Product Guide 41
Getting Started with McAfee Internet Security 5.0
Privacy Features
McAfee Internet Security’s Privacy features protect browsing and personal
information that you don’t want anybody to access as a result of your surfing
through the Internet.
What Cookie Blocker Does
Cookies are small files that your Web browser stores on your PC at the request
of a Web server. Each time you view a Web page from the Web server, your
browser sends the cookie back to the server. These cookies can act like a tag,
which lets the Web server track what pages you view and how often you
return to them. Some Web sites, such as Microsoft Expedia, use cookies to
store your password and preferences so that you can automatically log on to
the site.
McAfee Internet Security’s Cookie Blocker offers three options for controlling
the use of cookies on your computer. McAfee Internet Security can:
n Reject all cookies
n Accept all cookies
n Display an alert message each time a cookie is sent to your browser. The
alert displays the name of the entity trying to set the cookie, and
provides you the option either to accept the cookie or not.
When setting up Cookie Blocker in Protection Settings, you can select
one option for direct sites and another for indirect sites. Direct sites are
those that you deliberately access. For example: typing the URL address
in the location bar of your Web browser; clicking a link in a Web page;
or selecting from your list of bookmarks or favorite sites. Indirect sites
are those that you access because the site you are connecting to directly
displays content from another site as part of its own content. For
example, if you went directly to Cool_site.com, it could display an ad
from Ads-r-us.com (the indirect site) in a separate frame in the Cool_site
page.
If during the Interview, you accepted McAfee Internet Security’s
recommendation on how to respond to cookies, Cookie blocker will:
M Automatically allow cookies to be accepted from direct sites.
M Blocks cookies when indirect sites try to set a cookie.
Responding to a Cookie Blocker Alert Message
If during the Interview, you set McAfee Internet Security to prompt you for
action then it will display the Cookie Blocker alert message the first time a site
tries to set a cookie.