These technologies are essentially small data files placed on your computer, tablet, mobile phone or other device (“collectively, a “device”) that allows us to record information when you visit or interact with our websites, service, applications, messaging, and other tools. Though often these technologies are generically referred to as “Cookies,” each functions slightly differently, and is better explained below:
Cookies: These are small text files (typically made up of letters and numbers) placed in the memory of your browser or device when you visit a website or view a message. Cookies allow a website to recognize a particular device or browser. There are several types of cookies:
1)Session cookies expire at the end of your browser session and allow us to link your actions during that particular browser session.
2)Persistent cookies are stored on your device in between browser sessions, allowing us to remember your preferences or actions across multiple sites.
3)First-party cookies are those set by a website that is being visited by the user at the time in order to preserve your settings (e.g., while on our site).
4)Third-party cookies are placed in your browser by a website, or domain, that is not the website or domain that you are currently visiting. If a user visits a website and another entity sets a cookie through that website this would be a third-party cookie.
When you enter a website using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing personal information; like your name, e-mail address, and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.), which then stores the information for later use. The next time you go to the same website, your browser will send the cookie to the server. The message is sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
Web beacons: small files (also called “pixels”, “image tags”, or “script tags”) that may be loaded on our sites, applications, and tools, that may work in concert with cookies to identify our users and provide anonymized data on their behaviour.
Similar technologies: Technologies that store information in your browser or device utilizing local shared objects or local storage, such as flash cookies, HTML 5 cookies, and other web application software methods. These technologies can operate across all of your browsers, and in some instances may not be fully managed by your browser and may require management directly through your installed applications or device. We do not use these technologies for storing information to target advertising to you on or off our sites.