Invasion Of Privacy:

Internet

Find Your Cookie

(TIME, August 25) -- Your cookie is the string of text that identifies you to cookie-catching Websites. Use your computer's Find command to get any file with the word cookie in its name. You should be able to figure out by its title which one is your "magic cookie." Look at it using a word-processing program to find out who is stashing cookies in your browser.

Rig Your Cookie

Both Netscape's and Microsoft's browsers give you the option of being warned whenever a Website asks for your cookie. That way, you can refuse to proceed if you don't want to reveal anything about yourself.

Disable Your Cookie

Go to www.luckman.com and get a free "anonymous cookie," a program that disables cookies, among other things.

Know What Your Boss Knows

On Netscape's browser, in the Location field, type about:global. This shows everyplace you've visited, in some cases going back months. In Microsoft's Internet Explorer, you can list every site you've visited for the past 20 days by opening the Go menu and choosing the Open History item. You can erase this stuff by selecting the Clean Cache option on either browser.

Surf The Web Anonmyously

You can browse the Web from behind a privacy curtain by first connecting to www.anonymizer.com. The free account imposes a 60-second delay on all browsing; a pay option lifts that annoying restriction.