What Cookies Are?
A cookie is a small text file that is stored in your web browser that allows the Site or a third party to recognize you, as a visitor (and not as an individual). Cookies might be used for the following purposes: (1) to enable certain functions; (2) to provide analytics; (3) to store your preferences; and (4) to enable ad delivery and behavioral advertising.
Cookies can either be session cookies or persistent cookies. A session cookie expires automatically when you close your browser. A persistent cookie will remain until it expires, or until you delete your cookies from your browser. Expiration dates are set in the cookies themselves; some may expire after a few minutes while others may expire after longer periods. Cookies placed by the website you’re visiting are called “first-party cookies,” while cookies placed by other entities are called “third-party cookies.”
Cookies are many times used with a pixel tag on the Sites. Pixel tags (also known as web beacons or clear GIFs) are typically transparent graphic images placed on a website. These pixels are used in combination with cookies to measure the actions of visitors’ journey from the original website via our Site to the Partners’ website. For example, we, or our Partners may use pixel tags to track interactions on the Site/s or to understand referrals to Partners from our Site/s, or, for retargeting purposes, as we described in the Privacy Policy, or other interest-based advertising as further explained in section 5 below.
What cookies are used for when you use the Site?
When you access and/or use the Site or interact with the services, we or a third party may place a number of cookies in your browser. Some of the cookies will only be used if you use certain features or select certain preferences, and some cookies will be used for a longer-term purpose, as described in our Privacy Policy.
We also work with and permit certain third parties, including, but not limited to advertising networks and website analysis firms, to place cookies on your computer or browser when you click or otherwise interact with advertisements that are featured on our communications with you, such as within our e-mail marketing. These third-party cookies and analogous technology are used to gather non-PII about your activities on our emails and third party sites you may visit to serve you with advertisements that are relevant to your interests and preferences while you are on third party sites. Some of these third parties participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”), an industry self-regulatory program to give consumers a better understanding of and greater control over ads that are customized based on their online behavior across different websites. To learn more and make choices about preference-based ads from participating third parties, please visit the DAA website at https://youradchoices.com/.
Each cookie serves one of the following purposes:
Essential Cookies: These first-party cookies allow users to use a feature of the Site such as: (i) remaining logged in, (ii) calling our Partner through the Site or (iii) making purchases.
Analytics Cookies: These cookies track information about how the Site/s are being used so that we can improve them and report on our performance. We may also use analytics cookies to test new ads, pages, or features to see how users react to them. Analytics cookies may either be first-party or third-party cookies.
Preference Cookies: These first-party cookies store your Site preferences.
Ad Targeting Cookies: These third-party cookies (also known as “behavioral” or “targeted” advertising are placed by advertising platforms or networks in order to: (i) deliver ads and track ad performance, and (ii) enable advertising networks to deliver ads that may be relevant based upon your activities.
Comments
Suggested text: When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Media
Suggested text: If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
Cookies
Suggested text: If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
Embedded content from other websites
Suggested text: Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
How to enable and disable cookies using your browser
Google Chrome
Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar >> Select Settings >> Click ‘Show advanced settings’ >> In the “Privacy” section, click the ‘Content settings’ button
To enable cookies in the “Cookies” section, pick ‘Allow local data to be set’, this will enable both first-party and third-party cookies. To allow only first-party cookies pick ‘Block all third-party cookies without exception’
To disable cookies, in the “Cookies” section, pick ‘Block sites from setting any data’
Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Chrome. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Chrome, refer to the following page from Google: http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, 7.0, 8.0
Click on ‘Tools’ at the top of your browser window and select ‘Internet Options’ >> In the options window navigate to the ‘Privacy’ tab
To enable cookies: Set the slider to ‘Medium’ or below
To disable cookies: Move the slider to the top to block all cookies
Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Explorer. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Internet Explorer, refer to the following page from Microsoft: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Block-or-allow-cookies
Microsoft Edge
Click on the “More” action button on the toolbar, and select Settings >>Search for View advanced settings and click on it >> Under Cookies section, select either “Don’t block cookies” (default) or “block only third-party cookies” >> Restart Edge.
Mozilla Firefox
Click on ‘Tools’ at the browser menu and select ‘Options’ >> Select the Privacy panel
To enable cookies: Check ‘Accept cookies for sites’
To disable cookies: Uncheck ‘Accept cookies for sites’
Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Firefox. For more information, refer to the following page from Mozilla:http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Enabling%20and%20disabling%20cookies
Opera
Click on ‘Setting’ in the browser menu and select ‘Settings’ >> Select ‘Quick Preferences’
To enable cookies: check “Enable Cookies”
To disable cookies: uncheck “Enable Cookies”
Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Opera. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Opera, refer to the following page from Opera Software: >http://www.opera.com/browser/tutorials/security/privacy
Safari on OSX
Click on ‘Safari’ at the menu bar and select the ‘Preferences’ option >>Click on ‘Security’
To enable cookies: In the ‘Accept cookies’ section select ‘Only from sites you navigate to’
To disable cookies: In the ‘Accept cookies’ section select ‘Never’
Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Safari. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Safari, refer to the following page from Apple:>https://support.apple.com/en-us/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac
All other browsers
Please look for a “help” function in the browser or contact the browser provider.
How to manage your cookies?
Most internet browsers are initially set up to automatically accept cookies. As we explain above, you can change the settings to block cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent to your device.
Please be aware, that if you disable the cookies that we use, this may impact your experience while on the Site, for example, you may not be able to visit certain areas of the Site or you may not receive personalized content or information when you visit a Site.
Who we share your data with
Suggested text: If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
How long we retain your data
Suggested text: If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
What rights you have over your data
Suggested text: If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Where your data is sent
Suggested text: Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.