Adware: pick it or kick it?

[koganbot]

Back in 2004-2005 or so my antivirus programs (first Symantec, then McAfee) would remove a bunch of adware from my Temporary Internet Files/cookies folders (cookies such as snap.com, sixapartadbureau.net, casalemedia.com, insightexpressai.com, revsci.net, 247realmedia.com, etc.). Then a couple of years ago McAfee must have decided that such cookies were innocuous, since it no longer removed them. Anyhow, I'll sometimes go through my cookies and delete such stuff - a relaxing few minutes while I listen to music.

Question: Am I possibly shortchanging the sites I like when I delete such adware? Do the data that such cookies carry help ad companies to know how often someone visits a site on which they place their ads?

In general, what's the consequence of retaining or of deleting such cookies?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

i don't think you understand what adware is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adware

if it's not causing a new or foreign program to run on your computer, then you probably don't have to worry about it.

cookies in particular are probably associated with banner and sidebar ads from sites you intentionally visit. you can make your browser refuse such cookies if you want.

the counting of visits is done on the server side, not on your computer nor depending on information stored on your computer. at best a cookie could help them track your identity from login to login, should you be accessing the internet via a service that dynamically assigns you an ip address that you would share over time with multiple people. but it's hardly your responsibility to help them get that level of information about their traffic. if you want, sign up for whatever widget they have on their site, a mailing list or comment-account access, and let them count special return users that way.