Internet security

I have a program for my mac (macscan), and pretty much all it finds is tracking cookies, which i’m assuming is somewhat the same as spyware?

Spyware is similar to a Trojan horse where users can unknowingly install the threat while installing something else. One can become a victim of spyware by downloading certain peer-to-peer file swapping products readily available on the Internet. But more and more, users can be infected with spyware simply by surfing the internet. Many times spyware objects are invisibly and unethically embedded into web pages by the web master. And by simply visiting one of these web sites, the user is unsuspectingly infected.

Cookies are actually harmless text files that certain web sites place onto your hard drive. Your Internet Browser loads the information into memory while you are visiting their site. The Cookie itself, actually takes up very little space and acts as an identification card for the visiting site. You can compare this to visiting your favorite restaurant where your food server will usually remember certain aspects of how you like your food prepared and what you usually order. This information would obviously be based upon his familiarity of your prior visits. Well Cookies actually act in a similar manner and do not contain viruses as a virus must be executable file.