Norton Antivirus Just Reported A “tracking Cookie” Detected On My Comput. What Is “cookie”? How Do I Treat It?
As I am browsing the internet on my computer now, I got the above message. What is cookie? How could a cookie be tracking my computer and what for?
The antivirus also reported that, it requires attention. How do I take care of it?
I even noticed that, my computer just became much slower than usual, could it be responsible? What should I do?
A cookie is a file left in your computer that shows you were in a specific website and if you go to your http to type your web site in your site that you just visited would pop back up since that file was saved. However, not all cookies are good. As you found, the Norton program found a tracking cookie which sends information from your computer to somebody else who is tracking your browsing history. You will need to go to your tool bar in your Internet Explorer Go to Tools, Internet Options, General Tab, Browsing History and then delete and then delete all. Now, if that does not work, you will need another program like spybot or adaware which are free programs that remove those types of cookies, but make sure along the way you do not delete your windows files. Read the files that are listed as infected. Best of luck.
Cookies, can they be dangerous for your privacy?
“It is very important for every site recognize their visitors.”Recognition” helps for a site to perform such features as storage of perchases in internet-shops, it allows a user to be recognized by a site without entering name and password every time he or she goes to the page requiring registration. This mechanism is called session.
Any site requires authorization and checks visitor name and password only first time….”http://spyoverview.com/index.php?module=…
Basically a cookie is tracking device that gets stored on your computer after you visit a website usually cookies are harmless but they can also be used to track your browsing history.
Think of it this way, when you login to yahoo, there is the “remember me” option, if you select that and continue, you now have a cookie from yahoo telling them that you want to be remembered, so the next time you go to yahoo the cookie tells them them that since you selected that option you don’t have to manually login because of the cookie tells them of your choice so you get logged in automatically in the background. But in two weeks the cookie expires, meaning that it is now defunct, and then you start the process all over again.
This is from Wikipedia: Cookies are also subject to a number of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion that they are computer programs. In fact, cookies are simple pieces of data unable to perform any operation by themselves. In particular, they are neither spyware nor viruses, despite the detection of cookies from certain sites by many anti-spyware products.
Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies, but rejection makes some websites unusable. For example, shopping carts implemented using cookies do not work if cookies are rejected.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie
Download firefox it’s way more secure the IE,http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/. After you download firefox download Adblock https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox… then download all of these, I guarantee you that your computer performance will be much better, I use all of these myself,.
1 Ad-Aware 2008, Much more effective than previous versions and faster, does not suck up system resources like the previous versions, also there various skins to suit your preferences.http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2008/30…
2 Spybot – Search & Destroy, its a little out of date but it works.http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-De…
3 SpywareBlaster, blocks potentially damaging applications and programs from running.http://www.download.com/SpywareBlaster/3…
4 Simple File Shredder, it isn’t an anti spy, but it shreds unnecessary files including cookies and it speeds up system performance.http://www.download.com/Simple-File-Shre…
5 MRU-Blaster, detects and cleans MRU (most recently used) lists on your computer. By looking at these MRU lists, someone could determine what files you opened/saved/looked at, what their file names were, and much more! (And, in many cases, the lists are displayed in drop-down menus automatically.) (From website.)http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrublast…
I personally don’t like AVG, it screwed up my computer after I Un-Installed it, and avast didn’t work for me.
Hope this explained what a cookie is, what it does. and I hope the anti-virus programs help you.
go to best buy and buy WebRoot. Cookies are information stored in your pc so another pc can track where you go. They can also be stored info for a site to track where you have been in the site. this allows the link to change color or let you know you have already viewed it. these are the good cookies the first are the bad. try that ans see how the webroot works for ya.
i dont know but i got a cookie as well another anti virus of mine detected it 2 and got rid of it