All cookied out

I put off updating my system software until I think I absolutely have to. And the longer I put it off, the more there is to download and update. But with the new iOS5 debuting this week, and as the proud owner of Mac iOS devices, I thought I'd best get with the program and get my computer in shape.

I made my nest: book to read, portable phone, iPhone, iPad, water and coffee. I was set for a two hour download session. As my prediction skills leave a lot to be desired, I was pleased to find it only took 30 minutes from "Yes, I agree to everything in the contract" to restart and seeing my laptop's happy screen again.

Then I went exploring. Safari looked a little different, so I went over to the Apple to site to find out what was new. One might think this would have been a good thing to do before downloading 5.1, but I didn't.

Among other goodies available to me--not all are since I'm not a Lion user and can't be on the present laptop--I was intrigued by the privacy factor.

In Preferences, there was now more control over who could leave cookies on my computer and follow me around. Well, whoever had been doing that in the first place?

Come to find out, EVERYONE! There were nearly 2000 of the little cookie/follow-you sites and a lovely button which said I could remove all of them. Plus a warning that removing them might make the site not react the way I was used to. So I started scrolling.

I recognized about half of the sites. Perhaps I'd visited the others accidentally or they were really in disguise. All I know is, if I didn't think they were necessary for my cyber well-being, I hit the remove button.

By the time it was over, I was down to 70 nosey sites. That's probably too many and I may well ditch the rest if things run well.

I mean, enough is enough!