Online publishing is primarily supported by advertising and so are we.
What is a cookie?
Cookies are small pieces of data, stored in text files, that are stored on your computer or other device when websites are loaded in a browser. They are widely used to “remember” you and your preferences, either for a single visit (through a “session cookie”) or for multiple repeat visits (using a “persistent cookie”). They ensure a consistent and efficient experience for visitors, and perform essential functions such as allowing users to register and remain logged in. Cookies may be set by the site that you are visiting (known as “first party cookies”), or by third parties, such as those who serve content or provide advertising or analytics services on the website (“third party cookies”).
Both websites and HTML emails may also contain other tracking technologies such as “web beacons” or “pixels.” These are typically small transparent images that provide us with statistics, for similar purposes as cookies. They are often used in conjunction with cookies, though they are not stored on your computer in the same way. As a result, if you disable cookies, web beacons may still load, but their functionality will be restricted.
Advertising technologies
Our website uses the following technologies for advertising purposes Universal Analytics, AdWords and DoubleClick, Dynamic Remarketing from Google, Facebook Custom Audiences and Facebook Connect, Twitter Advertising. Those are modern, advanced analysis methods and tools to understand users’ habits on our website. This information helps us improve our products and services and provide relevant services and information. In principle, we use only anonymized data that does not allow us to identify the user.
Below we describe the analysis services and technology that we use for such purposes. Additionally, we show how you can prevent these services from analysis of your use of our website.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to help us understand how you engage with our site so that we can improve it. Google Analytics reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. You may install a Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Button here. The Google Analytics Privacy Policy can be read here.
Google AdSense
We use Google Analytics to help us understand how you engage with our site and to provide advertisements that are targeted to our site, content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google. They can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. The Google Adsense Privacy Policy can be read here.
Twitter advertising
Twitter provides advertising services that use cookies, mobile device IDs or hash values for email addresses in order to recognize visitors to our website on its services and provide them with advertisements tailored to their interests and preferences. These measures can be limited or deactivated by changing the settings of your Twitter account.
Facebook Connect
Facebook Connect is a Facebook tool that allows Facebook users to log into other websites, apps and services using their Facebook account. Thus, the other service gains access to some of the preferences of the user’s Facebook account and social connections on which it can base its own products and services. This is dependent on the user’s Facebook settings. More details are available in the privacy policy of Facebook. Facebook may use data on how users use such other services in order to recognize visitors to our website on its services, which enables it to tailor its advertisements to the interests and preferences of the user. You can opt out of this form of advertising by changing the settings at the Digital Advertising Alliance page.
Google Dynamic Remarketing
With Google Dynamic Remarketing, we can use the anonymized IDs generated by cookies (e.g. Google Analytics) to compile groups and lists of users and website visitors based on certain criteria, e.g. certain activities or from existing datasets, in order to provide users with information and advertisements for our services and content, tailored to their interests and preferences, on Google’s services. Google cookies are also used for this. You can prevent the use of these cookies for advertisements on Google services and by several other providers at the Digital Advertising Alliance page.
Google Tag Manager
We use Google Tag Manager to embed tags in our website. When it detects an incoming http request, it collects the IP address and stores it temporarily in order to correct any connection errors.
Facebook Custom Audiences
Facebook Custom Audiences enables us to use existing datasets to compile groups and lists of users based on certain criteria in order to provide users with information and advertisements, tailored to their interests and preferences, on Facebook’s services. Before transmission to Facebook, the data is irreversibly encrypted in the form of hash values on our computers; Facebook can compare these against its user databases. You can opt out of this form of advertising by changing the settings at the Digital Advertising Alliance page.
Facebook Lookalike Audiences
Facebook Lookalike Audiences enables us to use existing datasets to compile groups and lists of users based on certain criteria in order to provide users with similar interests and preferences with relevant information on Facebook’s services. Before transmission to Facebook, the data is irreversibly encrypted in the form of hash values (encrypted numeric values) on our computers. You can opt out of this form of advertising by changing the settings on the Digital Advertising Alliance page.
Doubleclick
DoubleClick and AdWords are promotional services from Google that use cookies to identify visitors to our website on other services. You can opt out of this by changing the settings on the Google page.
Google Adwords Conversions
Google AdWords Conversions and Google DoubleClick Floodlight enable us to determine how clicks on adverts or information on Google platforms effectively lead to transactions and similar user actions on our website. These features use temporary cookies from Google and do not process user data. Google provides options to prevent the use of these cookies; alternatively, you can change the settings in your browser.
How we use cookies
We use cookies for a number of different purposes. Some cookies are necessary for technical reasons; some enable a personalized experience for both visitors and registered users; and some allow the display of advertising from selected third-party networks. Some of these cookies may be set when a page is loaded, or when a visitor takes a particular action (clicking the “like” or “follow” button on a post, for example).
Types of Cookie
The table below explains the types of cookies we use on our websites and why we use them.
| Category of cookies | Why we use these cookies |
| Strictly Necessary | These cookies are essential for websites on our services to perform their basic functions. These include those required to allow registered users to authenticate and perform account related functions, as well as to save the contents of virtual “carts” on sites that have an ecommerce functionality. |
| Functionality | These cookies are used to store preferences set by users such as account name, language, and location. |
| Security | We use these cookies to help identify and prevent potential security risks. |
| Analytics and Performance | Performance cookies collect information on how users interact with our websites, including what pages are visited most, as well as other analytical data. We use these details to improve how our websites function and to understand how users interact with them. |
| Advertising | These cookies are used to display relevant advertising to visitors who use our services or visit websites we host or provide, as well as to understand and report on the efficacy of ads served on our websites. They track details such as the number of unique visitors, the number of times particular ads have been displayed, and the number of clicks the ads have received. They are also used to build user profiles, including showing you ads based on products you’ve viewed or acts you have taken on our (and other) websites. These are set by us and trusted third party networks and are generally persistent in nature. |
| Third Party / Embedded Content | We make use of different third-party applications and services to enhance the experience of website visitors. These include social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (through the use of sharing buttons), or embedded content from YouTube and Vimeo. As a result, cookies may be set by these third parties, and used by them to track your online activity. We have no direct control over the information that is collected by these cookies. |
Social Media Widgets
We display sharing buttons so you can use social networking to share items from our site. It also includes the recommend buttons and other interactive programs that run on our site that collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and sets a cookie to enable the widget to function properly. Your interactions with these Widgets are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them.
Traditional banner ads
We have strict guidelines on the banner advertisements that we accept. Expanding banners are only delivered to each browser once daily. Animated ads can’t be longer than 30 seconds. Audio must be user-initiated and of course, no pop-ups or pop-unders.
Changes
This Cookie Policy and our commitment to protecting the privacy of your personal data can result in changes to this Data Protection Policy. Please regularly review this Cookie Policy to keep up to date with any changes.
