Keepsakes and Cookies

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What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of text information stored on your computer's hard disk by your web browser.

You'll find that sentence, or something a lot like it, on websites that try to explain cookies. Webmasters and web designers understand it, but for most of us, it's just tech-speak.

Let's compare cookies to something in the real world. Something we use a lot, especially in this digital age of texting and other forms of direct communication.

Cookies are like a name and phone number. No matter how or where you record the number, you need to include a name. Scratch it on a piece of paper, enter it in your I-Pad, or even if you memorize the phone number, what good is it without a name?

So, let's make up a phone number.

Person: Samantha
Phone Number: 555-1212

What you see above is "a small amount of text information." If we want to convert the text information into a cookie that your browser will accept, we write it like this:

Samantha=555-1212

The name on the left side of the equal-sign identifies the information on the right side of the equal sign. Web programmers refer to this as a name/value pair. All cookies follow this "name=value" format.

How does Keepsakes use cookies?

Cookies let us identify customer orders on our webserver. That's all they do. They don't change browser settings, download secret code to your computer, or track customer activity on our website.

Our cookies do nothing but identify your order on our webserver. We download just one cookie to your computer.

That single cookie allows us to identify your order from all the other orders on our webserver. It's called a session cookie. We don't download a session cookie until you select an item for your order. You can enter the Stitchery Store, browse around all you like, and you won't get a single cookie from us, until you select an item. We only download a session cookie after you have indicated that you might place an order.

And that's how Keepsakes uses cookies.