A cookie is a little file which a website sends to the browser and saves on the User’s computer when visiting a website. Cookies are used in order to allow or enhance the running of the website, but also to gain information on the Site or on the User’s web-browsing activities.
Generally speaking, the Site uses cookies both for technical purposes and for additional purposes: while technical cookies are used as strictly necessary to the correct running of the Site and to provide the User with the services expressly requested (e.g. authentication, language selection, etc.), as illustrated below, the cookies used for additional purposes (e.g. targeting and profiling cookies, analytics cookies) are used in order to carry out analysis of the User’s behaviour on the Site, in order to develop the content of the Site and send marketing messages in line with the preferences showed by the User during the web-browsing of the Site.
a. Technical cookies
These cookies are essential to allow the User to browse on the Site and use its functionalities and are necessary to the correct working of the Site and to record the choices expressed by the User (e.g. username, language, etc.), to distribute requests on different servers, to record when the User gives his/her authorization or expresses the consent to specific options (e.g. newsletters), to allow the User to visualize contents and video through Adobe Flash Player. These cookies will expire after the session and do not require the User’s consent.
b. First Party performance and Analytics Cookies
These cookies may be session or persistent cookies, and their use is limited to the performance and enhancement of the Site. They collect information concerning how a User uses the Site, such as the pages visited. In addition, analytics cookies may recognize, measure and track the visitors of the Site, allowing us to improve and enhance the Site, by way of an example by ascertaining if the User easily finds the searched information, or by identifying the aspects of the Site are more interesting. Said cookies are used by IMS TECHNOLOGIES to elaborate statistical analysis on the ways User browse through the Site, on the number of pages visited or of clicks made on a page during the browsing.
c. First party targeting and profiling cookies
These cookies are used in relation to the contents visualized and the use of the Site by the User. This allows the Site to record and register the preferences showed by each User for the following visits, analysing the User’s behaviour on the Site and personalizing specific contents of the Site depending on the single User, in order to develop the contents and send advertising messages in line with the preferences showed by the User during the browsing of the Site. This category of cookies may be also used in order to limit the number of visualization of specific advertising, and to measure the effects of a specific advertising campaign.
The Company may also insert web beacons (GIFT or web bugs) in web pages and emails in order to verify the clicks on the links or images contained there and the opening of the emails of newsletters. Such information are collected in order to calculate the number of Users which have visited the pages of the Site or clicked the content of the newsletters, allowing the Company not only to obtain statistical information, but also to identify the features and contents preferred by each User, in order to send personalized information.
How to disable cookies on the browser
Apart from the choice to accept or refuse the cookies used by the Site for additional purposes by means of the mechanism illustrated in this Privacy Policy, in the future the User may disable from the browser the cookies installed by the Site also by means of the setting of the same browser. The majority of web browsers are set to accept cookies. However, if so wished, the User may set his/her browser to limit the number of cookies accepted or to block all cookies, by changing the browser’s settings with the following procedures:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer: Click “Tools” in the top right corner and select “Internet settings”. In the pop-up select “Privacy”: here the User may change the cookies settings.
- Google Chrome: Click the “wrench” in the top right corner and select “Settings”. Then select “Show advanced settings” and change the “Privacy” settings.
- Mozilla Firefox: In the top left menu select “Settings”. In the pop-up window select “Privacy”: here the User may change the cookies settings.
- Safari: In the top right menu select “Preferences”. Then select “Security” and change the cookies settings.
Please be aware that by disabling all the cookies on the Site, certain functionalities of the latter may not be available.
Further information on cookies
The website www.allaboutcookies.org contains the instructions for the management of cookies of the most used browsers; alternatively, it is possible to consult the documentation related to the software used on the device.