Nowadays it is difficult to imagine at least one person without a computer or laptop. Accordingly, computer literacy of the population is gradually reaching decent values. Of particular importance is the ability to work with Internet browsers, since 99% of all the time that a modern person spends at a computer, he sits on the Internet.
But not everyone knows what cookies are. But turning them on or off often requires the sites you visit! So what is it and why are they needed?
Introduction
Surely you are registered on at least one site. If so, is it not interesting to you how the site determines the fact of your visit, so as not to force you to re-enter registration data? This is what cookies are responsible for. Simply put, these are small files that store user data.
In particular, these files contain your username and password, your mailing address and other information, if you need them to enter a specific site. This is what cookies are. They make it easier and simpler to work with the site, allowing you to not enter credentials at each visit.
But they store not only identification information on the site, but also other information. In particular, if you customize the appearance of the same mail service (using visual themes), then cookies are also needed to correctly display all the settings you made.
Where are they stored?
Based on the foregoing, I would like to know where all these identifiers are stored. After all, if they fall into the wrong hands, the consequences for you can be very sad! Don’t worry: all modern browsers save them to your computer’s hard drive. Where can I find them?
They are stored at the following address: C: \ Documents and Settings \ ... \ Local Settings \ Temporary Internet Files. Instead of an ellipsis, the name of a specific computer is set.
It is easy to guess that “cookies” are a tidbit for many malicious programs, because if you take possession of files with ready-made credentials 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 there. If you think that they do not differ in type and purpose, then you are mistaken. There are “cookies” temporary and permanent.
Do you remember the storage address we talked about above? It is just there that their constant variety is stored there. These cookies are used for long-term storage of information about visited sites, unless otherwise specified by your browser settings.
Accordingly, temporary identifiers are not stored anywhere, being used only once per session. Temporary cookies are stored for a limited amount of time in RAM or in the swap file, which, after turning off the computer, is completely cleared of information.
By the way, it is this option that all computer security experts recommend using, since this scenario minimizes the risks of their capture by a third party.
How to block cookies?
To completely exclude their storage on your computer, you need to configure your Internet browser accordingly. Consider this process using Internet Explorer as an example.
Since the latest is the 11th version, we will talk about it exactly. Having opened the main window, look to the right: in the upper corner there should be a gear icon. It is called "Service." In the menu that opens, select "Internet Options." It is necessary to find the tab "Confidentiality" in it. A dialog box opens in which you can use the slider to set the level of security you need.
The slider can be set to the "Low" level of protection. In this case, all http cookies will be accepted, regardless of the sending site. This installation is recommended to be used strictly for your trusted sites from which your computer is guaranteed not to be attacked by malware.
If you choose “Medium” level, then “cookies” will be accepted only from the site on which you are currently located. It is recommended to use it when you work with several trusted sites (online banking, for example), while continuing to surf the Internet without restrictions.
Finally, the "High" level of prohibition provides for the complete absence of "cookies" files. This provides excellent confidentiality and anonymity, but it should be remembered that with these settings, some sites simply will not be able to work adequately. In particular, the aforementioned online client of the bank will refuse to conduct any operations with your bank account or card.
Thus, before you enable cookies in your browser, you will need to set the slider to the lowest position. Honestly, in the presence of a more or less normal antivirus, this level in most cases is enough for safe surfing on the Internet. But sometimes it happens that all accumulated cookies are required to be completely deleted.
Why delete them?
For example, you do not want someone to enter your mail while you are away from the computer. If some attacker gains access to this kind of information, he will be able to use some resources on the Internet, leaving messages on your behalf there. Given how tightened the laws in the field of Internet technology, this can have the most sad consequences.
If the computer accumulates too many “cookies”, then the speed of the computer can slow down significantly, since they practically defy defragmentation.
This can be especially noticeable in the case of Ognelis, the launch speed of which in this case can drop very much. If we talk about javascript write cookies, then their permanent storage on the computer can completely lead to the inability to read the latest version of the site.
Delete cookies from the computer
First, we again look at the process of removing them using Internet Explorer as an example. To do this, you again need to find the “Service” button in the form of a gear icon, go to “Internet Options” and open the “General” tab. There is the item “Browsing History”, under which there is a button “Delete”.
Click on it with the left mouse button. A dialog box for the delete wizard opens, with which you can easily delete all cookies from your computer.
We clean "Opera" and "Chrome"
How to clear Opera cookies ? It also does not present any difficulty. Considering that for some time now Opera has become a clone of Google Chrome, the following instruction is quite suitable for cleaning all “chrome-like” browsers.
So, to completely erase them from the disk, you must perform the following operations. First, open the browser menu, go to the “Settings” item, opening the tab of the same name there. In it, you should find the item “Personal data” and click on the button “Clear history”. After that, a dialog box will open in which it is necessary to check the box “Cookies and other data of sites and plugins” with a flag. Click on the "Clear History" button, after which no identification data remains in the browser that could violate your privacy.
We remove cookies from Firefox
Speaking about the procedure for cleaning browsers from such files, one should not forget about Ognelis, whose users include millions of people around the world. So, in order to completely clear Firefox cookies, you need to follow some simple steps.
First, click on the settings button located in the upper left corner of its working window. There you should select the "Settings", go to the "Privacy" tab. A dialog box opens, at the bottom of which there is a link “Delete individual cookies”. When it is activated, another window will open 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 car. Based on the foregoing, it will not be a great revelation to say that you need to pay special attention to maintaining a javascript cookie.
If you carefully read the article, you will surely be able to 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 to enable it?
Google chrome
To use the "secret" mode in "Chrome" or the modern "Opera", it is necessary to perform several simple actions. To get started, click on the icon with the image of three dashes in the corner of the main working window of the browser.
A window opens with the settings, in which 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, enabling this mode is also easy. In order 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 an item “New private window”. After that, a new session will open, in the mode of which the browser will also 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 any traces, you must set the security level to High each time.
However, for the same purposes, you can use many modern antiviruses. For example, Kaspersky Internet Security allows you to completely prohibit reception, as well as to clear 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 in the case of using a mobile browser. Recently, cases of fraud associated with the theft of personal data of users of mobile devices have become more frequent, so caution will not hurt.
This is what cookies are and why they are needed!