Can computer cookies be harmful?
Most cookies are harmless. They recognize you so that options and preferences that you have chosen in the past are used for your current visit to the site. But, in one of their malevolent forms, cookies from one web site might track your visits to a different web site. For example, most of the ads that you see on Web sites do not come from the site that you are viewing, but from sites that provide ads to many sites. When the advertising site displays the ad, it can send cookies on your computer. This lets the advertising company track your Web usage over a range of sites and profile your browsing habits.
