Cookies.....good or bad?

[goawayugh]

From what I understand, cookies store user information so websites can better configure themselves to you the next time you visit them. (like amazon showing recent searches). Which I think is very useful, and I like that.

I have also heard that cookies can be harmful.

Should I be leaving them on? or turning them off? Is there any major risk of leaving them on?

 

[Cromewell]

There's not much risk leaving them on. Cookies can only be read by the site that sets them so it's not like some site can steal your bank information from the cookie your banks website has set on your machine. Any personal information in the cookie you had to supply the site that set it.

 

[jv16]

A cookie is a piece of data a website can send to your browser to be saved on your computer. This allows many nice features, such as forums remembering your login details etc.

Only way cookies can be harmful is in a context of privacy. Some online advertising companies use cookies to track users to show them better ads in the future, and to monitor on what link paths visitors use to navigate on their sites. Some people could consider that as a violation of privacy.

 

[TFT]

Really it's just a personal thing, after a day's session I run Ccleaner and delete the whole lot as they can soon mount up into many MBytes.

I don't mind spending a little more time signing in again or whatever.