What are the ethical issues with fiddling around with browser cookies?

I recently downloaded a small piece of software that lets a person edit (and delete) their browser cookies. Among other things, it lets me view and delete them. Interestingly, it also lets me edit the cookies and then save the edited cookie.

—Many cookies have an expiration date – anywhere from one hour to 100 years in the future.

—Many cookies have some sort of identifying number for tracking purposes.

—Some cookies have an integer that shows the limit of free articles one can see before the pay wall goes up. (In the Atlanta newspaper’s case, you can see four at no charge.)

So ..

- in the first case, I have edited the expiration date to be tomorrow, not 100 years in the future.

- in the second case, I have edited the identifier to a different number (GUID sometimes) which is not me. My hope is that it will screw up the recordkeeping and track the wrong person, or at least not track me.

- in the third case, I changed the limit from 4 to 100 in order to read more articles before the paywall is invoked.

My rationalization, which is admittedly self-serving, is that they have no right to track me, and therefore I can mess with their cookies in any way I want.

[Of course I could clean out my cookies at any time, which is my right.]

But I enjoy messing with them. What are the ethical considerations here?