About Cookies

Cookies were originally designed to help a website distinguish a user's browser as a previous visitor and thus save and remember any preferences that may have been set while the user was browsing the site. A cookie is a small string of text that a website can send to your browser. A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive, pass on computer viruses, or capture your email address. Currently, websites use cookies to enhance the user's visit; in general, cookies can securely store a user's ID and password, personalize home pages, identify which parts of a site have been visited, or keep track of selections in a "shopping cart."

It is possible to set your browser to inform you when a cookie is being placed — this way, you have the opportunity to decide whether to accept the cookie. On this confidential information website, you must accept cookies because they are essential for site security, which is their only purpose. Refusing to accept a cookie will prevent you from using the services provided.

Here is how to set your cookie preferences:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 3: Select Options from the View menu. Choose the Advanced menu to modify your preference if you wish to be warned before accepting cookies.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4: Select Options from the View menu. Choose the Advanced menu and scroll to the section labeled "Cookies," where several options are listed.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5: Select Internet Options from the Tools menu. Choose the Security tab, then choose the zone that you want to set the security level for. Scroll to the section labeled "Cookies," where several options are listed. For further information about the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and use of cookies, visit Microsoft's website.

AOL: If you are using AOL v3.0 for Windows 95, select Preferences from the Members menu. Click on the WWW icon and select Advanced. Modify your preference if you wish to be warned before accepting cookies.

If you are using the following AOL browsers, you will not be able to set cookie preferences since these browsers automatically accept cookies:

AOL v3.0 for Windows 3.0, using AOL's proprietary browser or AOL's version of Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.0; AOL for the Mac, using AOL's version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.1.

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