Users of other operating systems may have to invest in third party products that intercept cookies. An anonymizing proxy that removes cookies, referer information, and other identifying information from your URL requests. Runs as a Java applet within the browser. An anonymizing proxy that removes cookies, referer information, and other identifying information from your URL requests. In addition to the privacy issues, cookies carry security implications as well.
Many sites use cookies to implement access control schemes of various sorts.
For example, a subscription site that requires a user name and password might pass a cookie back to your browser the first time you log in. Thereafter, the site will give you access to restricted pages if your browser can produce a valid cookie, basically using the cookie as an admission ticket. This can have several advantages for the site, not the least of which is that it can avoid the overhead of looking up your user name and password in a database each and every time you access a page. However, unless this type of system is implemented carefully, it may be vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous third parties. For instance, an eavesdropper armed with a packet sniffer could simply intercept the cookie as it passes from your browser to the server, using it to obtain free access to the site.