(ARA) - Judging from the rising number of computer viruses, online phishing scams and incidents of Web-based identity theft, it is little wonder that consumers doing their holiday shopping are growing increasingly frightened of becoming a victim on the Internet. This widespread fear among consumers has caused many Web users to become wary of even the most trusted Web sites they visit, as well as some of the basic technologies that for years have served to enhance the Web experience.

In fact, one of the clear victims of this wave of fear has been the much-maligned Internet cookie.

Cookies are small elements of data that Web sites store on visitors' Web browsers in order to provide them with a more tailored user experience. Cookies recognize a user's Internet browsing behavior and can be used to display information in response to this behavior, as well as remember Web site passwords and preferences, and personalize specific pages, content, banner ads, and promotions that appear on the site. Perhaps most importantly to an Internet user, cookies are used by advertisers to limit the number of times that a particular user sees the same ad creative, and by Web publishers to limit the number of pop-up or pop-under ads that a user receives per day......

Labels: computer cookies, cookies, internet browsing behavior, internet cookies, tracking ads, tracking visitors, web cookies

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