Computer cookie, temp file, question:

Factual Questions
1

I consider myself somewhat adapt at using Win98 and manuvering around the net. However, in my daily ritual of manually cleaning out the cookie folder and the temporary internet folder, two questions arose.

  1. Is this the best method to remove these files? Sometimes they reappear. Should I use the tools>option>clear method instead? I don’t want this crap on my computer in the first place.

  2. I keep seeing references to Doubleclick.com. in both my temp folder and cookie folder. Are these the same people/company I keep hearing about that are privacy invasive and all-around a-holes? I don’t click on any advertising so how do they get cookies onto my system. Worse, are they sending info about me and my surfing habits back to some big-brother mainframe?

Alot of questions, I know, but thanks for any input. I can’t stand how these companies take advantage of the less informed, but now I feel like they’ve gotten the better of me as well.

2

If you use Internet Explorer you can disable cookies. Go to:

Tools->Internet Options->Security(tab)->Custom Level(button)

Scroll down the list till you see a Cookies heading. There you can set Enable, Disable or Prompt.

Unfortunately many websites require Cookies to be enabled to enter. Your choice if those sites are worth it or not.

I don’t know abour the other stuff you mentioned but this should help.

3

To answer your questions:

[ol]
[li]It probably doesn’t matter which way you clear your cookies and temporary internet folder. The reason the files keep appearing is because your browser continually caches the pages you view in the temporary internet folder, and stores cookies you receive in your cookie file. There’s really no reason to delete the files in your temporary internet folder unless you’re running out of disk space. They don’t impinge on your privacy.[/li]
[li]Yes, and yes. Cookies get sent to your browser when it loads the advertisements themselves; you don’t need to click on them for it to happen. To guard your privacy I highly recommend using the Junkbuster proxy server. It filters out cookies and advertisements, and it’s free. You can get it here.[/li][/ol]

4

Use a cookie cleaner if you want from download.com

Search there for ‘cookie’

IE & Netscape have options to ‘never accept a cookie’

5

And Opera has an option to refuse cookies from specific domains, such as doubleclick.com.

6

You have to also disable javascript. Some of those ad companies are getting around Junkbuster by using java to post their ads on a rotating basis on a web page.

Junkbuster users, does this happen to you?. You see an ad on a new webpage that wastes ten seconds of your life to post. You add the domain of that offending ad to your blockfile. Then a different ad on the same spot pops up when you refresh the same webpage. You wonder: WTF? That’s javascript for you.

7

I use Junkbuster on my home machine with Java and Javascript turned on, and I haven’t noticed this happening. Even if the page uses Javascript, the connections to download the images should still be going through the proxy server. Do you remember a particular site which does this?