Many of the nuisances of Internet security comes from browser features that have been compromised. Cookies are a bitter-sweet part of our Internet experience.

First, what cookies are for... Cookies store information on your computer related to a particular web site you visit. They track your online sessions related to finance & membership -- where you go and what you do. When you start building a shopping cart or put in login credentials for a web site, you are keeping cookies on your computer. They differentiate your session from someone else's. Without cookies, it would not be as easy as it is to update your finances or purchase things from an online store. They also keep track of pages you visit, what and what you do on them.

What makes cookies an issue is specifically, the ability for sites to obtain information in cookies on your system. With proper login passwords (I'll cover this more in the "Passwords" section), Windows will secure most of the cookies. But,...

3rd Party cookies are handled differently. Unlike cookies tracking you around a particular site, they are from a diff rent site that is "trusted" by the one you are on. An example is when you go to a web site that has ad banners on it. Those ad banners are typically hosted by a different company... a 3rd party. They are there to get paid. If, you click on an ad, the 3rd party collects from that advertiser, and gives a percentage to the web site you are on. Just because the ad banners are on the site you want to be on, the 3rd party servers get privileges to see those cookies. They contain who you are and what you did on that site). The problem comes when you go to another site that is using ad banners from the same company. They now have privileges to cookies from both sites. Now, the 3rd party company can merge that data on you from both sets of cookies for a more detailed portfolio on you.

The dilemma with 3rd party cookies is that a site that has a separate server to track logging information can be considered a 3rd party server. So, it is possible to block these cookies and disable logging into a legitimate site properly. If that happens, you can always turn them back on. Below, I'll show how to find the settings in Internet Explorer. You can do this in Mozilla's browser, as well as Firefox...

• In Internet Explorer, choose Internet Options from the Tools menu:
  
• Select the Privacy tab, and click the Advanced button:
  
• Select the Override box, and make these changes (to block):
  

As usual, practice the safest surfing habits possible.