Cookie Policy
- GSO
- Cookie Policy
This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are and how we use cookies on our website. For almost any website to work properly, it needs to collect certain basic information on its users. Websites can obtain this data by users voluntarily choosing to submit certain information. However, many websites, including ours, may also use a variety of technologies, including through third parties, that access information already stored on your personal computer, laptop, tablet or mobile phone or smartphone (each a “Device”) whenever you visit or interact with our website. Cookies are one form of this technology that collect information to help us improve your online experience. This Cookie Policy also explains the different types of cookies we use, and how you can change or delete them. Please also see our Privacy and Data Protection Policy for further details about the ways in which we collect and use your personal data as well as other tracking technologies that may be used on the website.
We hope that this Cookie Policy helps you understand, and feel more confident about, our use of cookies on our website. If you have any further queries, please contact us via email at: [email protected].
Cookies are text files with small amounts of information which are downloaded to the browser you use on your Device when you visit a website. They are widely used in order to make websites work or work in a better, more efficient way. Websites can read and write the files in a cookie, enabling them to recognize you and remember important information that will make your use of a website more convenient (for example, by remembering your username on a login form). We do this to understand your use of our website, improve your user experience and enable personalized features and content, and optimize our advertisements and marketing.
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you do not want to allow cookies or only allow the use of certain types of cookies, please refer to your browser settings which should allow you to accept or deny cookies (see paragraph 3 below for browser-specific links that provide instructions on how to change these settings). You can control whether cookies are accepted by your browser at all or selectively choose which cookies you allow and which cookies you reject. You can also edit your browser options to choose not to receive cookies in the future or withdraw your consent to the use of cookies at any time or delete cookies that have already been set on your Device. If you use more than one Device and/or browser, you will need to disable cookies on each Device and on each browser separately. Further information about the procedure to follow in order to disable cookies can be found on your internet browser provider’s website via your help screen. You may wish to refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html for information on commonly used browsers. You should be able to find more in depth information about opting out of cookies on your browser settings menu.
Typically, cookies are classified into two types, either “session cookies” which do not stay on your Device after you close your browser or “persistent cookies” which will usually remain on your Device until you delete them or they expire. We use both types of cookies on our website:
A) Session cookie
A session cookie is used each time you visit our website to give you a session ID. We use this type of cookie to link your actions on our website. Each session cookie will only last for the length of your browser session (each browser session will start when you open your browser window and finish when you close your browser window). After your visit to our website, all session cookies are deleted. Each time you visit our website you will have a different session ID.
B) Persistent cookie
A persistent cookie has a longer lifetime than a session cookie and lasts for the period of time specified in the cookie (this will vary from cookie to cookie). A persistent cookie will not be deleted when you close your browser window and will be activated every time you visit a website that placed the particular persistent cookie.
Cookies also have, broadly speaking, four different functions and can be categorized as follows: strictly necessary cookies, performance cookies, functionality cookies and targeting or advertising cookies. We only use strictly necessary cookies and performance cookies on our website.
We use two different categories of cookies on our website:
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are essential to our website and enable you to use certain features, such as remembering information you have entered on forms when you move onto other pages of our website. If we did not use strictly necessary cookies, we may not be able to provide certain services to you and our website may not perform as intended. These strictly necessary cookies are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms.
In some cases, we may use third parties to manage our strictly necessary cookies but we do not allow any third party to use these cookies other than for the specific purposes listed in this paragraph. Strictly necessary cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you’ve been on the internet.
Performance cookies
Performance cookies collect information about your use of our website and enable us to improve functionality and your user experience, as well as enable personalized features and content. For example, performance cookies will show us which are the most frequently visited pages on our website, help us record any difficulties you have with our website and show us whether our advertising is effective or not. Performance cookies do not collect information to display targeted advertising on other websites.
Performance cookies do not collect information that identifies you individually, and all information that is collected by these cookies is aggregated and anonymized.
In some cases, we may use third parties to manage our performance cookies but we do not allow any third party to use these cookies other than for the purposes listed in this paragraph.
For example, we use Google Analytics, managed by Google Inc., to track website usage and activity. The data collected will generally be aggregated to provide trends and usage patterns for business analysis, website improvement and performance metrics. The type of information we collect includes how many visitors visit our website, how many customers log in (if applicable), when they visited, for how long and which areas of our website were visited. This information is not used to identify you individually. You can find out more about how Google uses data when you use our website or apps at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.
Further details on our specific use of cookies are contained in the following table:
Cookies
Cookie Name | URL | Description | Expiration | Category | Managed By |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
_gat | archgroup.com | This cookie is used to throttle request rate. | 1 hour | Performance | Google Analytics |
_ga | archgroup.com | This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. | 24 hours | Performance | Google Analytics |
_gid | archgroup.com | This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. | 2 years | Performance | Google Analytics |
Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but you can alter the setting of your browser to erase cookies or prevent automatic acceptance of all cookies. For most browsers, you have the option to see what cookies you currently have and delete them individually, block third party cookies or cookies from particular sites, accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is issued or reject all cookies. Visit the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ menu on your browser to change settings, and check the following links for more browser-specific information. You should be aware that any preferences will be lost if you delete all cookies and many websites will not work properly or you will lose some functionality. We do not recommend turning off all cookies when using our website for these reasons.
Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Safari for macs and iOS
Our Privacy and Data Protection Policy and this Cookie Policy is provided to be transparent about our practices regarding the use of cookies and similar tracking technology and to allow you the opportunity to make an informed choice. Where applicable, we will obtain your prior informed consent to use cookies and other tracking technologies which store or access information on your Device.
Please note that by deleting cookies or disabling future cookies you may be unable to access certain areas or features of our website and some settings such as your stored username and password may have to be reset. If you adjust your cookie settings on your browser this may also affect other websites you visit.
We enable you to reject the use of certain cookies for purposes such as analytics by visiting your cookie settings, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on your consent before its withdrawal. You can change your preferences at any time by changing your settings. Please bear in mind that deleting and blocking cookies will have an impact on your user experience as parts of the site may no longer work.
You can find more information about cookies by visiting the following information website:
www.aboutcookies.org