Storing cookies on workstations has both privacy and security issues associated with it. Generally, we like to nuke our cookie files. There is way too much information stored in them and created during web surfing. I (Agatha) visited a site I’d never seen before and was prompted by name to donate money to the site instantly from my checking account. I don’t particularly want to be profiled as I surf either. Some web sites are sloppy with user ids and passwords and this information is visible or easily revealed from the cookie.

The Konqueror web browser has built in cookie management that will allow you to reject certain cookies but allow others, so we don’t have to nuke those cookies. For sites where we like the cookies to persist, we simply use Konqueror. We have used this configuration for months without any problems.

First, find your cookies. The easiest way is to run:
locate cookies
For more info on locate, see Slocate.

On Agatha’s system:

/home/u-1/.kde/share/apps/kcookiejar/cookies
/home/u-1/.netscape/cookies
/home/u-1/.netscape/cookiestrim
/home/u-1/.mozilla/u-1/f1uwy450.slt/cookies.txt
/home/u-1/.opera/cookies4.dat

We have never tried to nuke Opera cookie files, but we don’t use Opera anyway, especially now that Mozilla seems stable. To nuke your cookies every night, enter:
crontab -e
and add (for above Agatha example):
0 2 * * * cat /dev/null > /home/u-1/.netscape/cookies
0 2 * * * cat /dev/null > /home/u-1/.mozilla/u-1/f1uwy450.slt/cookies.txt

This will nuke your cookies at 2 am every day.