In almost all cases, the user isn't notified of the download of the tracking cookie, let alone asked for permission to install it.
Now, though, some of the companies that place these files on your hard disk are complaining about that defense.
Some are urging the antispyware software companies to stop detecting and removing tracking cookies.
They assert that the secret placement of these tracking mechanisms is a legitimate business practice, and that tracking cookies aren't really spyware or aren't harmful.
Unfortunately for consumers, this twisted reasoning is having some impact.
In the most notable case, Microsoft disabled the detection and removal of tracking cookies when it purchased an antispyware program from a small company called Giant and turned it into Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware.
That is a big reason why I can't recommend the Microsoft product, which still is in the test phase but is available for anyone to download.
I believe it is important for consumers to know who is on their side right from the start and who may be being swayed by companies that do things to your computer without telling you.
Cookies are small text files that Web-site operators - and third-party companies that insert ads into Web sites - place on a user's computer.
There are many definitions, but here is mine, in two sentences: Spyware - and a related category called adware - is computer code placed on a user's computer without his or her permission and without notification, or with notification so obscure it hardly merits the term.
Some tracking-cookie purveyors say their cookies aren't really spyware because they aren't full-fledged programs and they aren't as outrageous as spyware programs such as "key loggers," which record and report every keystroke you enter.