Perhaps it's pride, but we want to know if the word of God is reaching people through this site and that therefore our efforts are not in vain. The simplest way to accomplish this is to use electronic “cookies”. The following information will help you understand what that means.
A cookie is a very small file that websites commonly store on your computer. Every time you visit a page on that same site, the browser sends the cookie back to us. The cookie contains a unique code so the website can remember which pages you (and only you) access.
This site does not require users to create an account, subscribe, or log in because we provide all our material for free. But we like to understand how people view each class in order to improve the site’s design and function. So, with your permission, we store a cookie with its unique code for every visitor on their computer. This tells us only the following two things about them (and you).
We track only 1) your IP (Internet Provider) address and 2) your User-Agent string, which is a combination of your browser version and your operating system.
1) Cookies track your IP address so we can see what countries our visitors come from.
2) The browser version helps us make sure the site works for everyone. For example if we discover that 90% of our audience is using Internet Explorer, we'll make adjustments so it displays better for them.
Several governments around the world (especially the European Union and the state of California) have passed laws that require websites to tell visitors that they use cookies, what the cookies are for, and give visitors the right decline them. Even though it means putting an annoying banner on our site, Romans 13:1-7 requires that we follow the laws of both God and man.
Basically, it's because advertisers got so aggressive.
Retail businesses used tracking cookies to tailor sales pitches based on what pages you viewed. Visit a website selling air conditioners and shortly later air conditioning adds would start popping up on other pages you had “Googled” or “Binged”. The search engines were just trying to be helpful, but some nefarious people were becoming aggressive and invasive with their tracking. So, Government officials took notice and passed laws to limit this kind of tracking. Voila! Now we have to put “Cookie Warnings” on our website.
You are currently allowing tracking cookies. Thank you for helping us make this site better.