What Are These Tracking Technologies?

Think of tracking technologies as digital bookmarks that help websites remember you. Most people call them cookies, but there are a few different types working behind the scenes.

Cookies are tiny text files that land on your computer or phone when you browse. They store bits of information — like your language preference or items in a shopping cart. Some stick around for years, others vanish when you close your browser.

We also use web beacons (sometimes called pixel tags) and local storage. These work differently from cookies but serve similar purposes. They help us understand how people move through our site and which features actually get used.

The Types We Use

How We Actually Use Them

Keeping Things Running

Essential cookies handle the technical side. When you log in, they remember who you are as you click through different sections. They prevent security issues and distribute traffic across our servers so the site doesn't crash during busy periods.

Understanding Site Performance

Analytics give us the bigger picture. We see which research tools get the most attention, which tutorial pages help people, and where the navigation gets confusing. Last month, we noticed people were bouncing from one particular page at a high rate — turned out the layout was confusing on mobile devices. Fixed it based on that data.

Personalizing Your Experience

Functional cookies remember small preferences. If you set the interface to display data in a specific format, or if you prefer certain dashboard layouts, these cookies save those choices. Nothing groundbreaking, but it saves you from reconfiguring things every visit.

Third-Party Services

We work with external services that place their own tracking technologies. Analytics platforms help us measure traffic patterns. Some marketing tools show where visitors come from and how campaigns perform.

These third parties have their own privacy policies. We pick services carefully, but you should know they collect data according to their own rules, not just ours. The main ones we use include analytics providers and content delivery networks that speed up the site.

Managing Your Preferences

You control what gets stored on your device. Every modern browser lets you block or delete cookies. Here's how to do it in the major ones:

Keep in mind that blocking certain cookies might break parts of the site. Essential ones are necessary for basic functionality — without them, you might not be able to log in or save your work.

How Long Data Sticks Around

Different cookies have different lifespans. Session cookies disappear when you close your browser — these handle temporary things like keeping you logged in during a single visit.

Persistent cookies hang around longer. Some last a few days, others up to two years. We use longer-lasting ones for preferences that you'd want remembered between visits. Marketing cookies from third parties often persist the longest, sometimes up to a year.

You can clear all of this whenever you want through your browser settings. The analytical data we collect gets stored separately and we keep it for up to 26 months before deletion.

Updates to This Policy

We update this document when our practices change or when regulations require it. Check the date at the top to see when we last revised it. Major changes get announced through email if you have an account with us.

Sometimes we add new tools or services that require different tracking technologies. When that happens, we update this policy to reflect what's new and give you the information to make informed choices.