When you sign in using your User ID and password, your browser can "remember" this information. Check the box and you won't have to Sign in each time you come back. Although we may ask you to re-enter your password if you've been away from the computer for more than a day. Note: You should always remember your User ID and password or write them down in a safe place.

How to enable cookies in your browser.

Should I check it or not?

If you are concerned that other people might accidentally see your personalized forecast, do not check the "Remember my ID & Password" box. Be sure to click "Sign Out" when you leave your computer. This will ensure that theFutureMinders asks for a User ID and password the next time you access theFutureMinders' personalized services. If you use a shared computer (in a library, Internet cafe, university, airport or other common area) DO NOT check the "Remember my ID & Password" checkbox.

What if I change my mind?

You can always sign out of theFutureMinders' personalized services at any time by clicking the "Sign out" link at the top of each personalized theFutureMinders page. Once you've Signed out, you can Sign in again and choose whether your browser "remembers" or not by clicking the "Remember my ID and password" check box.

How does this work?

A "cookie" is a small piece of information which a web server can store temporarily with your web browser. This is useful for having your browser remember some specific information which the web server can later retrieve.

For example, when you browse through an "online shopping mall" and add items to your "shopping cart" as you browse, a list of the items you've picked up is stored by your browser so that you can pay for all of the items at once when you're finished shopping. It's much more efficient for each browser to keep track of information like this than to expect the web server to have to remember who bought what, especially if there are thousands of people using it the web server at a time.

For information on how to set Netscape browser to accept cookies, you can go to: http://help.netscape.com/kb/consumer/19970226-2.html

For information on how to set IE browser to accept cookies, you can go to: http://www.microsoft.com/info/cookies.htm

As you browse the web, any cookies which servers might send to your browser are stored in your computer's memory. When you quit out of your browser, any cookies that haven't expired are written to a cookie file so they can be reloaded next time you run your browser. (On a Mac this file is named "MagicCookie", on Unix it's "cookies", and on Windows it's "cookies.txt". You can look at this file with a text editor to see exactly what cookies are stored there, or delete the file to get rid of all of the cookies - this is harmless and shouldn't cause any problems.)

A cookie file is NOT a secret way for a web server to find out everything about you and what you have on your hard drive. The ONLY way that any private information could be in your cookie file would be if you personally gave that information to a web server in the first place and it decided to put that information into your cookie file for some reason. Also, each cookie is marked with information about what web server it's for; your browser does not send any cookies to any web server they're not for. There is absolutely no way for a web server to get access to any private information about you or your system through cookies. Also, there is no possible way that a virus could be spread through the use of cookies.

If you want to know when a server is trying to send a cookie to you so you can choose whether or not to accept it, then go to the "Protocols" section under "Network Preferences" in Netscape Navigator 3.x and turn on "Show an Alert Before Accepting a Cookie." (On the other hand, if you don't want to be asked whether or not you want to accept a cookie, this is where you can turn that off.) If you're running Netscape Communicator, you can refuse cookies entirely by setting an option in the "Advanced" section of the Preferences.

For Internet Explorer, go to 'Advanced' under view Internet options. Check the 'Prompt before accepting Cookies' under cookies section.

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