What is the difference between Cookies and Viruses?

Answer 1

No, not quite. Cookies were originally intended to be a good thing (perhaps why they are named cookies). What a cookie does is save a bit of information to your computer so that the source can use that information to tell certain things about you. For example, if I went onto eBay (or any site) and clicked the 'Remember Me' button, the site will send me a cookie so that next time, it reads the cookie to identify me as my username, instead of me having to enter my Username and Password every time I log on. A VIRUS, on the other hand, can take the shape of a cookie. These 'virus cookies' can track your computer usage in different ways. One example is in the form of tailored advertisements. Perhaps you get a cookie that tracks what sites you go onto the most. Say that you're a big fan of football, and you frequent football sites. The advertisement site is then going to send you ads that are tailored towards your interests, namely football. Understand?

Answer 2

A cookie is a harmless text file that contains data used by a website, including things like your login session or what items are in your shopping cart. They are completely harmless and will not affect your computer in any way.

A virus, in contrast, is a binary file that contains code that attempts to circumvent your computer's security and perform malicious actions, such as sending out spam emails, tracking your keystrokes and sending them to a third party (e.g. so they can steal your bank account), or even disabling your computer entirely.