COOKIES

How (and why) we monitor our site

Ithaca Partners uses Google Analytics to help us understand the way in which our visitors use this site. Google Analytics places a ‘cookie’ (actually a small text file) onto your computer. This records anonymous data about visitors who come and browse our site.

This anonymous data is used to monitor website activity and is for Ithaca Partners’ use only. It allows us to see where you are coming from, the page that you arrive on, and the page that you leave the site from. It also tells us which pages you visit and how long you spend on them. We can then evaluate how effectively our site is performing and if necessary optimise our content to better meet your needs.

For official information on cookies and the EU Cookie Law, (including the requirements that it imposes) please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user’s hard drive. It is generated by a web page server, which is basically the computer that operates a web site. The information the cookie contains is set by the server and it can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user’s identification card, which tell a web site when the user has returned.

Cookies make the interaction between users and web sites faster and easier. Without cookies, it would be very difficult for a web site to allow a visitor to fill up a shopping cart or to remember the user’s preferences or registration details for a future visit.

No. Cookies are small pieces of text. They are not computer programs, and they can’t be executed as code. Also, they cannot be used to disseminate viruses, and modern versions of both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers allow users to set their own limitations to the number of cookies saved on their hard drives.

All recent versions of popular browsers give users a level of control over cookies. Users can set their browsers to accept or reject all, or certain, cookies. Users can also set their browser to prompt them each time a cookie is offered.

If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.