What is cookies sofware?

Question

cookies sofware

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you mean by "cookies software". Perhaps you're speaking of cookies removal software?

Cookies themselves are not inherently bad and all are not necessarily "spy cookies". Cookies are simply data files stored on your computer by your web browser. Websites use them to store temporary information such as authentication information, session information, site preferences, etc.. In fact, the site you are using right now (answers.yahooo.com) is storing cookies on your computer. Many sites require cookies to enable complete functionality of the site. They can be used by rogue websites to track what sites you browse, so they can be a privacy concern.

You do not, however, need to delete *all* your cookies simply because they are there. If you're concerned about privacy, you could download a program such as AdAware or Spybot. Both are free and both will notify you of "rogue cookies" and will delete them for you if you choose.

Answer 2

HTTP, the protocol used by internet web servers, is "connectionless".  Meaning that the web server has no way of connecting one web page with another (i.e. when you go to web page #1, and then you go to web page #2, the server has no way of knowning that this is still "you").  Cookies are a method of a web server saving a small bit of information on your computer's hard drive, which it can then look up later.  For example, when you first bring up a web page on their server, perhaps it assigns you a "session number", which it sends to you in the form of a cookie.  This is how a web server keeps track and is able to connect the dots between mouse clicks.

One problem with cookies is, any web server can read them.  They were intended to keep "session" type information, but that's not always how they are used.  Suppose you go to the web site of a car magazine, and that web site saves a cookie on your hard drive.  Then you go to say, CNN (I'm making this up for sake of example - I'm not saying CNN does this...).  CNN looks for and sees the cookie from the car magazine.  So now they know you are into cars and of the 12 different ads they might show you, they decide to show you the ad for a Chevy Malibu.  They can target their ads.  That, in and of itself, isn't really that sinister, but the very idea that some "big brother" type out there might be monitoring where you go on the internet bothers some people.   Some people setup their web browser to not allow cookies.  But, unfortunately this makes quite a number of web sites unusable.

Because cookies are viewed with such suspicion, and people do sometimes turn them off, web page authors have turned to something called a "transparent GIF".  Graphics files in GIF format have a "color" called "transparent"; the program rendering the GIF is supposed to subitute whatever background color is behind the GIF for that pixel (dot) on the screen.  What they do is they make a GIF file that has 1 pixel, and that 1 pixel is the color "transparent" (so that you don't see it on the web page).  GIF also has a section for "Comments", that you could edit and put in information like say your copyright, etc.  These transparent GIFs contain the session information in the comments.  That or each "session" gets it's own GIF, and by the very pathname of the GIF, the web server can figure out who you are (i.e. you are the same person who just clicked on web page #3, etc.).

Most cookies are pretty harmless, but do provide evidence of where you have been on the internet, which any web server can access.

Answer 3

cookies are called spy cookies. sometimes they will download onto your computer from random websites. DELETE THEM!

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