How to Make It in Life

So I was browsing somebody's blog today and clicked on a link to a Washington Post news article. But instead of opening the article, I was redirected to a page which required me to register with the Washington Post first in order to view said article. I thought, okay, easy enough, it's still free, and I have a spam-only e-mail address I can give them. So I scrolled down the page and found a few questions asking for my e-mail, password, occupation, etc.

Then I saw something that gave me pause: the spaces for my year of birth and zip code were already filled in for me. And they were filled with my exact year of birth and zip code too. Ack!

Now, I have a passing knowledge of cookies and how they track information, but I didn't think they stored this sort of info. And this was my first visit to the Washington Post website, so the info must've come from somewhere else, right? I'm so naive, aren't I? With my false sense of security? And my Vanilla Ice tattoo?

And it made me panic for a bit because I thought, "what other info is being transmitted about me?" The fact that I have a proclivity for buggery? Which isn't true, by the way. I merely like the word. The way it sounds - like a nursery for baby insects. Yes yes.

Anyways, it was an eye opener even though it shouldn't be. Maybe I'll run Ad Aware and Spybot again, but I just ran them like a week ago and they found nothing. Perhaps that's how insidious it all is. I might just have to delete every one of my cookies. But there goes my automatic logins. Oh well, if there's any computer-knowledgable people out there, let me know if there's a better solution.

UPDATE: Checked AutoComplete on my Internet Explorer, and it isn't active, so that's probably not it. Thanks, Rob.