Larry Castigates Cookies
No problem really - I just wanted to share with you your suggestion on getting the SpySweeper for spyware removal and thank you for suggesting to all of us getting it and show to all what it does and some of the spyware that when you are surfing the web what it can create so many problems to your computer and here is what on a normal day of my surfing and what SpySweeper caught and deleted from entering my computer. do a search on some of these and see the results and it will amaze you as to what really spyware and certain cookies can do to your PC.

Our Answer
Hi Larry, let us clear something up real quick here. Cookies can never be spyware or adware for a number of reasons:

1. Cookies are text files and cannot "run" (execute).
2. Cookies cannot track you from site to site. They can only track your movements within a site or group of sites.
3. Cookies are limited in the information that they give.
4. Cookies are ubiquitous because cookies allow sites like MSN/YAHOO/GMAIL to save your preferences
5. Cookies, unlike Spyware and Adware are easily removed without using any special program. You can simply delete them
6. SpySweeper only detects cookies if you allow it to (and only because to be competitive they have to since other spyware programs label cookies as spyware/adware. If SpyBot does it and SpySweeper doesn't - the non-savvy user might think SpySweeper was missing something.
7. The suffix "ware" as in spyware, freeware, shareware, adware, malware indicates a program. A cookie is a text file only ..not a program. It does not run or "execute".
8. Cookies do not consume your computer's system resources nor use your computer's Internet connection's bandwidth.

Why are cookies used:
1. To prevent you from seeing the same advertisement twice by acknowledging you're a returning visitor and not a new visitor
2. To allow webmasters to count the number of visitors to their site and to see which pages are the most popular. You cannot run a business unless you know your customers' preferences. Can you imagine running a restaurant and not keeping track of what dinners sell and which don't? You might track the biggest selling meals but that does not mean you have any idea who the people are. This is not "Spying".
3. To allow personalize settings like MSN and Yahoo "start pages" (colors, location, etc.)

What exactly is a cookie?
A cookie is a piece of information sent by a Web server to a user's browser. Cookies may include information such as login or registration identification, user preferences, online "shopping cart" information, etc. The browser saves the information, and sends it back to the Web server whenever the browser returns to the Web site. The Web server may use the cookie to customize the display it sends to the user, or it may keep track of the different pages within the site that the user accesses for internal use such as determining which pages are popular and which pages are not. There is no personal information being exchanged between the browser and your computer and the Web site which dropped the cookie. The only piece of identification that could be traced to you is the IP address, but this is not stored by the cookie for use on any other site but the one you're visiting. This is in contrast to spyware/adware which tracks your browsing habits across all sites, stores your IP address and may attach a user identification number to your IP address for future reference.  Browsers may be configured to alert the user when a cookie is being sent, or to refuse to accept cookies. If you set your browser to disallow cookies you may not be able to access certain sites. Cookies, unlike spyware/adware, do not require a special program to remove them. In fact they don't require any program at all to remove them. You can simply delete them or use your browser's "Delete Cookies" feature to remove them.

We think the whole idea of someone calling cookies adware or spyware is ridiculous. There are very few sites on the Web that do not use cookies. Cookies are not dangerous and can be remove in less than 5 seconds by simply deleting them. Cookies have earned a bad reputation they don't deserve. There are  more important things to worry about than cookies. If you're going to worry about cookies worry about things like - what do I want today- Oatmeal raisin or Lemon nut? Decisions, decisions. I never met a cookie I didn't like. I really like chocolate chip the best still :)

Here's some further reading to help you understand why cookies are not spyware or adware.
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000246.html
http://www.spywareguide.com/articles/article_show.php?id=57