However, if your visits to these sites result in escalating insurance premiums due to your categorization as a smoker - now you're beginning to get concerned. Proponents maintain that the technology is not a gross privacy threat. Because cookies attach themselves not to people but to computers and because several people may share one computer, no single individual's anonymity is compromised. But users often voluntarily surrender anonymity when they register for services or sign guestbooks in order to get site access. A frustrating aspect of all this is that you can't find out what is being said about you, even on your own hard drive.
Information is encrypted in code that only the site can decipher.
Unfortunately, there is nothing to prevent your favorite news service from joining forces with your favorite cyber-bookstore and exchanging codes. If you spend time reading crime news, don't be surprised to find a manual on crime prevention prominently displayed on the bookseller's homepage during your next visit. There are other ways cookies can be used to get a wide-angle view of your Web activities. Internet advertising agencies that place banners on many websites can slip you a cookie capable of recording your activity at every site on which their ads appear. The big browser makers, Netscape and Microsoft, have yet to build in features that allow users to satisfactorily manage their cookie intake.