Frank said:
MSAS should add the removal of
tracking cookies. DON'T YA THINK ?
Actually, no. Tracking cookies are not a threat to the correct operation of
a PC system in the way that installed executable malware can be. I care
very greatly that no PC under my care should acquire any executable malware.
I really don't care much how many tracking cookies they get. So the present
implementation of MSAS suits me, and many others, just fine. I particularly
welcome its many preventive features, which place it in advance of most of
the competition. Prevention is better than cure.
Tracking cookies pose no risk at all to the PC or the operating system. The
only possible risk they carry is to the privacy of the user, which is a
subjective issue for that user. But there are so many other privacy
exposures on the internet, just by merely browsing on the web, or
sending/receiving unencrypted e-mail, that I sometimes wonder whether all
the anti-cookie enthusiasts have misplaced priorities, or have the issue out
of proportion.
Cookies are merely pieces of plain text in a file. They are not executable.
They cannot harm your PC or your operating system.
If a user has so much concern about their personal privacy that they wish to
eliminate cookies, then they should configure their web browser not to
accept them in the first place, and/or not to send them back to web servers.
Or they could install privacy-protecting software that specialises in
weeding cookies on the fly: this preventive approach would be better than
periodically deleting cookies that you allowed the browser to install. Even
MSAS has some run-time protection options controlling which sorts of cookies
are acceptable.
There are many users who misunderstand the risks associated with cookies.
This is not helped by the way in which some anti-spyware products make such
a big issue about cookies: for instance, labelling a cookie as a "critical"
risk is just baloney. Many anti-spyware products are in competition with
each other for market share, so producing a long list of cookies all
labelled as "critical" risks no doubt influences naive users into believing
that these products are more effective than others which take a more
measured approach to assigning degrees of risk to cookies, or don't remove
them at all.
