When you surf the Internet, Web sites you visit will pick up little tidbits of information from you, including information about your purchasing history at that site, your favorite topics, your favorite screen colors, or other items. Is this borderline intrusiveness worth the risk?
Cookies aren't inherently bad. So, before you panic, keep in mind that if you have the proper security settings and anti-virus, anti-adware, and anti-spyware software in place, a Web site can’t easily uncover personal information about you unless you supply it yourself. The majority of information collected at Web sites without your knowledge is harmless data about your preferences when you visit. This information is stored as a text file, called a cookie, which is stored on your computer in the Cookies folder. Each time you visit, the Web site can give you more personalized treatment because of the cookie. Cookies can be used to remember your computer configuration (you use Windows XP or Vista, for instance) or a password you created at the site from which the cookie is sent, just to give you a couple of examples.
Most cookies that Web sites send out and use to make surfing more customized are generally harmless, but sometimes additional information is provided to Web sites unwittingly. Consider this: you purchase something online, and during the transaction you give out your phone number, address, full name, credit card numbers, passwords, and more. If you create a user account and/or password, you also give the Web site permission to collect information about you and your surfing habits while you are visiting. If you’ve configured any of the “My” pages from MSN, Yahoo!, or other service, these companies might know even more (but no more than you’ve told them). Have you created a customized home page at Yahoo! or a similar site? If you have, you might have also configured a “personal profile” and gladly provided information about your age, sex, hobbies, income, and even marital status. That information is public!
The point here is that any information you supply will be collected, stored, and used by someone. You need to be careful about handing out information at sites you don’t trust. You should read the agreements you so eagerly accept when creating a password or sign-on name. With that bit of warning out of the way, and knowing that we can’t control what information you give at Web sites, we can show you how to control what anonymous and/or personal information is collected from you without your knowledge or consent.
