The decision of when to delete cookies should be based on the security concerns of online activity, the speed of the Internet connection and which websites are frequently visited. Since browser cookies are intended to speed up the loading of frequently visited websites, as well as track individual website usage by a visitor, they have both positive and negative values. Many virus-scanning programs will find, as the primary source of their functionality, various tracking cookies that have been copied to users’ computers, and a setting to automatically delete cookies of this type is appropriate. While cookies are the most harmless file types detected by antivirus software, they are also installed without the user’s permission or knowledge and can cause security firewalls to fail. To increase the security of your computer, the best option is to delete cookies frequently.
Cookies store browsing data so that frequently visited websites load faster.
A periodic process of removing cookies from a computer usually resolves most concerns. Although cookies are designed to speed up access to a website, they primarily benefit the marketing aspects of the website itself and not the visitor. Cookies also take up very little space on a computer’s hard drive, as they are small text data files, so thousands of them can be stored on a contemporary personal computer without taking up noticeable space.
Although cookies are designed to speed up access to a website, they primarily benefit the marketing aspects of the website itself and not the visitor.
There are several different names for cookies, including hypertext transfer protocol cookie (HTTP cookie), web cookie, or browser cookie, but they are all stored as text files and have similar functions. Its main and original use, when internet speeds were much slower in the last few decades, was to track a visitor’s activity on a website for marketing and optimization purposes when the visitor returned later. This would allow for faster loading of web pages, targeted advertising to the specific interests of the visitor, and saved records of shopping cart data that was not pre-populated.
Cookies can open a security hole for hackers to obtain account information.
Website traffic tracking also allows for some customization if a user has filled out a form on the website, where they can be called by name, charts can be uploaded based on individual interests, and more. The main disadvantage of such marketing practices is that cookies are not secure files. If it contains sensitive information stored on the site or provided by the visitor, it can be easily read by anyone who knows where it is or by anyone who can capture it during its transfer over the Internet.
Cookies are actually real-time log files of a user’s specific time, date, and activity on a computer as the user interacts with websites. If accessing the Internet in a public or work environment, it is best to delete cookies after an Internet session ends to maintain privacy. If a user has never visited a website before, by default a cookie will be created on the first visit.
While browsers can be set to block the download of cookies, many websites claim that they won’t work or load properly if this feature is disabled. By themselves, cookies are fairly harmless, but they can open a security hole for hackers to obtain account information and can be a sophisticated storage record of Internet activity. The best practice to maintain security and privacy is to delete cookies at every opportunity.
Using the Delete Web History command is usually just the first step.
