The “GT” cookie policy

What are cookies?

Cook­ies are small text files con­tain­ing a string of char­ac­ters that are placed on your com­puter or mobile device that uniquely identi­fy your browser or device.

What are cookies used for?

Cook­ies allow a web­site or web-based ser­vice to know if your com­puter or device has vis­ited that site or ser­vice before. Cook­ies can then be used to help under­stand how the site or ser­vice is being used, help you nav­ig­ate between pages effi­ciently, help remem­ber your pref­er­ences, and gen­er­ally improve your brows­ing exper­i­ence. Cook­ies can also help ensure mar­ket­ing you see online is more rel­ev­ant to you and your interests.

What types of cookies does the “GT” Blog use?

There are gen­er­ally four cat­egor­ies of cook­ies: “Strictly Neces­sary,” “Per­form­ance,” “Func­tion­al­ity,” and “Tar­get­ing.” The “GT” Blog may now, or in the future, routinely use all four cat­egor­ies of cook­ies. You can find out more about each cook­ie cat­egory below.

Strictly Neces­sary Cook­ies. These cook­ies are essen­tial, as they enable you to move around the “GT” Blog and use its fea­tures, such as access­ing logged in or secure areas (if applic­able in future).

Per­form­ance Cook­ies. These cook­ies col­lect inform­a­tion about how you have used the “GT” Blog, for example, inform­a­tion related to the unique user­name you may have provided (if applic­able in the future), so that less strain is placed on the “GT” Blo­g’s back-end infra­struc­ture. These cook­ies may also be used to allow the “GT” Blog to know that you have logged in so that we can serve you fresh­er con­tent than a new user. We also use cook­ies to track aggreg­ate usage, allow­ing us to exper­i­ment with new fea­tures and changes. The inform­a­tion col­lec­ted is used to improve how the “GT” Blog works.

Func­tion­al­ity Cook­ies. These cook­ies allow us to remem­ber things about you, such as wheth­er or not you closed and accep­ted the ban­ner that led you to this page, wheth­er you made a com­ment on a post or page, when you logged in or out (if applic­able now or in the future), the state or his­tory of tools you’ve used or will use now or in the future. These cook­ies also allow us to tail­or the “GT” Blog to provide enhanced fea­tures and con­tent for you now and in the future, and to remem­ber how you may have cus­tom­ised the web­site in oth­er ways. The inform­a­tion these cook­ies col­lect may be anonym­ous, and they are not used to track your brows­ing activ­ity on oth­er sites or services.

Tar­get­ing Cook­ies. the “GT” Blog, our advert­ising part­ners or oth­er third-party part­ners may use these types of cook­ies to deliv­er advert­ising that is rel­ev­ant to your interests. These cook­ies can remem­ber that your device has vis­ited a site or ser­vice, and may also be able to track your device’s brows­ing activ­ity on oth­er sites or ser­vices. This inform­a­tion may be shared with third-party organ­isa­tions, such as advert­isers and/or advert­ising net­works to deliv­er the advert­ising, and to help meas­ure the effect­ive­ness of an advert­ising cam­paign, or oth­er busi­ness part­ners for the pur­pose of provid­ing aggreg­ate usage stat­ist­ics and testing.

How long will cookies stay on my device?

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- and third-party cookies

First-party cook­ies are cook­ies that belong to the “GT” Blog. Third-party cook­ies are cook­ies that anoth­er party places on your device. Third-party cook­ies may be placed on your device by someone provid­ing a ser­vice for the “GT” Blog, for example to help us under­stand how the “GT” Blog is being used. Third-party cook­ies may also be placed on your device by the “GT” Blo­g’s busi­ness part­ners and advert­isers so that they can use them to advert­ise products and ser­vices to you else­where on the Internet.

How to control and delete cookies

Delet­ing cook­ies is simple. Do a search on “how to delete cook­ies”, such as this one. Find a “how-to” guide that fits your browser and/or device.

If you wish to block cook­ies do a search on “how to block cook­ies”, such as this one. Again, find a “how-to” guide that fits your browser and/or device.

Fea­tured image: Cook­ies by Pez­i­b­ear via Pixabay.