Saved cookies remain on your PC and help you the next time you go to that site, sometimes remaining there for years. Cookies are files you can delete. If you delete a cookie that is storing your user ID and password though, you will have to re-enter it again the next time you visit the site.

If you reject the cookie tracking, sometimes, the website won’t work. But most of the time, you can just keep browsing. They’re not too different from the annoying pop-up ads we all ignore when...

No, you don't. If a cookie can identify you, you can decline the cookie completely. Websites that use these cookies have to get your permission – or risk huge fines under various laws. So if you ...

Cookies let you do that. They save your information from websites to your browser for later retrieval. But cookies may be misused. Some websites may not be secure, allowing hackers to intercept...

Should I click 'accept' on websites' messages about cookies? I find the GDPR pop-ups infuriating and often just agree because I want to get rid of them Pop-up GDPR messages about cookies can be ...

At worst, they can pose a threat to your privacy, in the case of tracking cookies. Further, many cookies are not only legitimate, but also required for normal operation of some websites. If you feel it necessary to delete cookies from your computer, some of them may be difficult to get rid of.

As you can see, there are definitely great benefits in accepting website cookies. However, data privacy is a big topic within the current security landscape so don’t hesitate to do a regular purge of cookies from your web browsers with the guides listed above.

But cookies generally are safe to accept. You should be much more concerned about “tracking codes”. Major marketing and research firms pay websites to add these codes to their web pages. When you download such a page from a website, your browser sees those codes as instructions to download ads - but not from the website that hosted the page.

Why you should delete cookies on your browser. There are a number of reasons you should consider deleting cookies on your browser: They pose a security threat – As previous cyber attacks have demonstrated, hackers can potentially hijack cookies, gaining access to browser sessions and then steal personal data.