Cookies refer to small text files that are stored on your computer by your browsers. It is not a program and doesn’t have any ability to run scripts or other potentially malicious software on your computer, all it ever stores is information in text format. Cookies also have no ability to generate pop-up advertising or to send spam.

The first intention of cookies is served for users’ convenient browsing by allowing websites to store information, but also because of that, cookies have a bad reputation for providing your data to the advertisers. Is it real? Are cookies dangerous to data privacy protection?

The crux is what kind of data that cookies collect and whether they invade your privacy. Let’s read some facts.

A lot of websites allow you to create an account and to log in. In fact, some websites require it, like Gmail, so you can customize them a little. Some sites, like Amazon, know your history, likes and dislikes, your favorite sections, products or services, so that it can display the goods catering to your taste. It is up to websites what they store in their cookie and they can access only their own cookie and not a cookie created by another website.

The facts are: cookies are generally safe; they can only be read by the sites that created them; disabling them may result on in loss of site preferences, login information, and online shopping trends.

However, cookies can also be created by advertisers, which are known as the third party cookies. If the advertiser is on enough many websites, they might be able to tell know the IP address of your computer, which can only identify who you receive your internet access from; and they know what site you were at, in the specific time.

It is the way that advertisers use them could be regarded as an invasion of data privacy. The dangers of cookies like infecting you with malware or emptying your bank account are overstated, but you do lose some privacy because advertisers know which website you are visiting.

In some way, you’d better clear the browsing cookies for privacy protection. Privacy Protector of Neptune SystemCare Ultimate helps you remove all the traces such as download and browsing history, cookies and caches, etc. and keep your online privacy confidential.

So to answer the question in the title, no cookies are not dangerous. Some, but not all, can safely be blocked without loss of website functionality, using Neptune SystemCare Ultimate.