Cookie Policy

This website uses cookies essential to the efficient and consistent operation of the site and to offer a personalized experience for users.

What are cookies?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to the internet browser on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies do lots of different things on the internet, such as facilitating efficient navigation of a website, remembering user preferences, and generally improving the experience of a website. They also play a role in online shopping carts and stores and in internet advertising and marketing.

Some cookies contain personal information – for example, if you click to “remember me” when logging into a website, a cookie will store your username – but not all collect information that identifies you. Some collect general information such as how users arrive at and use a website, which a website owner can evaluate and find ways to improve site features and content.

Types of Cookies

There are mainly four kinds of cookies:

  • Session cookies.These cookies last only for the session and are erased when the user closes the web browser.
  • Persistent cookies. These cookies remain even after the internet browser session is closed. These cookies are stored on a user’s computer or mobile device until they expire or until the user deletes the cookie. Persistent cookies are used to collect identifying information about the user, such as web surfing behaviour or user preferences for a specific website. They have expiration dates which may vary from cookie to cookie.
  • First-party cookies.These cookies are placed by the website a user is visiting. For example, if you visit Amazon.com, then Amazon.com generates cookies for direct interaction wih their website.
  • Third-party cookies.These cookies are placed by a site other than the one a visitor is using. For example, these are most often related to online advertising and marketing, social media networks like Twitter and Facebook, and some embedded media services such as Vimeo, YouTube, and SoundCloud.

The majority of modern web browsers support cookies and most have settings that can be customized to decline some cookies and the abliity for a user to delete the cookies at will.

For more information about cookies, see http://www.allaboutcookies.org

Cookie Categories

There are four main categories of cookies:

  • Strictly Necessary Cookies
    These cookies are essential to a user’s ability to navigate a website and use its features. Example: Without these cookies, a user would not be able to log into their account at the website or complete a purchase at an online store. Another “strictly necessary” example is a cookie that retains a user’s preference on whether or not to accept cookies from a website they visit.
  • Performance Cookies
    These cookies collect information about how a visitor uses a website. These cookies do not collect personally identifying information but allow website owners to evaluate the site’s performance in order to improve user experience and content. Example: Cookies related to Google Analytics.
  • Functionality
    These cookies remember user preferences in order to provide a more personalized experience of a website. They may store things such as your user name, language or the region preference, or even text size. These cookies may also be used to provide services a user has asked for, such as watching a video or commenting on a blog, or logging into a website. Example: When you visit a weather reporting website, you might enter your postal code so you see weather specific to your region.
  • Targeting or Advertising
    These cookies are used to deliver advertisements that are more relevant and suited to a user and their interests. They are also used to limit the number of times a user might see an advertisement, as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website owner’s permission. They remember what websites a user has visited and the information is shared with other organizations such as advertisers. Sometimes these cookies are linked to site functionality.

The length of time a cookie will stay on your computer or mobile device depends on whether it is a “persistent” or “session” cookie. Session cookies will only stay on your device until you stop browsing. Persistent cookies stay on your computer or mobile device until they expire or are deleted.

First-Party Cookies – Cookies on this website

First-party cookies are cookies that relate to the functions and features of this website specifically, and are set by this website, not a third party.

  • Microsoft Azure
    Cookie Name: ARRAffinity
    Cookie Type: Functionality / Session Cookie
    About the Cookie: This cookie used because our website is hosted on Microsoft Azure to keep a visitor’s session to a specific instance of the website within Azure. These expire when the session expires.
  • WordPress Cookies
    Cookie Name: wordress_test_cookie
    Cookie Type: Session Cookie
    About the Cookie: This cookie is only placed if you happen upon the login page for the site. It does not retain any personal data but simply checks to see if your browser has cookies enabled. You should never see this cookie, but just in case you do, we wanted you to know what it does.

Third-Party Cookies

  • YouTube
    This website may sometimes use YouTube to deliver video content. YouTube cookies enable you to view any YouTube-embeded videos included on this site’s pages or blog posts. The expiration date of these cookies vary; some expire after a session ends or a browser window is closed, and some end after 20 years.

    When possible, this website uses YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode for embedding videos. YouTube cookies may be set on your computer after you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store any personally identifying information for playbacks of videos embedded with privacy-enhanced mode. To find out more, please visit YouTube’s embedding videos information page.

    Common YouTube cookies: APISID, CONSENT, HSID, LOGIN_INFO, PREF, SAPISID, SID, SSID, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, YSC, 1P_JAR, DV, NID

  • Social Media
    This website also provides ways to share our pages and blog posts to social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. If you choose to share content from this site through any of the social media buttons on this site, be aware that these sites are likely to collect information about your online activities. This site has no control over placement of those cookies and how they function, therefore it is recommended that you review the official privacy policy of the respective social network to find out more about their use of your information and/or how to opt out or delete such information.

3rd-Party Cookie Information
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Google

Future Cookies
This website may cease usage of some cookies and introduce others from time to time to improve user’s experience. Any changes will be reflected on this Cookie Policy page.

Managing Cookies

Most browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.) are configured to accept cookies but allow users to manage those cookie settings and provide ways to delete cookies. These are official instructions for major browsers:

Safari
Google Chrome
Firefox (Mozilla)
Opera
Internet Explorer

For more information about cookies, see http://www.allaboutcookies.org