What are cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
- Cookies are simple text files. They are needed to help navigate automatic logins, password authentication, shopping cart functions, personal preference settings and a variety of other functions. Cookies make these functions smooth and hassle-free to the user.
- Cookies don’t search your computer for information. Cookies register the information you provide through your browser. When you enter personal and/or financial information on a website, the cookies store your information, both for ease of use on your next visit, and for ad tracking.
- Information stored by cookies is usually encoded; it is protected from potential computer hackers by security features (which you, the website owner, have put into place.)
- Cookies are necessary and enhance your browsing experience. Without cookies, you would have to reenter all of your information every time you revisited a site. A cookie will simply remember your information on the website to save you time.
- Cookies only store the information you provide. A cookie cannot “grab” your email address. A cookie can store your email address on the website—if you have typed in your email address; a cookie stores all information you voluntarily give when you visit a website.
- Cookies themselves contain very little information other than the URL of the website that created the cookie. Because there is so little information, a cookie can’t be used to identify you by name or other personal information. However, advances in technology have seen an increase in how companies can manipulate cookie information to create a profile of your web surfing habits. Again, this is a profile of a particular consumer’s surfing habits and product preferences, there is no name (your name) attached to the profile.
- Cookies are harmless. They cannot introduce viruses on your computer.
- Cookies are not the same thing as Spyware. A cookie stores your website surfing information; Spyware stores your Internet surfing information (every site you visit).
How do I change my cookie settings?
Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
Visit http://www.wikihow.com/Disable-Cookies to see how to disable cookies from a number of devices.
What cookies does this website use?
| Cookie | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Cookie Preference | viewed_cookie_policy | This cookie is used to remember a user’s choice about cookies on this website. This cookie is, by default, set on arrival to the site with a value of ‘True’. |
| Google Analytics | _ga _gat _gid | These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Also used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate Click here for an overview of privacy at Google |
| Security | wordfence_verifiedHuman | This cookie helps enhance the security of the website, to uniquely identify visitors and monitor suspicious traffic. |
| Google reCAPTCHA | NID | These are essential site cookies, used by the google reCAPTCHA. These cookies use an unique identifier for tracking purposes. Click here for an overview of privacy at Google |
