Hi Terence, cookies provide convenience -- because sites can recognize a bunch of page/file requests as being related to your preferences -- and tracking -- because sites can recognize a bunch of page/file requests as being related to your browser. When you first install Firefox, this is what it does: * Accepts both first party (server you are visiting) and third party (other sites whose content is linked into the page) cookies, with the exception of cookies from known tracking servers (Standard level Tracking Protection) * Accepts both session cookies (that expire automatically when you close Firefox) and persistent cookies that have a future expiration date * Retains the persistent cookies after you close Firefox Some users want to adopt different approaches to cookies. For example, you may want to more strictly limit third party cookies (for example, using Strict level Tracking Protection). Or to reduce tracking for sites you visit anonymously, you may want to have Firefox clear some cookies more frequently. There are a wide variety of settings that can overlap and conflict, so how exactly to set it up depends on how you want to approach it. What are your thoughts about how you would like cookies to work for you?