Tracking cookies

When I started my pc and it automatically signed me into windows live messenger and msn today my AVG anti virus opened a window telling me about a tracking cookie.
c:/users/isabell/appdata/roaming/microsoft/window/cookies/isabell@ad.yieldmanager[2]txt ... found tracking cookie.yieldmanager

and then another tracking cookie alert when my mozilla firefox loaded my last session. I did an AVG virus scan but it came off negative. Are tracking cookies dangerous?Anything I should do?

 

Cookies aren't inherently bad. They are typically used to gauge a person's websurfing and consumer tastes. Some anti-virus software can interpret them as malware or trojan horses though, which are invasive and try to steal personal information from the user.

You can opt to have your computer not accept cookies, but it'll also render many sites inoperable.

 

Oh okay. So as long as my AVG doesn't give me any trojan horse or other virus alarm I should be fine with those tracking cookies? Is it advidable to clear out my private data including cookies sometimes?

 

Yes I do it several times daily.

I recommend this software: http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

You can run it from your recycling bin and it clears your Internet history, cleans your registry . . . good stuff.

 

Oh that's whatsup.I will try it out

 

Hi ,
Cookies are not bad at all ,please check this link to find out about their use.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

I will suggest you to clear/delete your cookies as suggested by satiricon but please remember you might be prompt to re-authenticate by the website you visited previously. Mostly those AGV messages are just warnings.

Here is a link showing you how to manually delete your cookies :
http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=2