What are cookies? How do I enable cookies in my browser?

In our time it is difficult to imagine at least one person without a computer or laptop. Accordingly, the computer literacy of the population is gradually reaching already decent values. Of particular importance is the ability to work with Internet browsers, since 99% of the time that a modern person spends on a computer, he sits on the Internet.

But not everyone knows what cookies are. But their inclusion or shutdown often requires the sites you visit! So what is it and what are they for?

Introduction

Surely, you are registered at least on one site. If so, then is not it interesting to you how the site determines the fact of your visit, so as not to force you to re-enter the registration data? It is for this that cookies are responsible. Simply put, these are small files that store user data.

In particular, these files have your login and password, your mailing address and other information if they are needed to enter a particular site. That's what cookies are. They facilitate and simplify the work with the site, allowing you not to enter the identity data at each visit.

But they contain not only information on identification on the site, but also other information. In particular, if you customize the appearance of the same mail service (using visual themes), then the "cookies" are also needed to correctly display all the settings you made.

Where are they stored?

Proceeding from all the above, I would like to know about where all these identifiers are stored. After all, if they fall into the wrong hands, the consequences for you can be very sad! Do not worry: all modern browsers store them on your computer's hard drive. Where can they be found?

They are stored at the following address: From: \ Documents and Settings \ ... \ Local Settings \ Temporary Internet Files. Instead of dots put the name of a particular computer.

It's easy to guess that "cookies" are a tasty morsel for many malicious programs, because if you grab files with ready-made identity data to enter the site, you can get full access to any user account!

What are they like?

Having learned about what cookies are, do not stop at what has been achieved. If you think that they do not differ in type and purpose, you are mistaken. There are "cookies" temporary and permanent.

Do you remember the storage address that we mentioned above? Just the same there is stored their constant variety. These "cookies" are used for long-term storage of information about visited sites, unless otherwise specified by your browser settings.

Accordingly, the temporary identifiers are not stored anywhere, being used only once per session. Temporary "cookies" are saved a limited amount of time in RAM or paging file, which after the computer is turned off completely cleared of information.

By the way, this is the option recommended by all computer security specialists, since this scenario minimizes the risks of their capture by a third party.

How do I block cookies?

To completely exclude their storage on your computer, you need to properly configure your Internet browser. Consider this process using the Internet Explorer browser example.

Since the last is the 11th version, we will talk about it. Having opened the main window, look to the right: in the upper corner there should be a pictogram in the form of a gear. It's called "Service". In the menu that opens, select "Internet Options." In it, you need to find the "Privacy" tab. A dialog box opens, where you can use the slider to set the security level that you want.

The slider can be set to "Low" level of protection. In this case, all http cookies will be accepted, regardless of the sender site. This installation is recommended to use strictly for your trusted sites, from which your computer is guaranteed not to attack malicious programs.

If you select "Medium" level, then "cookies" will be accepted only from the site on which you are currently. It is recommended to use it when you work with several trusted sites (online banking, for example), continuing to surf the Internet without restrictions.

Finally, the "High" level of prohibition provides for the complete absence of "cookies" files. This provides excellent privacy and anonymity, but remember that with such settings, some sites simply will not be able to work adequately. In particular, the above-mentioned online client of the bank will refuse to conduct any transactions with your bank account or card.

Thus, before you enable cookies in the browser, you will need to set the slider to the lowest position. To tell the truth, in the presence of more or less normal antivirus of this level in most cases it is quite enough for safe surfing on the Internet. But sometimes it happens that all the accumulated "cookies" need to be completely removed.

Why remove them?

For example, you do not want someone to enter your mail while you are away from the computer. If an attacker gets access to this kind of information, he will be able to use some resources on the Internet, leaving messages on your behalf. Given how much the legislation in the field of Internet technologies has become tougher, this can have the most unfortunate consequences.

If you have too many "cookies" on your computer, then the speed of your computer can slow down significantly, since they almost do not defrag.

Especially it can be noticeable in the case of the "Flamel", the launch speed of which in this case can very strongly fall. If we talk about javascript write cookies, their permanent saving on the computer and at all can lead to the impossibility of reading the new version of the site.

Delete cookies from your computer

First, we will again look at the process of removing them using the example of the Internet Explorer browser. To do this, you must again find the "Tools" button in the form of a gear icon, go to "Internet Options" and open the "General" tab. There is a "Browser Journal" item under which there is a "Delete" button.

Click on it with the left mouse button. The Uninstall Wizard dialog box opens, where you can easily remove all "cookies" from your computer.

Clean the Opera and Chromium

And how to clear Opera cookies ? This also presents no difficulty. Given that for some time now Opera has actually become a clone of Google Chrome, the following instructions are quite suitable for cleaning all "chromo-like" browsers.

So, to completely erase them from the disk, you need to do the following operations. First open the browser menu, go to the "Settings", opening there the same tab. In it, you should find the "Personal Data" item and click on the "Clear History" button. After that, a dialog box will open, in which you should check the box "Cookies and other site and plug-in data". Click on the button "Clear history", after which the browser does not have any identification data that could violate your privacy.

Remove cookies from Firefox

Speaking about the procedure for clearing browsers from such files, one should not forget about "Firelay", the number of users of which includes millions of people around the world. So, to completely clear the cookies of Firefox, you need to perform some simple actions.

First, click on the settings button, located in the upper left corner of its working window. There you should select "Settings", go to the "Privacy" tab. A dialog box opens, at the bottom of which there is a link "Delete individual cookies". When you activate it, another window opens, in which you can either delete some specific identifiers, or completely delete their entire history.

Working on someone else's computer ...

Often there are situations when you have to work on someone else's machine. Proceeding from all the above, it will not be a big revelation to say that it is necessary to pay special attention to the preservation of javascript cookie.

If you carefully read the article, you can certainly remove traces of your work on the computer. But we should not forget that almost all modern browsers offer users the "Incognito" mode of operation. How can I enable it?

Google Chrome

To use the "secret" regime in "Chrome" or the modern "Opera", it is necessary to perform several simple actions. First, click on the icon with the image of three dashes in the corner of the main working window of the browser.

A window with settings will open, where you should select "New window in incognito mode". A new session will start, in which the browser will not save any data.

Mozilla Firefox

In this popular browser, this mode is also easy to enable. To not save Firefox cookies, you need to click on the settings button in the upper left corner of the browser dialog box. A window with settings will open, in the upper left corner of which there is the item "New private window". After that, a new session will open, in which the browser also will not save any of your information.

Unfortunately, in the famous IE, there is no special configuration for this purpose. If you want to surf the Internet without leaving a trace, you must always set the security level to "High" each time.

However, many modern antiviruses can be used for the same purposes. For example, Kaspersky Internet Security allows you to completely ban reception, as well as clean up all "cookies" immediately after you exit the browser. Something similar is implemented in almost all modern security programs, which is another significant argument in favor of their mandatory presence on the computer of any user who actively uses the Internet.

Do not forget to delete these files if you use a mobile browser. Recently, cases of fraud related to the theft of personal data of users of mobile devices have become more frequent, so caution will not hurt.

That's what cookies are and why they are needed!