Definition: AIS (African Information Service)

Web sites use cookies to simulate a continuous connection to that site. This makes it more convenient for users by allowing them to visit pages within a site without having to reintroduce themselves with each mouse click. Contrary to popular fears and misconceptions, cookies were not created to spy on or otherwise invade the privacy of Internet users.

Cookies contain only information that users volunteer, and they do not have the capability of infiltrating a user's hard drive and sneaking away personal information. The simple function of a cookie is that of helping the user navigate a web site with as little obstruction as possible.

Cookies are small data structures used by a web server to deliver data to a web client (user); request that the client store the information; and in certain circumstances, return the information to the web site. Web sites can thus "remember" information about users to facilitate their preferences for a particular site and allow the use of user passwords. The web site may deliver one or more cookies to the client. The client stores cookie data in one or more flat files on its local hard drive.

Cookies allow web sites to maintain user information across HTTP connections. The current HTTP protocol is "stateless," meaning that the server does not store any information about a particular HTTP transaction; each connection is "fresh" and has no knowledge of any other HTTP transaction. "State" information is information about a communication between a user and a server, similar in many ways to frequent flyer profiles or option settings in desktop software. (For example, a preference for aisle or window seats is cookie-like information that a frequent-flyer program might store about its customers.) In some cases it is useful to maintain state information about the user across HTTP transactions.

Control cookies in your browsers:

Internet Explorer Browser

Beginning with version 3.0, Internet Explorer began giving users the power to control cookies. In version 3.0 and higher, you can activate your "Cookie Alert" by clicking on > Tools from your standard  toolbar and select > Internet options, > Click Security Tab and select > Custom level - Scroll down until you get to Cookies - You can Enable, Disable or Prompt

• To specify that you want Internet Explorer to accept cookies without prompting you first, click Enable.

• To specify that you want Internet Explorer to warn you if you are about to receive a cookie from a Web site, click Prompt.

• To specify that you do not want to allow cookies to be sent to your computer by Web sites, and that existing cookies on your computer cannot be read by Web sites, click Disable.

Netscape Browser

Beginning with version 4.0, Netscape Navigator began giving users the power to control cookies. In version 4.0 and higher, you can activate your "Cookie Alert" by pulling down the Edit menu and clicking Preferences. Click Advanced Settings at the bottom of the dialog box, and choose from the following:

• Accept all cookies.
• Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server.
• Disable cookies.

Another option is for Navigator to warn you before accepting a cookie. Every time there is an incoming cookie, a dialog box will ask if you want to accept it.

In some pages on AIS web site where users have to register before gaining access we use cookie to remember your last visit. The cookie is not sent back to us but reside on your machine and dies naturally after three hours.

Opera

Click on Tools >> Preferences >> Advanced >> Cookies