If you’re wondering what cookies are, you’ve come to the right place. Cookies are tiny pieces of data stored on your system’s hard drive. In Internet Explorer, for example, you can look at cookie files by clicking the Tools menu, then selecting Internet Options. Under “Browser History,” click the “View Files” tab. You’ll see a list of cookies and temporary internet files in the window. Each cookie contains the site’s name that placed it on your system. Once you’ve seen these files, you can decide which cookies to keep and delete those you don’t.
Although many users dislike that cookies follow them online, they can improve the browsing experience for everyone. For example, websites use cookies to track a user’s shopping cart. Otherwise, the cart would reset each time a user clicks a link. Cookies are also used by websites to remember your login information. If you’ve visited a certain site before, you’ve likely added items to your cart.
Web browsers are designed to save your preferences and make it easier to find similar content in the future. However, some sites may collect personal information on their visitors, such as names and email addresses. In this way, they can better target advertisements. To prevent this, you can enable Do Not Track or privacy settings on your browser. Browsers that allow this setting may block cookies used by advertisers. So, when browsing the internet, remember to check what your browser allows when setting cookies.
