The EU has issued a Directive and the government has made a law via the Information Commissioners Office concerning cookies and your ability to decide whether you accept one or not.
It would be fair to say that every website has cookies. We use cookies managed by www.statcounter.com to monitor how our websites are used. These are completely harmless and collect no personal information which would enable us to identify you. Amazon uses a cookie to track your buying habits so that when you return it can show you things that might be of interest. Many sites, including some of ours, allow you to adjust the way the site looks and/or performs, your preferences preferences are stored in your web browser so that the site(s) know how to react the next time you visit.
What the Government and the EU have failed to acknowledge is that you already have the ability to control cookies and these controls can be found in the Options folder of your favourite browser.
Internet Explorer – go to Tools, Internet Options and the Browsing History Section. Checking the box will mean that all your browsing history will be deleted each time you end a browsing session. Clicking on the Settings button gives you more options.
Firefox – go to Options/Options and you’ll see that (as usual) Firefox gives you more control of cookies and your browsing history than Internet Explorer.
Chrome – go to Tools/Options and click on Under the Bonnet and then Content Settings to manage cookies.
Safari – go to Tools/Preferences and click on the Security tab to set your cookie preferences.
Opera – go to Settings/Preferences and then click on the Advanced tab.
Be aware that if you make certain settings in some browsers you will be prompted to accept a cookie each time you visit a website. If you don’t want this the best option is to delete cookies when you close your browser.
You don’t have to use Internet Explorer as your browser, Firefox and Chrome are both better although Chrome cannot handle some SaaS applications. Downloading and installing an alternative browser is easy, will give you more control of what’s stored on your computer and a better user experience.