Hi royalblood:

 

Tracking cookies are not a safety threat to your PC. You can safely delete them with AVG, but others will likely be detected with subseaquent scans.

 

Tracking cookies are a small intrusion on your privacy, in that they note which sites you visit, and try to tailor other advertising pop-ups and ads based on where you have been.

 

There are ways to block all tracking cookies, but my best advice to you is to delete them when detected, and not worry about them.

hello joe53,

 

 thanks for your advice.

what should I do now?

I dunno how to delete it..

i'm just using a free software.

 

since i don't use avg8, i can't speak definitively about it...

if avg8 was merely alerting you to the existence of the tracking cookies, without offering you a removal option, then you can't do anything more (from within avg) ---

but if it also offered you an option to remove any items found, you should be able to click on that.

 

other scanners (including SuperAntiSpyware, Ad-Aware, and SpyBot) certainly allow for easy removal of any tracking cookies found.   [Note:   I am not an advocate of Ad-Aware in general.   And unless you're running SpyBot for other purposes, I would not get it only to be a "cookie shredder".]

 

since I had recently composed a more detailed response re: tracking cookies for another user, I'm going to copy/paste it here:

 

Tracking cookies are text files.

in and of themselves, they can't inflict any actual damage to your system.


however, tracking cookies do contain information.


there are different kinds of tracking cookies, often referred to as "first party" and "third party". many legitimate web sites will not function properly if you don't allow "first party" cookies --- cookies that come directly from that site itself.


have you ever used a website that asked you, upon logging in, if you wanted this to be "remembered" on your computer (so you wouldn't have to re-login every time you come back to that page)? it does so by setting a "persistent" first-party cookie on your machine.


if you try to make a purchase online, and browse through a selection of items, and place them in a "cart"... which is saved (for a limited time) until you either proceed to the checkout [or the cart "expires" due to inactivity], this likewise uses a first-party cookie.


both uses are legitimate.


the problem is that there are also "third party" cookies... those created by an "affiliate" of the site you're visiting. here's an example:

say you visit yahoo dot com. and when you do, the webpage includes an advertisement from yieldmanager dot com. if you log into yahoo... the site you're actually visiting... it will place a first-party cookie on your machine. at the same time, yieldmanager --- an ad on that page, but not the main site you've intentionally gone to --- may place its "third party" cookie on your machine as well.


so what's the problem? some people consider this an invasion of their privacy, as yieldmanager can "monitor" the cookies it places on your machine, created by the ads they've placed on other websites. You can decide for yourself if this is a bad situation.


many browsers give you an option to block third party cookies [or even first party cookies]: for example, in Internet Explorer, if you click on TOOLS / Internet Options / Privacy ,

under Settings, there's a slider to choose for "internet zone" cookies...

it varies from Block All Cookies (on the top) all the way down to Allow All Cookies (on the bottom).

i've chosen a setting in-between, specifically, MEDIUM-HIGH, which puts major restrictions on third-party cookies, as well as some restrictions on first-party cookies.


[there's also an ADVANCED option, to further control how cookies may be used... including the concept of "session" (= temporary, or "non-persistent" ) cookies, which will be automatically erased when you close your current browser "session"]


So unless you're concerned that a "third party" website is interested enough to "spy" on you and learn about the websites you've visited... the "fear" of cookies tends to be over-exaggerated (in my opinion).


to repeat/summarize: the cookie may hold some information about a website you visited, but the cookie itself is not a virus/trojan/malware program.

A very nice summary of cookie handling, ky331.

Here is how I handle cookies in IE7:

 

1) Tools>Internet Options>Privacy tab>Advanced button
2) Checks next to:
-  Override automatic cookie handling
-  Under First-party Cookies: Block
-  Under Third-party Cookies: Block
-  Always allow session cookies
3) This effectively blocks all cookies, but of course one still wants to keep log-on cookies for selected sites to remember you:
-   Tools>Internet Options>Privacy tab>Sites button
-   In the Per Site Privacy Actions window, in the drop-down box under Address of website, I copy/paste the address of the sites I trust and wish to retain log-on cookies, then click the [Allow]>[OK] buttons.

 

 

This method blocks all tracking cookies, while white-listing all log-on cookies. I can't recall the last time any of my defenses detected a tracking cookie. Whether it is worth the effort to go to these lengths is another question. If you only need to retain log-on cookies for a relatively few sites like me, it's an easy solution.

 

 

im using morzilla firefox.

may i know which cookie is safe,

and what cookie should I block?

 

p.s.

thanks for the reply

joe53 & ky331

"may i know which cookie is safe, and what cookie should I block?"

 

since many cookies are dependent on which particular sites you choose/need to visit, there's no way we can give you a complete listing.

probably, you'll need to allow cookies for any sites that you log into:  DELL (or other) forums, your e-mail account(s), your banking/brokerage/credit card accounts, online purchases (e.g., from walmart dot com), and so on.  

I do enough online transactions that for me, permitting cookies site-by-site would be a laborious task, which is why I prefer to simply let the computer automatically allow/deny cookies per the medium-high security setting.   that seems to work for me.   Since Joe takes the other approach, of explicitly permitting only those cookies he's willing to tolerate, either he doesn't visit a lot of sites that require cookies, or else, he's gradually built-up a longer "permissions list" over time.

 

as for what to block, the short answer would be things like advertisements.   and there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of such sites.   the simplest way to block them would be by use of a program such as SpywareBlaster, which (among other things) blocks "bad" cookies in firefox (as well as internet explorer).

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

even I use the spyblaster, my free AVG8 still detects the tracking cookie..

T_T

what should I do now??

 

 

as joe and I have both stated, tracking cookies are not a significant threat... so while we can try to help you remove/stop them, keep in mind there's nothing to panic about over them.

 

if you're using SpywareBlaster, and have enabled all protection, i'm surprised that you're still finding all those cookies.   there were reports that the early "builds" of AVG 8 were not compatible with spywareblaster [i believe it's been fixed in the current builds]... but i wonder if avg8 is finding the spywareblaster protection, as opposed an actual cookie???

 

i had asked above, does avg allow you to remove the cookies it finds?  or does it simply report their existence to you?   if it allows you to remove them, try doing so.

 

i had also indicated 3 other adware/spyware scanners that DO detect/remove tracking cookies.   of the 3, I would suggest you try SuperAntiSpyware, because it also catches a lot of other bad stuff (in addition to cookies).   [I am also a big fan of MalwareBytes AntiMalware for fixing major malware problems; however, it does NOT look for cookies at all.]

 

here's another idea:   since you say you're using firefox,

start firefox, click on TOOLS / OPTIONS

then the PRIVACY tab

in the middle, under COOKIES, click on SHOW COOKIES

you can then locate a particular cookie you're interested in --

be sure to click on the + to expand the cookie list

then highlight the "unwanted" cookie, and click on REMOVE COOKIES

 

[if you're "desperate" or "paranoid", you can even choose to REMOVE ALL COOKIES ]

 

then CLOSE the tab/options.

ky331,

 

    which do u think is the SAFE COOKIE's & which is NOT?

can u identify it? 

 

 

 

 

 

thanks a lot ky331...

 

but everytime I scan with AVG8 still detect the tracking cookie..

 

 

 

looking at the list of cookies in your first post, it would appear that all of them are "unnecessary" advertising-related cookies.   Stress my use of "unnecessary" rather than "unsafe" --- I don't believe that any of these can/will cause you any damage or problems.