On Sun Aug 15, Ian Greenway was heard muttering:
> Hi everyone.
Howdy,
> Can somebody tell me please, about cookies?
When a site sets a cookie, it stores some info on your
harddisk in a file which tells it info about your visit. When you go
back, it automatically looks up what it last stored so it can have
some 'intelligence' about what to show you. Try turning them to 'ask
always' in Voyager and have a look when one pops up. I don't think
they can determine information you don't tell them - like email
address - but if one site stores a cookie, sometimes others can read
it. Nothing to worry about really unless you spend your time visiting
dodgy sites. And anyway, you can always delete the file when you
finish 'surfing' (uuurggh). Think of them as like a store card in
Safeway - they know your shopping habits because it's all on your
card. And as with cookies, most can only be read by the same site,
just like WHSmith can't read your Safeway ABC card.
> A growing number of sites keep saying they offer more advanced features if you
>enable them, and
> several (eg the AFB ML site) wont even work if you don't have them
> enabled.
To join AFB you need to switch cookies on so it can store info like
your username and password. When you next visit the egroups website,
you don't need to type them in because they are stored on your HD.
However, once you've joined, you can switch cookies off again if you
like. They are only needed to actually visit the site. Reading offline
with MD2 (or Yam or whatever) doesn't need them.
BTW, if you joing AFB prepare for a few more than the stated number of
mails in the magazine. The limit is at 150, but I seem to get more
than that very regularly. We nearly always hit the limit.
> Back in the deeps of time before I had a 'net connection I remember
> being told that cookies are a security risk, and that your email
> address is available to the site in question.
As above :) I was a bit premature there. [cue unfunny personal jokes]
> Regards,
> Ian
Paul C, gone to the moon.
--
.. If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales?
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