Cookies- annoying or effective?

For me annoying.

Have you noticed when you are at many websites nowadays that you see the same ads you see on other websites? How do they do that? Tracking cookies.

What made me notice is that yesterday, as I was checking out propane mosquito traps for yesterday's blog, I went to Mosquito Magnet. Later in the evening, there was an ad for Mosquito Magnet at that new site. I'm checking out a news article today, and there are two Mosquito Magnet banner ads! I'm not the slightest bit interested for myself, especially after blogging about a camper that burned to the ground because of a propane mosquito trap (that may or may not have been of this brand). Am I destined to see Mosquito Magnets forever - or until I delete my cookies?

And, I checked out the age of items that Zulilly carries. They have a darling little toddler in the ad and their clothes are more for babies. I don't even have grandchildren in the age range, it turns out, but now Zullilly is popping up. Intrepid Travel, a company I like and have traveled with, has banner ads on many sites I visit. It is getting annoying!

Many sites require cookies, which store information about you. A couple of paragraphs from Yahoo! Answers:

Cookies are just small .txt (text) files that by themselves cannot hurt your computer. Cookies are "set" by almost EVERY web-site that you visit, on every visit. You can delete all your cookies today and by tomorrow you will have dozens again just by visiting web-sites.

These tracking cookies are "3rd party cookies" from advertising servers. They can track your movements around the web in order to deliver to you customized, targeted advertising.

You can delete all your cookies, which means you may have to reenter information at a site. Or you can delete selected cookies. I just went through my list and was amazed at the number and from sites I had visited once. In Firefox, under Tools/Options/Privacy you can check a box telling websites to not track you and to delete all or selected cookies. For Internet Explorer:

...a simple change of a setting can let you permanently block all 3rd party (tracking) cookies. (Much easier then constantly removing them!) Go to tools > internet options > privacy > advanced > check-mark "override automatic cookie handling" > third party cookies > tick "block" > ok > ok.

Now let's see if some of these annoying ads go away. Sigh.... Jaimie Hall Bruzenak

Comments

[Lindig Harris]

Another option is in Firefox Preference / Privacy.
Click: accept 3rd-party cookies
Click: keep until I close Firefox
(so you start fresh every time)
AND
click: Clear history when I close Firefox
ALSO
click: DO Not Track

[Jaimie Hall Bruzenak]

Thanks for the additional information, Lindig. I have Firefox- will check them out.

Jaimie

[Ingledsva]

Just download "Do Not Track Plus," Which is free - and the free "CookieWall."

Do Not Track - stops all tracking cookies - though you have to open it and click on FaceBook and Twitter and "choose" to block them - as apparently people have them linked to so many programs. I did this and it works great.

CookieWall grabs all cookies trying to set on your computer - and pops up a message giving you the options to - always accept - Temporary accept (for sites that require cookies for use, but you don't want to keep them) - and always delete (which keeps a list.)

[Jaimie Hall Bruzenak]

Thanks for the information. I'll check those out.

Jaimie

[Lindig]

I have Do Not Track + and just checked the stats. It's blocked 25,000 tracking attempts. Yes!

[Jaimie Hall Bruzenak]

Excellent! Now I do have to try it.

Jaimie