Manage Your Cookies for Smooth, Safe Surfing
Do your favorite websites keep forgetting your name and password? Do
you forever have to reset your preferences? A website "remembers" you
by the "cookies" it leaves on your hard drive. So whenever you delete
all your cookies, websites no longer recognize your computer and they
"forget" your preferences and options. You can manage these cookies for
smoother, more convenient surfing.
1. How cookies work
Each website you visit deposits a tiny identifying file (a cookie) onto
your hard drive. Some sites give you another cookie every time you
visit them. Websites use these cookies to remember you.
We have been warned to delete all cookies regularly. That is not the
very best advice, however. When you remove ALL cookies, you lose the
good cookies with the bad.
Every time you log onto a website, it looks up your cookies, sets up
your preferences, perhaps even logs you in. Your chosen options are
ready to use as soon as you connect and your web page always looks
right (familiar).
In addition to the cookie you collect when you enter a site, expect
another one whenever you fill out an online form, or register with your
email address and password. Yes, you surrender another bit of your
privacy, but it can be a good trade-off if you log onto a number of
websites regularly.
A data base at the web server stores your preferences. On your own
computer, you see only a short text file named something like:
"smith@abcdef[1].txt". The content of a cookie file resembles a couple
of lines of jumbled numbers and letters. To the data base, this is
fascinating stuff!
2. How to manage your cookies
We hear about cookies that track our every move, reporting back to some
evil empire. Yes, there are "bad" cookies that learn our habits and
tastes, then deluge us with individually targeted advertising.
"Thwart this by deleting all cookies from your computer once a week,"
the advice sounds: "Go to your Cookies folder and delete everything in
it!" they tell you. But that deletes the useful cookies, too. You then
lose functionality that you have come to rely on.
How do you delete unwanted cookies while keeping the helpful ones?
There is a hard way and an easy way of doing this.
2. a. The hard way to manage cookies
Go to your Cookies folder. Look at the name of each file; is it a
website that you use all the time? Then let it be. If the name is
unfamiliar, do you then delete it? You can never score 100% on this
test. You will still delete some useful cookies. Even worse, using this
method, you will likely repeat the same mistakes on your next purge.
If you are adept at computers, you can open these files and gain
slightly more information from them, especially one with a meaningless
name like: "smith@ig[1].txt". Opening this one shows the word "Google"
in the encoded string. Since the text reveals no more than that, you
should assume nothing more. (Actually, this one sets preferences within
a personalized Google Homepage) Remember, too, that it is not unusual
to have several cookies from the same site, numbered [1], [2], etc.
2. b. The easy way to manage cookies
Use one of the free cookie management programs. WinPatrol is an
excellent choice. Its free version is exceptionally good for managing
cookies, and it is fun to use.
The cookie manager lists your cookies alongside check boxes. Recognize
a cookie as one to keep? Set a check in its box. When you have gone
through all the cookies, you can delete all the unchecked ones with a
single click.
Next time, you will have a base on which to build: all the checked
cookies were previously vetted. Now you are only making decisions on
the new, unchecked, cookies. Each time, you keep refining your results.
3. How to recover from deleting a good cookie
Suppose after cleaning up your Cookie folder, ABCDEF.INFO no longer
logs you in automatically; here is your recovery plan:
At ABCDEF.INFO, set up your login again. Then close your browser. Open
your Cookies folder immediately to look for any cookies bearing the
name ABCDEF (e.g., smith@abcdef[1].txt) and make a note to keep those.
Now test the site; does it log you in again automatically?
Using a cookie management program, the procedure is the same except
that the software opens the Cookie folder for you. Then a simple check
mark saves the cookie. See how much easier it is with a cookie
management utility?
Your computer collects "good" cookies that make your internet
experience smoother. It also accumulates "bad" cookies that may spy on
you. Now you know how to manage those cookies.