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The Machine Room is Back!
This is the recovered Machine Room from 2005. Please don't expect wonders. The look and feel of this site is nine years old, and so is its code. Some of the functionality has been recovered while the rest of the site is modernised and restructured. Watch this space!
Top :: Help & Docs :: Machine Room Cookie Policy
I don't really think I need to explain cookies to the average Machine Room reader. You're obviously worried about privacy, which is why you're here.

The Machine Room uses cookies in one way and one way only: PHP session IDs. These are large random numbers that identify you to the server, so the server can store your settings and preferences across pages.

The data is not held on your computer. Only the session ID is. The data is held on the server's hard drives. The cookie just tells the server which data block to use.

If you're not a registered user (or you haven't logged in), this is temporary. The server deletes idle sessions regularly, and then the cookie is invalid and useless.

If a third party looks at the cookie, they will not get much useful information, as it's only a random number. No password, username or settings. It's also only meant to be disclosed to our domain, but many web browsers don't take these limitations to heart. Unfortunately.

What do we do with the cookie? Nothing. Our PHP back-end issues it, not the Machine Room. We don't track you with it, and we don't advertise. And we're pretty big on privacy (look at the privacy policy).

Can you use the Machine Room without cookies? Yes, you can. Your session ID will automatically be appended to all the Machine Room URLs. So if you're paranoid, (or behind a proxy that removes cookies from untrusted domains) feel free to turn cookies off. You may have to logout and log back in again.

For all you security-conscious people: the session cookie is called MachineRoomSessionID. It has a limited lifespan, and we ask your browser to only divulge it back to the domain machine-room.org (what your browser actually does with it depends on it, its bugs, and its security vulnerabilities). If you receive any other cookie from the Machine Room, something's amiss (note: the old cookie name was the default PHPSESSIONID, which clashed with those of numerous other sites, hence the name change).