Originally posted by NHawk
Cookies are subject to a number of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion that they are computer programs. In fact, cookies are simple pieces of data unable to perform any operation by themselves. In particular, they are neither spyware nor viruses, despite the detection of cookies from certain sites by many anti-spyware products.
Methinks you do not understand the difference between "cookies" and "tracking cookies".
To understand the tracking-cookie issue, you have to know something about cookies overall, and you have to know what spyware actually is.
Cookies are small text files that Web-site operators - and third-party companies that insert ads into Web sites - place on a user's computer. Many types of cookies are harmless or even helpful. For instance, a cookie might help a Web site remember your preferences for what news topics you chose to see. With your permission, it might store your login information, so you don't have to type it in each time you visit a particular site. "Remember Me" check boxes where you sign in to websites use this feature. Antispyware programs aren't designed to detect or remove these helpful cookies.
Tracking cookies shouldn't be confused with these other cookies. They have no user benefit except the vague promise that the ads you get as a result may be better tailored to your interests, because they record every website you visit, and deliver that information back to its originator the next time you visit their site, or an affiliated site.
Spyware - and a related category called adware - is computer code placed on a user's computer without his or her permission and without notification, or with notification so obscure it hardly merits the term. Once installed, spyware and adware alter the PC's behavior to suit the interests of outside parties rather than those of the owner or user.
Examples of spyware and adware include programs called "browser hijackers," which reset the home page or search engine your browser uses so it is diverted to the sites of the spyware and adware companies or their clients. Others record your activities and report them to outside parties. Still others push ads in your face, even when you aren't using the Web.
Some tracking-cookie purveyors say their cookies aren't really spyware because they aren't full-fledged programs and they aren't as outrageous as spyware programs such as "key loggers," which record and report every keystroke you enter.
They may not be true spyware, but they are not true Cookies either. They go beyond the limited, helpful functions of a true Cookie and record information you may not wish to share with others. If there was nothing wrong with them, anti-spyware programs would not be able to pick them out from normal Cookies and remove them (not all do, but there are several of the better ones that do).
