Bad cookie, Good cookie

There are plenty of cookie types out there.  We have vanilla cookies, chocolate cookies, the good old chocolate chip cookie, peanut butter cookie, and any other flavor, and form, that you can imagine.  But for some time now, we have also had internet cookies!  Some are considered good and some are simply best to stay away from - specially if you have certain allergies or simply are trying to keep the line.

But how can you tell the difference and how should you protect your information?  Well, as in any regular diet, it all depends on your personal preferences and the weight goal you are trying to achieve, or should I say, the level of privacy you are looking to maintain.

There are persistent cookies, which are owned by the website you are visiting, an in many ways are good for you.  They allow you to save time the next time you visit your favorite frequent miles website, or your bank site, making the site remember you and your preferences, even after you have closed your browser.

But there are other not so good cookies, and these are the 3rd party cookies.  These cookies, as it name states, are initiated and controlled by a third party website, which will track you, and all your information, through an embedded ad in the website you are visiting.   These cookies will basically follow you anywhere, -as those extra cookies that you shouldn't have eaten, and will flood your internet sessions with endless amounts of ads.   In many cases you are not even interested in the product being promoted, but the algorithms behind those cookies are telling the ad networks that you "might" be interested, based on your previous online behavior.

Flash cookies, are a very complex recipe cookie, that work in a different way than regular web browser ones, and cannot be controlled/blocked through your browser settings.  These type of cookies are installed by Adobe, and of course  track you, but are mainly used to provide users with flash player content or to allow certain online games to be played.

So, which ones should you allow and which ones should be deleted or blocked?  It will all depend on the value that you place on your privacy and on the ad-free experience of browsing the internet.   There is no doubt, if you consider yourself to be a gluten-free, sugar-free consumer, then you better make sure you are deleting or cleaning the cookie folder on your browser daily.