers to a piece of information that is stored by one system, and used solely by another. These are also known as "magic cookies", and are useless to the system that stores them. They are only read and changed by "the other system".
As each "magic cookie" is intended to be stored as a separate file, Web browsers will usually store them in separate files as well. Security scanning programs (virus or ad scanners) can be used to find and delete cookies more easily this way. These files can also be opened in a text editor.
Cookies are useful for keeping track of user preferences and sessions. Unless you have an account at a Web site, the site has no reliable way of keeping track of you other than by using cookies. If you do have an account on the Web site, this information can be stored on the Web site instead of your computer. Web sites may try to keep their tracking systems simple by only using cookies, though.
There are plenty of other things that cookies can be used for. They can be used to keep track of certain Web sites you visit, or to keep a list of items in your 'Shopping Cart' on a Web site. If you instruct a site to change your display or language options, most likely a cookie will be stored on your computer with this information.
Most concerns stem from a Web site's ability to track a user's activites on the Internet. Please find a more detailed explanation of cookies at Webopedia's "What You Need To Know About Cookies" page.
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