Due to popular misinformation, I once again write about Internet Cookies and why you should "accept" them when offered.

Whether called magic cookies, Netscape cookies, HTTP cookies, persistent cookies, or just plain cookies, all are technically referred to as HTTP State Management Mechanisms and all are often misunderstood or misrepresented.

Cookies allow Web site designers to personalize frequently-visited Web sites, prevent users from repeatedly entering the same information on multiple Web pages and understand more about how visitors are using or navigating on their site. Note that all of these are "good" things and not subversive, as some people would have you believe.

Because of their usefulness, cookies, or variations of cookies, can be found on most major Web sites and many smaller ones.

A good example of cookies can be found on Amazon.Com. Every time you put a book into your virtual "shopping cart" the information is kept along with your personal information you gave when you originally set up an account. When you check out, the information is used to create your final order.

Another cookie example is My Yahoo! which gives you personalized news based on selections you made when you registered. Each time you visit My Yahoo! the cookie is retrieved and the Web page is immediately custom formatted.

Cookies are small bits of data that are given to your computer by a World Wide Web server when visiting sites like My Yahoo! based on information you have provided.

Andy's Netscape HTTP Cookie Notes explains, "This data is accepted by your browser, checked for length, expiration date, path and domain then saved. This piece of data can be no more than 4000 bytes (characters) long and is never "executed" as code. It can't contain programs or viruses."

There is no need to worry about information given at one site, like your credit card number, ever being given to another site. The way cookies are designed, they can only be retrieved from the same site.

Additionally, it is impossible for a Web server to retrieve any information you haven't expressly given to it, so you don't worry about sensitive information you have on your computer's hard drive or the network.

To change your cookie options on Internet Explorer version 4.0 or later, choose from your menu bar View, Internet Options and then click on the Advanced tab. Scroll down until you see the Cookies section under Security. Your options for Internet Explorer include "Always accept cookies," (my recommendation) "Prompt before accepting cookies" (which will give you those annoying messages about accepting cookies each time) and "Disable cookie use."

If you use Netscape Communicator 4.0 or later as your browser, you can change your Cookie preferences by selecting Edit off the menu bar and then Preferences and Advanced. To stop the cookie warnings in Communicator, un-check the box next to "Warn me before accepting a cookie." It is also from this menu that you can choose to "Accept all cookies," "Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server," (my recommendation) and "Disable cookies.

Having now been educated to the benefits of cookies and understanding that cookies pose no security or privacy treats, remember next time to accept the cookies offered to you so you can have even a better Internet surfing experience.