Technology in terms you understand. Sign up for the Confident Computing newsletter for weekly solutions to make your life easier. Click here and get The Ask Leo! Guide to Staying Safe on the Internet — FREE Edition as my thank you for subscribing!

Why do some sites ask to store information on my machine?

Question:

My question is this: what’s the deal with these miserable outfits asking
permission to store some crap on my hard drive? They’ve come up within the last
6 months or so and some like a specific a domain name are darn near impossible
to cancel. Click on “deny” half a dozen times and they may let you watch part
of a clip but then they reappear to screw up your viewing. is there any way to
stop this intrusion?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #100
I look at why some websites need to store a small bit of
information on your hard drive… and what you can do about it.

Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!

Sites downloading information

May I?
I Can Haz Permission?

Well, yes… Click “accept.”

So here’s the deal. A lot of the technology that we are using these days
actually does require that they store a little bit of information on your hard
drive. Usually it’s information such as:

  • Have you viewed this video before?

  • Where were you in this video the last time you used it?

  • Do you have the right software to view this video?

  • Can you download that software if you don’t have the right software?

  • And so forth.

In other words, there’s a lot of very, valid information that these sites
need to store on your machine in order for their things to work properly – or
for your ongoing experience with them to operate as smoothly as possible.

By ongoing experience, I mean the next video or the next time you come back
to that site, and so forth.

Permission to download

Now a lot of sites don’t bother to ask your permission. Whatever site this
is, and whatever specific software it is that’s asking your permission, is
actually being fairly polite.

Like I said, a lot of sites just store things without asking. You never
notice it; it’s not a problem but this site is being polite; it’s asking.

Security settings

Now it’s also possible that your security software is asking on its behalf.
In other words the security software is noticing that this site needs to store
a little bit of information on your hard drive, and it’s asking you. If this is
a site you regularly visit, and a site that has (in your case apparently)
videos that you want to see, there’s nothing at all wrong with simply saying
“yes”. The amount they’re trying to store is typically tiny.

And it really only has to do with you and your experience with that site.
It’s not like they’re trying to store gigabytes of data on your hard drive for
some reason. No. It’s just a little bit of information that’s used to make your
experience with the video better.

Your choices

So my recommendation: there are two ways to deal with this problem:

  1. Don’t visit sites that do that – if you really object to even this little
    bit of information being stored;

  2. Or click “Accept.”

Like I said at the beginning… let the software do what it’s trying to do
and in general you’ll have a much better experience.

(Transcript lightly edited for readability.)

Do this

Subscribe to Confident Computing! Less frustration and more confidence, solutions, answers, and tips in your inbox every week.

I'll see you there!

9 comments on “Why do some sites ask to store information on my machine?”

  1. Yeah, I didn’t get that “cat business” either…???

    Just me experimenting. It’s a kitten asking for permission to illustrate (poorly it appears) the asking for permission mentioned in the article. Besides, the internet doesn’t have enough cats, right. Smile
    Ken’s blog is http://blog.runonfriday.com/

    Reply
  2. Hover your mouse pointer over the kitten and the words “May I?” appear. The kitty’s asking permission, thus illustrating Leo’s article.

    Reply
  3. The cat looks like a Russian Blue longhair but I could be wrong.
    It is possible to erase what a site stores on you computer, isn’t it? Will CCleaner do this?

    CCleaner will certainly clean a lot of different applications stored data. Will it clean them all? Hard to say. I know CCleaner adds new applications from time to time, but I also know new applications and new storage mechanisms come along as well.

    Leo
    03-Apr-2013
    Reply
  4. Wouldn’t clearing “cookies” take care of that? I keep shortcuts to “My recent documents” and “prefetch” on my desktop so that I can clean them easier.

    Apps often use use techniques other then cookies for storing data (so-called “Flash cookies” would be one example, there are others). I’m not sure how “My recent documents” and “prefetch” would help in any way.

    Leo
    03-Apr-2013
    Reply
  5. @JustJohnnC
    My Recent Documents and Prefetch don’t have the ability to clear cookies. Cookie can be cleared though their respective browsers or by using a utility like CCleaner. On the other hand, it’s not harmful to leave the cookies on your machine.

    And BTW, as for the breed of cat, it’s Lolcat.

    And Leo, the caption should read “I Can haz permission to store something? “

    Much better caption. Done. Smile

    Leo
    03-Apr-2013
    Reply

Leave a reply:

Before commenting please:

  • Read the article.
  • Comment on the article.
  • No personal information.
  • No spam.

Comments violating those rules will be removed. Comments that don't add value will be removed, including off-topic or content-free comments, or comments that look even a little bit like spam. All comments containing links and certain keywords will be moderated before publication.

I want comments to be valuable for everyone, including those who come later and take the time to read.