Malware, which is short for malicious software, is any unwanted software that can harm a computer system or the data stored on a computer. Spyware is a type of malware that is deployed to a computer over the Internet without notice to or consent of the user, which basically tracks the user’s surfing behavior and sometimes gathers personally identifiable information about the user, and then provides all of this data to a third-party server.
So, Are Cookies Malware?
If you’re asking yourself, “Are cookies malware?”, then the answer is definitely no. In the first place, a cookie is not software. It’s just a small text file that contains details about your visit to a website. If you agreed to have that website remember your login details, then the cookie will contain that information as well your preferences so you don’t have to keep on entering information to the site whenever you return to it.
In this case, which is normally how cookies are used, cookies are good and help make a better Web browsing experience. They are also used to get feedback about the performance of a site and are very important for e-commerce sites to remember what products you looked at and added to your cart.
So What’s the Big Deal?
Why, then, are cookies malware to some people? Cookies are sometimes considered malware when they are used maliciously by third parties to track your online activities, usually for the purpose of targeted advertising. Again, tracking cookies and cookies in general will not be able to run any program or cause your computer to crash or hack your online accounts, or cause any such harm to your system.
However, if have any concerns about using cookies, you can control how your browser accepts or blocks cookies. You can delete cookies on your Mac or PC by changing the cookie preferences of your Web browser. Each browser will have different specific steps to configure the level of cookie acceptance.
Need Computer Help?
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