A cookie is a tiny ID tag that many sites send to Web browsers. It means that the typical Net users give up a little bit of privacy when they surf the Net. Cookies allow many Web sites to greet you personally when you visit. Often they store passwords and personal information to save typing and make online shopping faster. Sites can use cookies to track where people go and what they do on their pages.
Critics complain that they are being silently watched.
Cookies became controversial among hardcore Net users when they first became popular in 1996 and 1997. Many flipped an obscure switch in the preference settings of Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer that made their software refuse them or alert users before accepting them. A few people have developed software to make them go away. Those looking for a quick dose of paranoia might want to dig up these files. Often hundreds of sites have passed some form of ID code along.