We are committed to addressing the concerns of our fiends and customers promptly and we encourage you to let us know about any issues that arise. Lately, we've had a number of questions about our use of cookies in our shopping cart system. There are lots of ugly rumors about cookies: they're virus infested and hard drive hogs; they allow leaks of private and personal information and are gateways to uncontrolled access to your hard drive. Here's the truth about cookies in general and the simple facts about cookies used in our system:

THE TRUTH ABOUT COOKIES: A cookie is typically a small bit of innocuous data that a website places on your computer so that when you revisit the site, it can recognize who you are and thus, be more responsive to your needs. Some cookies track what places on their site you visited so they can help you navigate their site more efficiently; others remember your name so their site can welcome you by name. Still others remember registration data so their sites can serve data to you more efficiently. No cookie or web site can collect information about you that you don't give it directly (through registration forms or by answering questions) or indirectly by visiting various parts of the site that placed the cookie. For example, a cookie cannot know your telephone number, street address, email address, or income unless you give it to the website directly.

All cookies work only with the web site that placed them; and only the web server that set the cookie can retrieve or read it later. So one web site's cookie cannot transmit the data it collects to another site. In short, most all cookies are created to be beneficial to the user. They shouldn't be a source of apprehension or concern. Finally, cookies are limited to pieces of information that cannot be executed. Therefore, it is impossible for cookies to contain viruses that will harm your computer or damage your files. Although it is true that cookies are stored on your hard drive, they are limited to 4K in size (most are much smaller), a tiny fraction of your hard drive space. Cookies are also placed with an expiration date. Most cookies expire at the end of your session, after a week or after a month.

ABOUT OUR COOKIES: We use cookies in our system as a convenience to you and to increase your security, as well as to improve performance of the web server. When you browse the web, your browser program does not maintain a connection to the web server. It connects and disconnects for every item on every page. The server has no way of knowing that you are the same person when you browse from one page to the next. Therefore, the server needs a way to keep your purchases separate from others that may be using the server at the same time.

If we did not use cookies, the server would have to rely on your IP address to keep your information private. However, your IP address probably changes every time you log in to your Internet Service Provider. It is possible that someone else could assume your identity if they visited our site right after you, were we to rely on IP addresses.

Cookies allow us to assign you a unique "session number," which will never be reused, every time you visit our site. That session number is only valid for the duration of your visit (or 15 minutes after your last request for a page.) Each time you look at a page on our site, your browser returns that session number. That allows us to keep your information associated only with you.

The cookies we place on your hard disk contain, at most, the following information: