FAQ -- IDzap.com's Cookies and Security FAQ
- What are cookies anyway?
- Why are cookies developed?
- Why can cookies be a bad idea in terms of privacy?
- Should I allow cookies?
- Can cookies be turned off from the IDzap browsing services?
- How does IDzap block cookies?
- How do I change the cookies setting using the IDzap service?
- Can cookies be turned off from my browser?
- How do I change the browser's setting on cookies?
What are cookies anyway?
A cookie is really a text string
that is transmitted as part of an HTTP header when needed.
It is usually stored in memory under the control of the browser.
There is an expiration time for each cookie.
If the expiration of the cookie is after the time
the user leaves a site,
the information is written to a text file on the user's machine
in a pre-defined location specified by the browser.
Cookie entries are limited in length.
The number of cookies that can exist on a machine
is also restricted.
Why are cookies developed?
Communications between web browsers and web servers
over the world wide web is based on a very simple protocol
call Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
The header http://www.idzap.com is a web address
(formally called a URL) plus a specified protocol to visit the address.
In plain english, it means "use the HTTP protocol and go fetch the content
from the address www.idzap.com".
Being a very simple protocol, HTTP has a very important property
that it is stateless.
This means that there is no memory in HTTP.
Every request made from the browser to the server
is treated as a brand new request, without regard to
what the user was doing prior to making that request.
A stateless protocol, although it is very simple,
could be undesirable in many situations.
Consider the case of e-commerce.
The e-commerce web site would want to keep track
of the user's activities such as
the selection of items to be purchased.
The selection procedure typically consists
of the user visiting multiple pages of the same web site,
and hence involves many HTTP requests.
When the user is ready to checkout,
the web site must be able to "remember"
what the user has palced into the shopping cart.
This feature will require some state information
to be passed from request to request.
Consider another example in "personalized web sites" such as My Yahoo.
In order to keep the user preferences so that
the appropriate content can be served
every time a user visits the site,
it is necessary to pass certain user preference information
from session to session.
To address these usage secenarios,
Netscape developed cookies on top of the stateless HTTP
so that the certain state information can be retained.
Why can cookies be a bad idea in terms of privacy?
The purpose of cookies is to pass information from
one web session to another.
This means that personally specific information
can also be passed.
Should I allow cookies?
This is a personal choice.
Because of the potential privacy risk,
we use "turn off cookies" as the default setting
when you use IDzap.com to surf the web.
In this case, all cookies are blocked
regardless of the cookie setting on your browser.
To change the IDzap cookies settings,
please read
How do I change the cookies setting using the IDzap service?
Can cookies be turned off from the IDzap browsing services?
Certainly.
If you use the IDzap services for browsing,
you can select the IDzap service to block all the cookies for you,
or to allow all cookies to pass through.
If you use IDzap to block all cookies,
no cookies can go from your browser to the site that you visit
regardless of the setting of your browser.
Hence, IDzap can act as a very effective control gate for you.
How does IDzap block cookies?
When you select to block cookies using the IDzap service,
IDzap would block the cookies from reaching the site that you visit.
Therefore, your privacy is protected.
How do I change the cookies setting using the IDzap service?
It depends on the service.
For the free service, the cookies settings at IDzap.com can be changed as follows:
- Click the "Setting" button near the top of
a web page delivered by IDzap.com.
- You will be shown a new page with buttons denoting
"accept" or "reject" for cookies.
Click on the desired button.
- Click the apply button.
For the IDsecure service, click the
"User Preference" button on the top of an IDsecure delivered web page,
then configure cookies and other security parameters.
Can cookies be turned off from my browser?
Absolutely. Modern browsers provide users with the following options:
- Accept all cookies.
- Reject all cookies.
- Warn before accepting cookies.
If you use the IDzap service for browsing,
you can let IDzap handles all cookies for you.
In this case, you can set your browser to accept all cookies,
and configure the IDzap setting to reject cookies.
How do I change the browser's setting on cookies?
For Netscape Communicator:
- Click on the "Edit" menu.
- Click "Preferences..."
- Click "Advanced" in the Category box.
- In the cookies box on the right hand side,
click the desired cookies option.
- Click the "OK" button.
For Internet Explorer:
- Click on the "Tool" menu.
- Click "Internet Options..."
- Click the "Security" tab.
- Click the "Internet" icon and then click "Custom Level..."
- Scroll down to the cookies session,
and then click on the desired option.
- Click the "OK" button and then the "Apply" button.
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