| About Cookies |
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A: An Internet cookie is a piece of data placed on your machine by a Web server. Your computer uses a cookie to store and retrieve information. Without cookies, anytime you fill out an Internet form with your name, address, and other information, and then move on to other pages, you would lose it. Some cookies also store passwords to restricted sites and track user browsing habits. A: Not at this particular time, however, we may in the future. Cookies are needed to store passwords, names, addresses and other information so that a Website functions properly. We do not use Internet Cookies to track your browsing habits. Q: Can Cookies Damage My Computer? A: No. According to an extensive Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC) report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, the "vulnerability of systems to damage or snooping by using Web browser cookies is essentially nonexistent." For more information, see the full CIAC report. Q:Do Cookies Threaten My Privacy? A: A cookie only contains information that you provide. It cannot search your hard drive or use your modem to gather additional personal data. Many Internet search engines and retailers, such as Yahoo and Amazon.com, use cookies to retrieve mailing addresses and to track the sites and products you prefer (mainly for marketing purposes). A: Yes, but you may not want to. Both Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer and other powerful browsers have programmable features where you can choose to accept all cookies, accept only cookies from the same server, or deny all cookies. Some browsers will also inform you when a site requests a cookie so you can decide whether to accept or decline it. As mentioned above, the problem with not accepting cookies is that you can lose information as you move from page to page. Also, you will not be able to use some Internet services without cookies. |
