Your data trail on the Net is leaving prints in the digital sand known as "cookies". Many people are fearful of cookies as they believe they can carry viruses and are an invasion of privacy. But cookies exist to make your life easier not more difficult, once you understand what they are and how they work.

Cookies ingredients
Cookies are text files sent to a directory on your system that was created by your web browser. Cookies are "baked" up by web sites you visit. A cookie may contain information about what pages you visited or your ID and password for that particular site, if one is required. Cookies are stored for a period of time determined by the creator of the cookie. This time may last for months or years.

Cookies at work
accommodation in WindermereCookies are particularly useful for sites where a registration process is encountered. After the registration is complete, a cookie including the login information is sent to your computer in the form of a cookie. This cookie can then be accessed by the web site that created it and is able to extract the data, thus permitting easy access to the registered area.

Some cookies can also be made secure in that they will not be sent back to the server that created them unless there is a secure connection through using a specific security protocol.

Finding your cookies
Want to see a cookie? Netscape stores cookies in a file which is called "cookies.txt" and "MagicCookie" on Macintosh systems. Microsoft Internet Explorer stores cookies in a directory under Windows called cookies (c:\windows\cookies - where 'c' is your hard drive letter). Each cookie has it's own .txt (text) file.

ERROR MSGHere is what a typical cookie entry may look like.

online.guardian.co.uk FALSE / FALSE 886375601 Apache mike28869348593811960

Cookie monsters
There is fear on the Net from some who believe that the automatic placement of information on your computer's hard drive (such as a cookie) is a bad thing. There is no reason to throw your arms up in the air in anger when it comes to the delivery of a cookie to your computer.

Cookies were originally developed to make life easier in eliminating repetitive ID and password entry to specific sites. Now, cookies are being used to monitor what you are viewing at a particular site as well as indicating personal choices and preferences. This data can then be used by the web site development company to create a better site. In many cases however, it is used to attract advertisers and deliver some demographic information about their users.

Virus alert!
Cookies CANNOT carry viruses as they are not executable files. That is to say that they are not a program and are merely text data. There are more significant loopholes on the Internet to worry about rather than cookies.

Stopping cookies
If you would like to stop cookies, there are few ways to do it. Most current web browsers have an option in their preferences that notifies you when any cookie activity is occurring.

You could delete the contents of the cookie.txt file or "cookie" directory and delete all the personal information from your web browser.

You could also download one of a number of programs that allow you to manage, observe and delete actions relating to the movement of cookies to and from your computer.

ERROR MSGWhile cookies continue to develop, one problem will persist with no solution in sight. That is that cookies are used to identify the computer and not the user. Those who use more than one computer will find a helpful cookie on one computer and not on the other.

Cookie sites