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Settings Manager

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What can I do with the Settings Manager?

Macromedia is committed to providing you with options to control Flash content and Flash applications. The Macromedia Flash Player Settings Manager lets you manage global privacy settings, storage settings, security settings, and automatic notification settings, using the following panels:

To require that all websites ask your permission before using your camera or microphone, or to prevent any website from accessing your camera or microphone, you use the Global Privacy Settings Panel.
To specify the amount of disk space that websites you haven't yet visited can use to store information on your computer, or to prevent websites you haven't yet visited from storing information on your computer, you use the Global Storage Settings Panel.
To specify if certain websites are allowed to access information on other websites, you use the Global Security Settings Panel.
To specify if and how often Flash Player should check for updated versions, you use the Global Notifications Settings Panel.
To view or change the privacy settings for websites you have already visited, you use the Website Privacy Settings Panel.
To view or change the storage settings for websites you have already visited, or to delete information that any or all websites have already stored on your computer, you use the Website Storage Settings Panel.

How do I get to the Settings Manager panel in Macromedia Flash Player?

Use the links below to access the relevant settings manager panels directly:

What are privacy settings?

Applications that are created using Macromedia Flash may want to have access to the camera and/or microphone available on your computer. Privacy settings let you specify whether you want applications from a particular website to have such access. Note that it is the person or company that has created the application you are using that is requesting such access, not Macromedia (unless Macromedia has created the application that wants access to your camera or microphone).

It is the responsibility of the person or company requesting access to make it clear to you why they want access and how they plan to use the audio or video. You should be aware of the privacy policy of anyone who is requesting audio or video access. For example, Macromedia's privacy policy is posted at www.macromedia.com/go/privacy. Contact the website requesting access for information on their privacy policy.

It's important to understand that even though this settings panel is part of Macromedia Flash Player, the audio and video will be used by an application created by a third party. Macromedia assumes no responsibility for third-party privacy policies, actions of third-party companies in capturing audio or video on your computer, or such companies' use of such data or information.

To specify privacy settings for all websites, use the Global Privacy Settings Panel. To specify privacy settings for individual websites, use the Website Privacy Settings Panel.

What are storage settings?

Applications that are created using Macromedia Flash may want to store some information on your computer, but the amount they can store is limited to 100 kilobytes unless you agree to allocate additional space. Local storage settings let you specify how much disk space, if any, applications from a particular website can use to store information on your computer. Note that it is the person or company that has created the application you are using that is requesting such access, not Macromedia (unless Macromedia has created the application that wants to save the information). It is the responsibility of the person or company requesting access to make it clear to you why they want access and how they plan to use the information they save. You should be aware of the privacy policy of anyone who is requesting access to your computer. For example, the Macromedia privacy policy is posted at www.macromedia.com/go/privacy. Contact the website requesting access for information on their privacy policy.

It's important to understand that even though this settings panel is part of Macromedia Flash Player, the information will be used by an application created by a third party. Macromedia assumes no responsibility for third-party privacy policies, actions of third-party companies in storing information on your computer, or such companies' use of such data or information.

To specify storage settings for websites you haven't yet visited, use the Global Storage Settings Panel. To specify storage settings for websites you have already visited, use the Website Storage Settings Panel.

What are security settings?

In some cases, a dialog box appears because the Flash application you are viewing is trying to access information from a site outside its own domain, using an older system of security. Flash Player is alerting you that information might be shared between two sites and is asking if you want to allow or deny such access. Security settings let you specify if Flash Player should always ask for your permission before allowing access, always deny access, or always allow access to other sites or domains without requesting permission. To modify your security settings, use the Global Security Settings Panel.

For more information about Flash Player security, go to the Macromedia Flash Player Security website.

What are automatic notification settings?

Periodically, Macromedia updates Macromedia Flash Player with new features or fixes to minor problems. Automatic notification settings let you specify whether Macromedia automatically notifies you when an updated version of Flash Player is available so that you can install the updated version right away.

Updates to Macromedia Flash Player ensure that Flash Player works properly and may include changes to security or new product functionality. Macromedia recommends that you update to the latest version of Flash Player whenever a new version is available, especially when a security update is mentioned.

Although you may select whether or not to receive automatic notification of updates and how frequently to receive them, Macromedia is not responsible for errors or security problems that occur because the version of Macromedia Flash Player on your computer is not the most current version available.

To specify automatic notification settings, use the Global Notifications Settings Panel.

Note: Automatic notification is available on all Microsoft Windows platforms for the following browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer, AOL, Mozilla, Netscape Navigator, or Opera. You also need to have permission to install software on your computer; that is, you need to log in as an administrator or as a user that has permission to install software.

I've already set privacy and disk space options in my browser. Why do I need to do so again?

You may be aware that some websites work together with your browser to store small amounts of data, called cookies, on your computer for their own use in the future. For example, when you go to a website regularly, it may welcome you by name; your name is probably stored in a cookie, and you can use browser options to determine whether you want cookies or not. You may also have specified in your browser that pages you visit can take up only a certain amount of disk space.

When Macromedia Flash content is being played, the settings you select for Flash Player are used in place of options you may have set in your browser. That is, even if you have specified in your browser settings that you do not want cookies placed on your computer, you may be asked if a Flash application can store information. This happens because the information stored by Flash Player is not the same as a cookie; it is used only by the Flash application, and has no relation to any other Internet privacy or security settings you may have set in your browser.

Similarly, the amount of disk space you let the Flash application use has no relation to the amount of disk space you have allotted for stored pages in your browser. That is, when Flash content is being played, the amount of disk space you allow here is in addition to any space your browser is using for stored pages.

No matter how you may have configured your browser, you still have the option to allow or deny the Flash application permission to store the information, and to specify how much disk space the stored information can occupy.

What is the Macromedia Flash Player Security policy?

Macromedia is proactively enhancing the Flash Security model to make it consistent with industry policies. For more information, go to the Macromedia Flash Player Security website.