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Personally, I never allow cookies except for sites like this one and a few others ... though I don't really have any particular reason for it! I just don't like the idea of someone "tracking" my every move. Kinda makes me feel like I am being stalked! :)
I realize that some sites are unusable with cookies turned off and if I really want to visit that site, I turn them on. If it is too much of a bother and I was really just sort of cruising the web, I move on to the next site instead.
What are your reasons for allowing or not allowing cookies on an everyday basis?
[edited by: Liane at 12:51 pm (utc) on Oct. 13, 2008]
Why do I do this? Because I have a level of paranoia when it comes to the information I'm sharing with third parties. I "clean" my system regularly. Have most of it set to auto. I run CCleaner. I do some other things too. ;)
I'm also leery of third party content coming in through <iframes> which is where many of those third party cookies are coming from. I've come across sites that are dropping upwards of 10+ cookies on the user. I'll sit there and go through the annoying cookie messages just to see what the heck is going on while blocking each one of them.
You want some Milk to go with those Cookies?
2008-05-29 - [webmasterworld.com...]
... though I don't really have any particular reason for it! I just don't like the idea of someone "tracking" my every move.
You "kinda" answered your own question. There's a great deal of documentation on what cookies can do, the extent to which they can be abused, and what they can't do. The average person who tries to digest some of this really doesn't understand it and walks away with one impression: cookies=bad.
As a programmer, the benefits of cookies far outweigh the possible tracking abuse. They keep you logged in to a site, they "remember" your preferences, they make for a much easier and trouble-free browsing experience. I just leave third part cookies off and don't worry about it.
