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What are tracking cookies?

What's a cookie?

A cookie consists of a packet of data sent by an Internet server to a browser, which is returned by the browser each time it subsequently accesses the same server, used to identify the user or track their access to the server.

What are tracking cookies?

Many websites earn money from marketing research groups that place a unique identifying cookie on your computer that is read by any site using that particular marketing service. The marketing service can then identify which of their contracted sites you have visited in the past in order to send you targeted advertising that is specific to you as an individual.

This allows advertising services to piece together a "profile" of your interests. Cookie Stumbler helps you to protect your privacy by marking all domains that store tracking cookies in a red color and automatically marks there cookies for deletion unless you specifically tell Cookie Stumbler to do otherwise.

To tell Cookie Stumbler to keep a domain:

Look at the example below. A domain's "Keep" status is determined by the checkbox's state next to it. If a domain is set to unkeep, its tracking cookies will be deleted once you click on "Clean". In the screenshot's case, after clicking on "Clean", the unchecked domains marked in red would have their tracking cookies deleted while the domains in black would remain untouched.

By default, Cookie Stumbler will uncheck all domains that store tracking cookies so that they will be deleted as soon as you click on the "Clean" button. When checking/unchecking a domain by yourself, you are overriding Cookie Stumbler's recommendation.

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