Cookies

If you cannot log in or are continually prompted to do so, it may be because you do not have your cookies enabled. To understand cookies and our use of them more thoroughly, please find some commonly asked questions and answers about iVillage cookies below.

WHAT IS A COOKIE? A cookie is nothing more than a simple text file of information placed there by Web servers to help improve your Web-surfing experience. For example, it can be used to keep track of which discussion group posts you have read and which have been added since your last visit.

HOW DOES iVILLAGE USE COOKIES? We have two main cookies in use at iVillage. The first is actually our sign-in program. This cookie runs as a mini program between our server and your hard drive. This is so you don't have to repeatedly sign in every time you go to a different discussion group, change chat rooms or try to access any of the areas of our site that are reserved for our members. The other cookie is used to keep an eye on where our users go on the site and how long they spend there. This allows us to better understand what areas of our site are the most popular and which we should try to improve. For example, if we see that many users are going to a certain area but leaving almost immediately, well, we then know we had better improve that area!

Our server tries to set this second cookie when you enter iVillage. If you refuse it, it automatically tries to reset as you travel through the site, so please leave your cookies enabled while visiting iVillage.

We use this information to help us make iVillage one of the best and most useful sites on the Internet. None of our cookies "read" your hard drive. We don't track where you came from to get to us, or where you go after you leave. Even if we wanted to keep track of this information (we wouldn't), we couldn't! This is an important fact about cookies technology that gets lost in the shuffle: A server can only read the cookie data that particular server has placed in the cookie.

WHO HAS ACCESS TO THE INFO ON MY COOKIE? The information in a cookie can only be read by the system that placed the information there originally. Basically, a site can only keep track of where you go within that particular site. A server cannot read information placed in your cookie by another Website server. So at least in the case of cookies, Big Brother is not watching you!

HOW TO ENABLE COOKIES: If you have just signed up, changed browsers or recently upgraded your browser, it's possible that you may have your security settings set to "reject cookies," and therefore cannot log on.

IE (Internet Explorer) 4.* and 5.*:
Open IE, select tools > Internet options > security > Internet. Below this, slide the setting to "medium." Then while there, select the "custom" button, scroll down to the setting that says "accept cookies" and select enable on both ones (there are two).

IE 6. (Internet Explorer):
Open IE, click Tools > Internet Options > Privacy tab. Here you can choose to allow all cookies or just choose individual sites to allow cookies to.

Netscape 7.0:
Choose "Preferences..." from the Edit menu. On the left, click on "Advanced." Then select "Scripts & Plugins." At the bottom of the list that appears, check the box next to "Read Cookies" Click OK. Cookies are now enabled. Then, close out of your browser. You can still stay online, just close the program. Then open your browser again and go to the page fresh (type in the URL).