Blocking cookies

The reason Internet Explorer lets some cookies through, even on a "High" setting, is because those cookies are of no concern to your privacy. They merely help make the site easier to use, or collect anonymous data that can't be traced back to yourself. If this is unacceptable to you, then your only choice is to use Firefox. Here you have two options. You can switch off all cookies except for those sites you specify. To do this, select Tools > Options > Privacy, untick "Accept cookies from sites", and use the Exceptions button to enter the URLs of those sites that you're happy to allow cookies from. A more practical solution is to ask Firefox to prompt you every time a site attempts to place a cookie on your machine. To do this, leave "Accept cookies from sites" ticked, but select "ask me every time" under Keep Until. This option throws up a prompt whenever a site attempts to place a cookie on your PC. You can choose to accept the cookie, accept for the session only, or deny. If you tick the box "Use my choice for all cookies from this site" you'll only be prompted once with this dialog for cookies directly from the site itself. Third-party cookies will throw up separate prompts, enabling you - for example - to accept all cookies explicitly from a Web site without accepting cookies from third-party advertisers. If you leave the site and return later, or reopen Firefox at a later time, you may find some sites want to place additional cookies on your machine, or modify existing ones (even if you're not on the site itself). You can then choose to deny these future access or allow them to be modified (in which case you won't be asked again). At first you'll be bombarded with requests, but if you tick the box before choosing Accept, Accept for session only or Deny then they'll slowly disappear. Use the Exceptions button to manage individual settings (if you accidentally allow one through or deny it, you can remove it from this list so the prompt appears again the next time the site attempts to place that cookie on your machine). Deleting your private data at the end of a session will remove any cookies on your machine, but won't remove your settings, so you can have the best of both worlds. If you want to reset your cookie settings and start from scratch (which is something that we recommend every month or so in case you've let some cookies through you shouldn't), return to the Exceptions list and click "Remove All Sites".