Adam Gaffin at Network World Fusion gets comments from people demanding to know why his Web site is trying to install spyware on their computer. His reply:
Well, good for you dear sir or madam for running anti-spyware software on your PC. It’s a good idea, and I do it myself. Unfortunately, your software is equating a bit of text with a malicious application.
What we do is use “tracking” cookies from DoubleClick so we can track aggregate site numbers (how many people visit page X, how many articles about topic Y are viewed, etc.)
These are NOT spyware applications. These are simple text files. Text files cannot take over your browser. They can’t screw around with your Windows Registry. They don’t keep you from uninstalling them.
Like I said: Cookies are not spyware.
Ed Bott 