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Please note that this advices is now quite old.
1. Ways of Handling Cookies.
Again, “cookies” are electronic tags that are placed on the hard drive of a user’s computer by websites he or she visits. Currently available to users are a number of options to: (1) alert them as to when a cookie is placed on their hard drive, (2) block the placement of a cookie altogether, or (3) remove cookies from the user’s hard drive. A few of these options are described below:
a. Internet Browser Settings.
| Newer browsers like Firefox give individuals great control of whether cookies can be placed on your computer and by which websites. Check on your menu bar TOOLS > OPTIONS > PRIVACY |
New technology permits Internet users to see when a cookie is about to be planted on their system and make an informed choice about whether to accept it or reject it. With current versions of leading browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, a user can select to have an alert box flash on the screen to inform them whenever a server is trying to place a cookie on their system. Some sites, however, send cookies for every object the user clicks on the page, requiring the user to reject cookies dozens of times for a single web page.
b. Manual Deletion Of Cookies
Using Browser Files. Internet users can locate and delete cookies that already have been placed on their computer by websites. In Netscape Navigator, the cookies are stored in a single file called “cookies.txt.” This file generally is in the directory the user previously designated for Netscape to use for storing user profiles. To delete all cookies, find the “cookies.txt” file, highlight it, and
delete it. To delete a specific cookie, open the file “cookies.txt” with an editor or word processor, and delete the line corresponding to the cookie you wish to delete. For Internet Explorer, find the
directory called “Cookies.” To delete all cookies, delete all the files in the directory. To delete a specific cookie, find the file in the directory corresponding to the cookie and delete that file.
c. Cookie-Cutters.
Various technology-based tools exist for coping with unwanted cookies. Examples of these include “NSClean”41 and “IEClean” for Windows 95/NT programs, “AdSubtract” for Windows, Macintosh and Unix, “Cookie Jar 2.0" for Unix, “Internet Junkbuster Proxy” for Windows 9X and Windows NT, “Cookie Cruncher,” “Cookie Manager,” “Privacy Companion,” and “WebWasher for Windows and Macintosh”... [Senate Report continues on to describe these products]
- Know the Rules Use the Tools, Privacy in the Digital Age: A Resource for Internet Users, US Senate Judiciary Committee, p. 11-12 (n.d.)
| Cookies | Dealing With Cookies |
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