There are cookies which are trackers for websites. They monitor the hits the sites receive but htere is a flip side..

DOES CANNABIS.COM USE SITE METER TO TRACK?

Most disappointing is that SiteMeter did not inform webmasters that they started doing this a few months ago. They have also refused to respond to numerous inquiries about the deal, causing many websites to stop using the SiteMeter service. There are grumblings about a class action lawsuit of webmasters against SiteMeter, but I doubt it will go that far.

I know many blogs used the service because it was free and user-friendly, but I strongly encourage them to stop. Free alternatives include Google Analytics (powerful but complicated) and StatCounter (what I’m using). I noticed the IdahoFallz.com website even seems to load faster after removing SiteMeter code.

I encourage visitors to inspect their cookies and delete all that contain the name SiteMeter, specificclick, or even the word ‘ad’. Look through all of your cookies, because they are organized alphabetically and I found some in places such as ‘about.specificclick’. Don’t know how to find or delete cookies? Firefox: Tools > Options > Privacy > Show Cookies. Select specific cookies and hit your ‘Delete’ button. Internet Explorer: Tools > Internet Options > General > Settings > View Files. IE does not organize these neatly like Firefox does, so it can be helpful to hit the ‘Type’ column heading in order to organize them better.

You can also block future SpecificClick cookies in Firefox via Tools > Options > Privacy > Exceptions, type the phrase specificclick.net and hitting ‘Block’, then typing the phrase adopt.specificclick.net and hitting ‘Block’, then ‘Close’ and ‘OK’.

Keep in mind that not all cookies are bad. IdahoFallz.com uses some cookies to provide a better experience for you, most notably for the ‘Read New Comments’ script. Deleting that cookie will cause all comments to appear new to you.

If you see websites displaying the SiteMeter graphic, encourage them via email or comments to switch to a new service.

Well I'm downloading Fire Fox NOW....

download the NoScript plugin for FF. Disables flash, activeX, javascript from all sites except ones on your whitelist. Its a bit of a pain the first couple weeks as you add your regular sites to the whitelist, but after that, its a godsend. I no longer fear any viruses or malware when I surf. It wont protect against cookies, but you've already covered how to get rid of those.

DrSpiggity