InformationWeek points to a new study from Jupiter Research that says Web surfers are going overboard with deleting cookies:
58 percent of Internet users have deleted the tiny files, essentially making many consumers anonymous during site visits, and crippling website operators’ ability to gather information, JupiterResearch found through surveys this year of more than 4,600 online consumers. In addition, 39 percent of consumers are deleting cookies from their primary computer monthly.
The reason for these Draconian measures is fear. Consumers are constantly reminded about the risks on the Internet posed by spyware, phishers and viruses, so deleting cookies makes them feel more secure, even though it’s unlikely to make them safer, Peterson said.
The article is oddly sympathetic to Web site administrators who can’t build profiles of their visitors. I feel more pain for the people who think that deleting cookies will have even the tiniest effect on their privacy or security.
Ed Bott 
Ed
As a teacher of e-marketing I often have to explain to quite proficient computer users just what a cookie is and/or does. Further, I believe that right from the commercialisation of the internet in the early 90s those companies/sites placing cookies surely had some kind of obligation to the computer owner to explain why these small bits of code they were being placed on their machine.
To take an not so extreme example, if someone comes into your home its called trespassing, if someone places a listening or camera device in your study or office (or bedroom)its considered a gross invasion of privacy (and illegal in most democracies without a court order). So I can understand why the computer user would remove the ‘offending’ items … particularly if you are new to computers! (That is, one of those we marketing types call the “late adopters!”)
I fear that in this security conscious world of the early 21st-century most people would consider anything placed anywhere that collects information about them with great suspicion.
Maybe an education program is needed to explain just what a cookie is; otherwise I fear that some vote conscious member or parliament/congress will move against them! And I have a feeling that most people would agree with them!
Cheers from Sunny Australia to you and your readers
John Cowper