The Internet was designed as an open system that promoted the two-way flow of information. In other words, everything that is sent has a return address called an IP or Internet Protocol address of the form: 000.11.222.33. Whenever you connect to a website, the site learns your IP address. It also learns the type of computer you are using, the version of the operating system you are running, and the type of browser software you are using. If you open one site and connect to another site from it, the second site knows the referring site. In addition, any advertiser on a site usually learns all this information. With your IP address, it's a simple matter to determine your exact latitude and longitude. Then it's possible for people to link this information to your Web-surfing habits, your personal interests, your home address, where you shop online, and what you have purchased. Most of the above information is exchanged by computers because of Web browser "cookies." A cookie is a small piece of information a remote website stores on your computer. Your browser keeps a log of these little cookies in a file folder of the same name. You can easily do a Find command and search for the location of this folder. To look at its contents, simply open the file in any word processor. This column barely touches on the many issues related to the tradeoff between privacy and ease of use on the Internet. It describes many ways in which your personal information can easily become part of a number of different data bases, and proposes a number of simple solutions for safeguarding assaults on your personal privacy.