Cookies can also store information to automatically log you into a members
page for sites like the Science Fiction Book Club (
www.sfbc.com).
Cookies can only be used for identity theft if you already gave that
information to a questionable site that stored that information in the
cookie. They cannot interrogate the computer for the information. in
fact, they cannot do anything by themselves.
--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/
"Alan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:044501c5a21b$3c87b2f0$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Most cookies, like the ones used by Google, Yahoo, and
> MSN are used to store personal preferences, nothing
> more. These cookies make it possible to store the
> preferences for that domain on your system, have the
> domain access the cookie and use it to set the
> preferences so you don't have to re-enter your prefered
> settings. Take the settings for google.com, if you
> removed the cookie for google, you will have to change
> the preferences to what you want, have google store the
> cookie on your system and then use it. This is the same
> for the other two domains as well, not to mention
> thousands more domains.
>
> The cookies that are a threat are those that store
> personally identifiable information. These cookies can
> lead to identity theft. The real purpose for using an
> antispyware application is to help prevent this from
> happening.
>
> Most tracking cookies are third-party in nature, meaning
> they are from another host domain than the one you are
> visiting. Usually these cookies are from advertisers the
> web site's owner(s) have sold space on their pages for
> advertising purposes. This is how many of these sites
> recoup the money they are spending developing and running
> the site. The thing about these type of cookies is,
> unless they contain personally identifiable information,
> they only can dislose your surfing habits to the
> advertiser who stored the cookie on your system. One big
> note is that only the host domain that stored the cookie
> on your system can read it. However, you will hear
> things to the contrary, just don't buy into this
> rubbish. The way the cookie is stored tells your web
> browser who stored it, hence who has access to read it.
> Some security flaws regarding cookies might have existed
> in the past, but new browsers have patched these security
> flaws. This means that the cookie can only be read by
> the host domain that stored it on your system, as I said
> earlier.
>
> Alan
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>as you all know by now that most standalone antispyware
>>utilities include cookie detection. But some Antispyware
>>utilities refuses to add such features because they
>>believe it's not a threat. So this confuses many people
>>who's right and wrong and who to believe because many
>>people have different perspective on cookie.
>>
>>IS COOKIE A Threat or NOT A Threat? It won't hurt your
>>computer at all but it will collect informations.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>.
>>
Similar Threads
