How to Clear Your Browser's Cookies

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Online safety is the number one priority for many people in the world today. Clearing your Internet browser's cookies can help by deleting the information that websites have gathered about you and stored on your computer as small text files. Most of these files are completely harmless, but others store where you went, what you did, and any personal information you gave. Web sites may also allow other websites (their advertisers, for example) to put cookies, known as third-party cookies, on your computer. This is a simple guide to clear your browser's cookies to ensure that companies are not keeping tabs on what you do online.

Steps

1. Open your browser. Since each browser is set up differently, we will look at the process for each of the four major browsers: Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.5, Opera, and Konqueror.
   

Internet Explorer 6

1. Once your browser is open, select the Tools menu and click Internet Options and select the General tab.
   
2. To delete all cookies, in the Temporary Internet Files section, click Delete Cookies and press OK.
   
3. If you wish to delete only specific cookies and keep others, instead of Step 2:
   
   1. Click the Settings button, then click View Files.
      
   2. Scroll through the list and select the cookies you want to delete.
      
   3. Multiple cookies can be selected by holding down the CTRL key while clicking.
      
   4. Press the Delete key.
      
   5. Press OK on any dialog boxes that appear.
      
   
   

Firefox 1.5

1. Once your browser is open, select the Tools menu and click Options (may also be under Edit -> Preferences depending on your version) and select the Privacy button.
   
2. Select the Cookies tab.
   
3. To delete all cookies click the Delete All Cookies button.
   
4. To delete specific cookies, click View Cookies and look through the list of the sites you wish to delete the cookies for, and press Remove Cookies. You can even expand each site to delete specific cookes from each site.
   

Opera

1. Once your browser is open, select the Tools menu and click Delete Private Data and click the Details button.
   
2. If you wish to keep things such as history, saved passwords, cache, etc., uncheck those items and click Delete. You may get a dialog that says "Active transfer has not been removed." if you are currently downloading a file.
   
3. If you want to only delete certain cookies, click Tools and hover Advanced and click Cookies. From this screen, you can search for and select cookies to be deleted. To do so, select the select the site or the individual cookie and click Delete.
   

Konqueror

1. Once your browser is open, selec the Settings menu and click Configure Konqueror.
   
2. Scroll down and select Cookies.
   
3. Click the Management tab.
   
4. Select the cookies you wish to delete and click Delete, or click Delete All to delete all cookies.
   

Tips

• It is a good idea to clear your browser's cookies on a regular basis.
  
• You can disable or restrict cookies through the sections above. This is recommended for security reasons, but will render some sites inoperable. It is possible to only allow cookies for sites that you specify.
  
• It is a good time to clear your browser's cache while you are clearing the cookies. The cache stores information, images, and web pages on your computer for quick and easy access. Hackers can obtain crippling financial information from your cache if you're not careful.
  

Warnings

• Deleting cookies often means that you will have to re-login to sites that you have specified to automatically keep you logged in. This is not necessarily so if you have set your browser to save your password instead.
  
• Not deleting cookies regularly allows companies and advertisers more about you than you may wish them to.
  
• The use of Internet Explorer may help lead to identity theft, because it allows the use of ActiveX controls. While not directly related to cookies, ActiveX controls pose an immediate threat to Windows users that visit websites that use ActiveX controls to exploit security flaws in Internet Explorer. Experts reccommend more secure browsers, such as Firefox or Opera.
  

Related wikiHows

• Block and Accept Cookies in Internet Explorer
  
• Clear Your Browser's Cache
  
• Be Safe While Online
  
• Use a Credit Card Online
  

Sources and Citations

• Download Firefox
  
• Download Opera
  

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