I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more.

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). Google Chrome and Firefox users should consider the Click&Clean extension (Opens in a new window) (below) and use it to take care of cookies. How you do it depends on the desktop or mobile browser you're using. One option is to nuke all existing cookies. Yet letting every single cookie through compromises your privacy. The problem is, blocking or deleting all cookies is almost crippling to your web adventures. They're bad enough that Mozilla is blocking them by default in Firefox, and Google claims it'll phase them out entirely in a couple of years from the Chrome browser. This has long had privacy advocates up in arms, even though cookies typically do not collect any personalized information. Those can be used to look at where you're going whenever you visit a new website-tracking your moves, so to speak. When you visit a site, you may not get a cookie from just the server for that site, but also a tracking cookie from the advertisers on that site-that's called a third-party cookie.

Cookies also make it possible for online shopping carts to work without losing all your items before purchase.īut, cookies can also be used to track you. Most of the time, cookies are a good thing-without authentication cookies, you'd constantly be entering usernames and passwords as you visit websites, over and over, on every page. The cookie file gets read by the server on the other end of the connection. Maybe that's because his beloved snack food had its name co-opted back in the 1990s by the little data files that websites use to improve your experience.and track your activity.Ĭookies get stored on your computer when you use a web browser.

How to Set Up Two-Factor AuthenticationĬookies-what could be wrong with such deliciousness? Well, even a certain monster on Sesame Street is less into gluten these days.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.

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