Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Difference Between Cookies And Spyware?

Are cookies really spyware and are they dangerous? This subject has been the debate of many newsgroups and online forums with many referring to all cookies as spyware cookies. However, it's important to note that cookies live in benign text or database files stored on your hard drive and cannot themselves harm your computer in any way. Typically cookies are used to remember logins and keep track of user settings on web-sites.

Cookies can be used to track your movement on the Internet ONLY if a site is aware of the cookies and is designed to use the specific cookies. Because of their use in tracking, many feel that this constitutes them as spyware or spyware cookies.

So back to the original question, are cookies spyware? We do not consider cookies to be threats of anywhere near the same level of severity as actual malware threats that can steal real personal information, serve ads, or render a computer unusable.

SUPERAntiSpyware will detect tracking cookies or spyware cookies as "Adware.Tracking Cookie" and you can choose to remove them or leave them on your system. You may turn off this feature by unchecking Scanner Options -> Scan Internet browser tracking cookies should you not wish cookies to be scanned, detected, and removed.

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