Cookies can be a good thing when you’re talking about satisfying your sweet tooth. But for our online lives, it can be both a good and bad thing. Cookies in internet-speak happen when web browsers write these short text files containing information about your interaction about specific sites. Your log-ins, usernames, and things you may have purchased on retail websites would be included in these cookies. Having cookies is supposed to make your web surfing life more convenient as they make loading times for websites you frequent faster. Moreover, you don’t have to keep on typing in your information every time you try to log in a site, as the cookies have your information ready.
Quite harmless, right? But then, these cookies tend to accumulate, taking up space on your system. Moreover, with the current situation of heightened privacy and security concerns, cookies aren’t particularly the poster kids of web safety. Advertisers have access to these cookies, which is why you may notice the same things you look for on the internet get advertised to you on your social media and email accounts. Thus, removing them on a schedule is recommended.
If you’re the type of web user who is security conscious, then we have something for you: Steps on clearing your cookies depending on the web browser you’re using.
Google Chrome
The most popular web browser makes it easy for you to delete cookies, control the data that comes out when you are browsing data, and point out which files are accepted or should be blocked. However, take note that Google will be doing away with cookies in two years.
Like other browsers, Google Chrome tracks your history — but you can easily clear that history.
You can clear your browsing history in Google Chrome in just a few simple steps by accessing the “History” menu. You can choose to delete your history from the last hour, day, week, or month. You can also clear all of your history since you started using Google Chrome.
(Via: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-clear-history-on-google-chrome)
Mozilla Firefox
The browser more known for its add-ons, the open-source browser Firefox is one of, if not the most, customizable web browsers when it comes to privacy settings.
The open-source browser has tons of add-ons and actually offers more options than Chrome when it comes to customizing these settings. Here’s what you need to know to clear the cookies it stores.
Visit any web page and click on the Cookie Quick Manager button on the Firefox toolbar to view the add-on’s menu; it displays six options. The first one is Manage All Cookies which opens the manager dashboard in a new tab in the browser. The dashboard lists each and every cookie that has been stored by your browser. Use the search bar to quickly find a particular website’s cookie to manage it.
Safari
In the interest of fairness, of course, we have to also talk about the built-in web browser for Macs. The biggest difference for Safari on the topic of cookies is that the cookies it stores are only from your visited websites. The process of wiping out cookies from Safari is pretty easy and straightforward as well.
It’s a straightforward process to clear history/cookies and the cache in Safari on a Mac. While the button in the menu bar is labeled “Clear History” it also clears cookies and your cache.
(Via: https://9to5mac.com/2020/02/03/mac-how-to-clear-cache-history-cookies-safari/)
Opera
Opera may be a browser-based on Google Chrome, but its users may have to undergo a slightly unique process when it comes to going to its options for cookies.
Opera isn’t the first browser to put the brakes on unwanted third-party cookies. Mozilla introduced the option to block them by default when it released Firefox 63 in October 2018, and made it the default setting when Firefox 69 launched in September 2019.
(Via: https://www.techradar.com/news/opera-gets-one-click-tracker-blocking-on-top-of-its-free-vpn-service)
CCCleaner
Now while this is not a browser, it got a place in our list because (1) it is free to download, (2) it is powerful (3) you can use it to get rid of files made by your web browser and apps. The best thing about CCCleaner is that it can simultaneously get rid of cookies from all the browsers you have on your laptop, and not just on one.
CCleaner is great for dealing with the easily-accumulated clutter clogging your computer. For avid web users, CCleaner wipes data stored in browsers, including temporary files that can take up precious space, history logs that make it easy to identify you, cookies that store information like login credentials, and more.
(Via: https://time.com/5784495/computer-cleanup-software-mac-pc-clutter/)
In the process of cleaning your laptop, you may have overdone it and also deleted files you shouldn’t have. Don’t worry, we have you covered! Talk to us and see what services we offer to help you recover those important files.