Cookies, the little files that web browsers allow websites to place on visitors’ computers, are enormously beneficial for both site creators and site visitors but sometimes get a bad rap by those who don’t understand them. Cookies are often lumped in with spyware and feared to be a mechanism for “hackers” or those with malicious intent to get sensitive information from a user’s computer. In truth cookies can only hold information that a user provides to a website and can only be read by the website that placed the cookie. Read the rest of this entry »