Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2003, User Manual

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Understanding Internet risks
Risks to your privacy
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You may want to prevent some users from sending private information
over the Internet. Norton Personal Firewall can block users from accessing
secure sites where they might be asked for personal information.
Understanding cookies
Cookies are messages sent to your browser by Web sites that are stored as
small files on your computer. They are often used by Web sites to track
your visits. In most cases, cookies do not contain personal information, but
instead carry information that identifies you to Web sites.
Good cookies
In their most benign form, cookies last only until you close your browser.
This type of cookie is mainly used to remember choices that you make as
you navigate through a Web site.
Many sites leave cookies on your computer so that they recognize you
when you return to their sites. These cookies identify you so that options
that you have chosen in the past are used for your current visit to the site. If
you frequent a site that remembers the stocks that you want to track, for
example, it probably uses this kind of cookie.
Bad cookies
In one of their malevolent forms, cookies from one Web site might track
your visits to a different Web site. For example, most of the ads that you see
on Web sites do not come from the site that you are viewing, but from sites
that provide ads to many sites. When the advertising site displays the ad, it
can access cookies on your computer. This lets the advertising company
track your Web usage over a range of sites and profile your browsing
habits.
Blocking cookies
Norton Personal Firewall can block all cookies or it can notify you of each
cookie request. If you block all cookies, you lose functionality at many Web
sites. For example, you might be blocked from making purchases at some
Internet stores. If you choose to be prompted each time that a Web site tries
to create a cookie, you can evaluate each request and block those that are
not from the site that you are viewing. Norton Personal Firewall can block
or allow cookies from particular
domains or Web sites.