WHAT IS A TRACKING COOKIE????

Question

I'm using AVG free scan and it's telling me that I have a tracking cookie, actually several of them on my computer. What is this and what does it do? Does this mean I have a virus?

Answer 1

Ok I have the same thing I have AVG too and it also sadi the same On my computer I believe that all the cookies on your computer some how one of them are like trying to get in some kind of way and duplicate

you should go to tools-internet options-and delete cookies and internet files

Its not a virus but Like a warning that can happen this can probably heal it

Answer 2

It depends. There are malignant and benign tracking cookies.

Some websites attach a tracking cookie to you, so they know who you are when you access their site. This means that it'll store the user names, passwords, e-mails, information and whatnot you use on that site. These are good tracking cookies.

There are bad ones, too. Ones that track what you do, where you do it, how long you were doing it for, ship out your information, so on and so forth.

It's not technically a virus, although cookies can spy on you and relay information to other people or other websites.

Check to see where the cookie is located. Usually it'll give you the address it's attached to. If it's a website you frequent, chances are it's okay. If it's not, delete it.

Just to be safe, I'd clear all my cookies anyway.

Answer 3

HTTP cookies, or more commonly referred to as Web cookies, tracking cookies or just cookies, are parcels of text sent by a server to a web client (usually a browser) and then sent back unchanged by the client each time it accesses that server. HTTP cookies are used for authenticating, session tracking (state maintenance), and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences or the contents of their electronic shopping carts. The term "cookie" is derived from "magic cookie," a well-known concept in UNIX computing which inspired both the idea and the name of HTTP cookies.

It is important to understand that cookies are pieces of information temporarily stored at a user PC (harddrive), and that is why they can be used for further various, good and malicious, purposes.

Because they can be used for tracking browsing behavior, cookies have been of concern for Internet privacy. As a result, they have been subject to legislation in various countries such as the United States, as well as the European Union. Cookies have also been criticized because the identification of users they provide is not always accurate and because they could potentially be a target of network attackers. Some alternatives to cookies exist, but each has its own uses, advantages, and drawbacks.

Cookies are also subject to a number of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion that they are computer programs. In fact, cookies are simple pieces of data unable to perform any operation by themselves. In particular, they are neither spyware nor viruses, despite the detection of cookies from certain sites by many anti-spyware products.

Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies, but rejection makes some websites unusable. For example, shopping carts implemented using cookies do not work if cookies are rejected.