VB Programing support Access Database Microsoft Office VB.Net & SQL Server nev@NevVB.com.au Sydney, Australia (02) 9453-0456 Contact Details 28/01/2012
A Cookie is an extremely useful piece of information sent by a Web server to a user's browser. Cookies may include information such as login or registration identification, user preferences, online "shopping cart" information, etc. The browser saves the information, and sends it back to the Web server whenever the browser returns to the Web site. The Web server may use the cookie to customise the display it sends to the user, or it may keep track of the different pages within the site that the user accesses. Browsers may be configured to alert the user when a cookie is being sent, or to refuse to accept cookies. Some sites, however, cannot be accessed unless the browser accepts cookies.
Cookies do not act maliciously on computer systems. They are merely text files that can be deleted at any time – they are not plug ins nor are they programs. Cookies cannot be used to spread viruses and they cannot access your hard drive. This does not mean that cookies are not relevant to a user's privacy and anonymity on the Internet. Cookies cannot read your hard drive to find out information about you; however, any personal information that you give to a Web site, including credit card information, will most likely be stored in a cookie unless you have turned off the cookie feature in your browser. In only this way are cookies a threat to privacy. The cookie will only contain information that you freely provide to a Web site.
With the accumulation of many Cookies over time, much disc space will be wasted on your system (see the note "Get rid of junk files " in Disc Maintenance).
If you are worried about privacy, it is best to allow cookies to be written to your system only from sites that you trust. This then is how to restrict their creation, using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6.0: