Tracking Cookies

Message to good friend:

Earlier I wrote:

However, the much more likely thing is that XXXXX (his wife)
is regularly going to a legitimate site that installs a
tracking cookie, and Norton, which claims to know
about the "legitimate" ones versus the "illegitimate"
ones, doesn't have it on their (probably inept because
it's Norton) list.

Based on your two cookies, I would be fairly confident that what I wrote is closer to the truth. I have both of the cookies you listed. I'm sure you do as well. Probably so with all 22.

>>> I looked at CNET download (you wrote)
...
>>> Cookie:default@zedo.com/ (you wrote)

Amusingly, CNET loads/reads zedo when you visit its site.

Can I ask you, without invading your privacy too much, why XXXX's computer was at GeekSquad (never, ever do that)? If these cookies appeared after that event, you can be pretty sure that it means that GeekSquad changed XXXX's Norton settings, causing Norton to alarm you (fear is their business).

Now, tracking cookies are a whole, very big, subject. They are an invasion of your browsing privacy, by the very definition of privacy. They are exceedingly convenient in some uses, and enable advertisers to know more about you in other instances. Everyone wants the former; no one wants the latter. The problem is that the latter are pervasive, and Norton isn't really helping by pointing that out.

(If I were a coarser and less-loving person, I would point out that you have relinquished all claims to be concerned about privacy for evermore by letting GeekSquad touch one of your computers. Fortunately, I am far above that.)

If you need to learn more about tracking cookies, Wikipedia of course has a great article:

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

You could manage your and XXXX's cookies. The simple thing is turning them off, but you'd hate the effect (you are glad that many sites know who you are). You could do something much more organized, and there is software to help you do so.

But then "tracking cookies" would become your hobby, right up there with say, XXXX's piano hobby, in effort, if not in satisfaction.

Random more stuff:

- When you want to dump a screen of data, hit the print screen button on your keyboard, and than paste the image into a program that can accept it (like Powerpoint, or Word, or Photoshop, or any painting program). Then save the image and send it. There are more sophisticated things to do, but this invariably works.

- ESET paid is better than ESET free (I use it for me and Elizabeth). You can't trust negative reviews on subjects like this, you need science. The best I have found by far is:

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Go to the comparatives section. I read it periodically to make sure life is still good.

- Josh