The Facts About Browser Cookies
A "cookie" is a tiny file (typically no more than a few hundred bytes)
which our web server sends to your computer. This cookie allows our server to
create a personalized desk and build custom menus that help you navigate our
site more easily.
Numerous rumors and "urban myths" have sprung up about cookies. Here are the facts:
- Cookies can not steal data from your computer or spy on your programs or files.
- Cookies do not contain viruses and cannot damage your computer.
- Cookies can not be "stolen" by one web site to spy on what you are doing elsewhere.
People worry that cookies waste disk space. But whenever you view a web page,
every graphic, button and word on that page is stored on your hard drive! In
fact, your browser "cache" (the directory on your drive where these files are
stored) contains thousands of files, large and small, consuming lots of disk
space. A cookie is a grain of sand compared to all the other stuff that
accumulates on your drive as you surf the Web!
It is true that some sites may use cookies to track the pages you view on that
particular site. But it's just as easy to track that information (and find out a
lot more about your surfing habits) just by looking in a website's server logs.
Most webmasters review these statistics to help build better sites that users
will find more useful and entertaining!
We hope this brief tutorial explains the beneficial uses of
browser cookies and reassures you that this programming technique is just that
-- a server-level protocol that is widely used on every major website today.
If you have further questions, please contact the
Help Desk.
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