Here are the main reasons to clear cookies from your smartphone, according to experts:
To protect your privacy. Often created by advertising networks, search engine companies, device manufacturers and social media giants, nonessential cookies are used to track you online or show you ads based on your searching or browsing topics and habits. But how much do you want these tech companies to know about you and your likes and dislikes? And what if a site that keeps your sensitive information automatically loaded suffers a data breach? "My recommendation is to block or disable third-party cookies," says DeMuro. "This means that sites aren't able to track you as easily because it keeps them from being able to trade some information about you."
To fix a website "bug." Sometimes sites don’t load properly, have login issues or may have display glitches (“bugs”) that cause them to freeze or close unexpectedly. Clearing your cookies can give you a clean slate on websites, free up storage and enhance your device’s overall performance. This is especially advantageous for older phones with limited memory and storage capacity.
While this article focuses on smartphones, we would be remiss not to acknowledge that clearing the cookies on a computer is also incredibly important, especially if you're on a shared computer. It can protect your personal information by ensuring that you're logged out of all the websites you just accessed so that no one else can sit down and keep using your accounts.
