Cookies are small text files that contain cryptic information about online activity, i.e. The sites you visit and the things you do while on those sites. A web browser saves these cookies on an individual’s computer so that they may be accessed later on by visiting the same site again or on another site with which it is affiliated. Cookies can store an insane amount of personal preferences, session keys, log-in details for saved accounts, etc. They’re what keep us logged in to our favorite websites or allow us to remain logged into Facebook or Twitter without having to reenter our username and password every time we want to view a page.

Cookies and their effects on your internet browsing experience and security:

You might not realize it, but cookies are the reason why when you search for ‘Britney Spears’ on Google Images, you get so many photos of her. If you haven’t disabled or deleted your cookies recently. They have stored your search preferences from previous searches resulting in more relevant searching. That is the good news. The bad news is that if someone stole your laptop, tablet, or phone containing all of these stored cookies. They could access any site associated with them, including Facebook or Twitter accounts which are often linked up to e-mail addresses. Do you see why cookies are important now? They’re essentially keys to the virtual doors of websites across the internet where individuals store their precious information.

The World Wide Web has come a long way since its inception in 1989, and so have the means of hijacking another’s identity or conducting cyber espionage. It makes cookies such great tools for hackers and legitimate businesses who use them to track your browsing behavior. Some people use this data to target advertisements based on past preferences. While others blatantly steal passwords or credit card numbers by retrieving cookies from recently viewed websites. Cookies make it super easy for those with malicious intent to gather additional information about you and deviously take advantage of your data and level of security online. If you’re worried about internet privacy and state-sponsored surveillance, then becoming familiar with how cookies work and taking measures to delete or at least control their function should be part of your internet surfing workflow. Here is what you should know about cookies and how to handle them:

Different Types of Cookies:

There are two types of cookies:

1) Session Cookies:

 When a user browses an internet site, they temporarily store information about its activity on that site. A session cookie will generally last until you leave the site, or it expires after a set period or number of page views.

2) Persistent Cookies:

These cookies are saved to your computer for a preset length of time determined itself. And can range from days to decades. Note that these aren’t just random numbers either because websites go through great lengths to ensure that their persistent cookies will never expire. Take Facebook, for instance; if you ever wondered why some people show up in your ‘People, You May Know list. Even when you have not been on FB in months, it’s because they have a persistent cookie on your computer linked to your Facebook profile that lasts forever until you manually delete it.

 How to Delete Your Cookies?

If you want to rid yourself of all of these pesky tracking tools in one fell swoop, you can go into your browser settings and clear the entire history. Which includes cookies for a particular site. But unless you have been extremely negligent in managing your online identity. Or is obsessively paranoid about privacy, this might not be necessary for most people who surf the web. You can delete individual cookies by going to Tools > Internet Options > General Tab and clicking on ‘Delete’ under ‘Browsing History‘, but if there are many, this task could take some time. Better yet, consider installing a plug-in specializing in managing cookies because clearing all of them will often break many sites that rely on their presence to function properly.

Conclusion:

As you can see, cookies are one of the most important components to browsing the internet for entertainment or commerce. However, this convenience comes with significant risks because many people use it maliciously. To monitor user activity and steal sensitive information. Stay safe by deleting your unwanted cookies, limiting their functionality with the browser plug-in. And only entering personal information into secure sites that begin with HTTPS (the ‘s’ stands for secure). If you liked learning how websites store information on your computer. Using cookies, feel free to share it via social media.

Author Bio:

Sarah has been writing for a decade and now for the Quran teacher near me Website. She obtained her Master’s degree at the University of London. Her main objective is to write insightful content for those who read and like it.