The cookie is used to identify you the next time you revisit a site. When you revisit the site the cookie remembers your user name and saves you the bother of typing it again. Other sites use cookies to customise their appearance to your tastes or to target advertising based on your surfing habits. Many Web surfers who fear that cookies could harm their computer by introducing viruses or logic bombs, force their browser to reject any attempt to store a cookie. The fear is misdirected.
Cookies are small pieces of text and harmless.
But leave cookies turned on and reap the benefits of Web sites that remember you. Next week, in the last of this series, we'll look at how to stay anonymous on the Net by hiding in a crowd. John Graham-Cumming designs software to manage computer networks.