The AT&T-backed think tank Future of Privacy Forum launched a campaign warning consumers how search engines store their queries and marketers use online cookies. AT&T favors an opt-in model for behavioral advertising, which serves advertisements to people based on their Web-surfing activity.
MediaPost Publications - Delete Cookies, Says New Privacy Forum - 12/01/2008
The group goes on to instruct people about options to enhance privacy. The advice includes directives to delete cookies and use Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 browser -- which includes a feature that can block the cookies that track users across sites for ad-serving purposes. The organization also suggests that searchers use IAC's Ask Eraser, which deletes some log files tying search queries to IP addresses.To Protect Yourself
I have set up my browser to delete all cookies and privacy information when my browser closes.
Some adware programs automatically opens Internet Explorer, so make sure you clear your information out of IE if you use it at all.
Software Helpers
Make sure your computer is secured with a firewall, and protection against viruses, spybots and malware. Make sure you set the programs to automatically update or you should manually update them 2-3x a week.
I use ZoneAlarm, Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware, and Norton Anti-Virus. These are direct links and the download are free of any type of trojans or tracking cookies.
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