Cookies Information

 COOKIES

A cookie is a piece of text that a web server can store on a user's hard disk. Lou Montulli wrote the cookies specification for Navigator 1.0, the first browser to use the technology. Montulli says this about the origin of the name: “A cookie is a well-known computer science term that is used when describing an opaque piece of data held by an intermediary.”

Cookies allow a Web site to store information on a user's machine and later retrieve it. The pieces of information are stored as name-value pairs.

The vast majority of sites store just one piece of information - a user ID - on your machine. But a site can store many name-value pairs if it wants to. A SafariNow cookie stores an encrypted affiliate ID which is used to monitor referred traffic.

A name-value pair is simply a named piece of data. It is not a program, and it cannot 'do' anything. A Web site can retrieve only the information that it has placed on your machine. It cannot retrieve information from other cookie files, nor any other information from your machine.

Once a cookie is saved on your computer, only the Web site that created the cookie can read it.

There are 2 types of cookies – persistent & temporary:

• A persistent cookie is one stored as a file on your computer, and it remains there when you close Internet Explorer. The cookie can be read by the Web site that created it when you visit that site again.
• A temporary or session cookie is stored only for your current browsing session, and is deleted from your computer when you close Internet Explorer.

SafariNow uses persistent cookies.

SafariNow cookies are stored in this location:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Cookies

Will Cookies Harm My Computer?

Cookies do not act maliciously on computer systems. They are merely text files that can be deleted at any time - they are not plug-ins nor are they programs. Cookies cannot be used to spread viruses and they cannot access your hard drive. Your browser (not a programmer) can save cookie values to your hard disk if it needs to, but that is the limit of the effect on your system. You can delete cookies at any time or set up your browser to indicate when a cookie is being sent.

Will Cookies Fill Up My Hard Drive?

Both Netscape and Microsoft have measures in place that limit the number of cookies that will be saved on your hard drive at one time (300 max). In any event, cookie files are small, comprising no more than 255 characters and 4k of disk space, so you would need about a million cookies to fill up a 4GB drive. This is incredibly unlikely.

How To Set Up Cookies

Cookies need to be enabled for the SafariNow site to function correctly. The method for doing this varies according to browser.

Internet Explorer 6:

The security level must be set to Medium High (use the slider).

If you experience any difficulties with the above, you can add SafariNow to the Allow list:

Firefox 1.5.0.3:

Mozilla 1.7.12:

Netscape Navigator 8.1:

Opera 8.54:

Sites are telling me I need to turn on cookies, but they are on. What's wrong?

There are a couple of possibile causes for problems like this. The first is that you may be running software that interferes with cookie usage. There are many filtering and blocking software packages available for Internet users these days, and many of them also filter cookies. If you are running software like this, then your computer may not receive or send cookies. This will cause sites you visit to assume you are not accepting cookies.

Secondly, your machine may be behind a firewall or proxy server that prevents cookie transmission. This is most likely in a corporate environment. So, regardless of how your browser is set, cookies won't be sent or received by your browser. Since the cookies aren't making it through to your browser, the Web Site will assume you personally aren't accepting them.