avg 8

[realaleman]

Hi all,
I've just used Chuck_Fickens link to install avg8. Now I've run the disk scanner and its come up with 362 warnings, 360 of which are about entries in my Firefox\Profiles\jyizb192.default\cookies.txt file. Surely this file is there to help firefox do its stuff, so why the warning "Found tracking cookie. Potentially dangerous object "? Will I get this warning every time I scan, or can I get it to skip this folder?

Thanks in anticipation

Geoff

[ChuckFickens]

cookies do help your web browsing by remembering things like settings you have stored on web pages (such as if when you come to theanwserbank if it remembers your user name that is due to a cookie).

But.. Some cookies (known as tracking cookies) also track your web browsing keep track of and report details of every site you may visit back to a company somewhere, although generally this is not dangerous as such some people object to this as they see it as a breach of their privacy (they report back what sites you have been to but NOT information such as passwords you may have used on that site)

you can read all about cookies at the link below and make up your own mind if your more concerned about privacy or ease of use of the web and then decide yourself what to do about them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

[ChuckFickens]

Sorry, when I said not information such as passwords, I meant not information such as passwords you would use on secure sites such as online banking... passwords you would use on sites such as answerbank will be stored in cookies... which is why you should never use the same password for websites that you use for things which you need to be really secure

[realaleman]

Thanks Chuck
That Wikipedia article certainly ssems to be pretty comprehensive.
Geoff

[ChuckFickens]

most of it won't be relevant to what you want to know, the Privacy and third-party cookies part is probably most important for your needs

[Kinetic]

All fairly decent responses, but the concept of not having a cookie/virus/trojan on your computer the second you are connected to the internet is a completely naive idea. When you have sex with people biological substances will get transferred and there is unfortunately no such thing as a digital condom.