1. OUR USE OF COOKIES

This Cookie Statement describes the different types of Cookies and Other Technologies that may be used in connection with the websites and apps (the “Sites”) owned or controlled by Hoplon Infosec LLC of Chicago, IL 60601, United States its subsidiaries, and our affiliated brands (collectively, “Hoplon”, “we”, “us”, or “our”).

This Cookie Statement explains what cookies are set when you visit our Sites and the purposes for which we use those cookies.

2. WHAT ARE COOKIES?

When we refer to cookies we mean the small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website and which are used to recognise you as a user when you visit and return to the website or in some cases in email communications we send to you, either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (a ‘persistent cookie’), but also other technologies which perform a similar functions (such as web beacons, flash cookies, pixel-tags, email pixels etc).

We use cookies through-out the Sites in order to make those Sites work, or function more efficiently, to provide reporting information, to more generally provide you with a better and safe experience and to provide you with customized content or advertising.

Session Vs Persistent

    Session Cookies: these are cookies that are linked to your browser session and allow us to link your actions during that particular session; they only last as long as your online session and disappear from your computer or device when you close your internet browser.

    Persistent Cookies: these cookies are stored on your device after your browser has been closed and have a defined expiry date. Persistent cookies are helpful where we need to know who you are when you are using more than one browsing session, such as to remember you for your next visit or your selected preferences.

First-Party vs Third-Party

Cookies can be provided directly by us, via us on behalf of a third-party, or directly by a third-party themselves.

    First-Party cookies: These cookies are set by our Site and only that Site can read them.

    Thirty-Party cookies: These cookies are set by a third-party site you are visiting from or from a third-party who has integrated with our Sites (such as through a social plugin allowing you to share a link to our content on that social media platform). We are not responsible for, or have any control over, these types of third-party cookies – you can still block or disable them, just not through us.

3. WHY WE USE COOKIES

Cookies are incredibly helpful both to us and for you and  enable us to better tailor your experience when you use our sites. For example we use cookies to:

    remember your username and password for future visits so that log-in is easier and faster;

    remember your language and other preferences;

    provide a safe and secure service for online transactions;

    keep both the Sites and your data secure and you secure, such as by identifying irregular site behaviour, enabling security features and to allow access to secure areas of our Sites;

    track your response to advertisements and content for analysis and the number of times we send you the same advertisement;

    measure how many people use the sites, and how they use it, so that we may keep it running quickly and efficiently;

    help us and others deliver communications and content to you that are relevant and responsive to your interests and location; and

    allow you to use social plugins and other customized content and experiences (such as posting our content to social media platforms). In addition, our third-party partners may use a cookie or similar technology in order to determine whether you arrive at our site via one of their ads.

4. TYPES OF COOKIES USED BY US ON OUR SITES

Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Sites to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” or “strictly necessary” cookies. Other cookies are optional and either allow us to provide enhanced functionality or personalize elements of our Sites to you or enable us to analyze how users interact with our Sites and target the interests of our users in order to more generally enhance your experience. Third parties also serve cookies through our Sites for functionality, analytics, advertising, and other purposes. This is described in more detail below.

Strictly Necessary or “Essential” Cookies

We use first-party cookies to help our Sites work in the best possible manner. Such cookies enable core functionality within the Sites, are used for security, network management, accessibility, to allow you to access secure areas of our Sites and to remember your cookies preferences. As a result of the essential of these cookies, they cannot be opted out, but you can disable or delete them by adjusting your browser settings. Please note, however, that without these cookies, your user experience may be impacted and you may not be able to access secure parts of our Sites (such as your account page).

In conjunction with obtaining information through cookies, our web servers may log details such as your operating system type, browser type, domain, and other system settings, as well as the language your system uses and the country and time zone in which your device is located. The web server logs also may record information such as the address of the web page that linked you to our site and the IP address of the device you use to connect to the Internet.

To control which web servers collect this information, we may place tags on our web pages called “web beacons.” These are computer instructions that link web pages to particular web servers and their cookies.

Performance Cookies

Performance cookies collect information that is used in an aggregate and anonymous form to help us understand how our Sites are being used. This information is used for statistical purposes only and it is not our intention to use such information to personally identify any user. However, if you have registered and signed into this Site, we may combine this information with information from our web analytic services and cookies to analyze how you use this Website in more detail.

Our web analytics service is typically provided by third-party providers, such as Google Analytics and use technologies such as cookies, web server logs and web beacons to collect information (such as IP address) and use that information to help us analyze how visitors use the Sites. To learn more about our use of such services please see the Analytics section below.

Functionality Cookies

These cookies are used to provide enhanced functionality and customization of content to you and more generally help us customize our Sites to fit your preferences. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. Without these cookies, certain functionality (like videos) may become unavailable.

Targeting Cookies

We may also contract with third-party advertising networks that collect IP addresses and other information through the use of cookies, web server logs and web beacons on our Sites; on third-party websites and on our advertising placed on third-party websites. They use this information to create a profile about you and provide advertisements about products and services tailored to your interests (including for companies not affiliated with us).

You may see these advertisements on our Sites and other websites. This process also helps us manage and track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. When you first visit our Sites, a cookie banner will inform you of the use of these marketing technologies. They will only be used if you accept them or if you continue using this Site.

Social Media Cookies

Social networking cookies are used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on our Sites Websites through third party social networking websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes.

In respect of social sharing buttons for third-party services such as LinkedIn and YouTube, these features use third party cookies that are directly set on your device by these services. When you first visit our Sites, a cookie banner will inform you of the use of these cookies. They will only be used if you accept them or if you continue using this Site. You may change your cookie settings at any time to accept or refuse these cookies by clicking on the cookie control tool below.

Email Tracking

Some of the emails that we send to you may also contain pixel or tracked links which allows us to identify when you have opened the email and to verify which links contained in the email you have accessed.  We use this information to determine which parts of our emails are of most interest to you as well as to more generally gauge how our subscribers engage with our email content. You can delete the pixel by deleting the email. 

A full list of the cookies used by us can be found in the consent management platform of the relevant Site.

5. EMBEDDED CONTENT

We may embed content such as videos that are hosted on YouTube’s servers using its ‘privacy enhanced mode’ or on Wistia. By using Youtube’s ‘privacy enhanced mode’, YouTube will not set cookies on your device until you press play on the YouTube video player.

Please see https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/171780 for more information regarding YouTube’s privacy enhanced mode.

6. SOCIAL MEDIA AND ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGIES

We use third-party social media platforms to support the posting of content across social media as well as to show you interest-based ads.

We may convert your email address, telephone number or other information into a unique value which can be matched by those third parties with a user on their platform or with other data they may have collected from you. This matching allows interest-based ads to be delivered on those platforms. These platforms may have their own privacy notices or policies, which we strongly suggest you review.

We partner with companies such as LinkedIn (operated by Microsoft) who will serve cookies to you when you visit our Site.

7. ANALYTICS

We use web analytics tools to collect information about the use of our Sites to understand how users interact with our Sites in order to better enhance user experience.

In particular we use Google Analytics which uses are range of technologies as well as your IP address to deliver statistical analytics to us.

You may deactivate the ability of these analytics services to analyze your browsing activities on our Sites. To learn more about web analytics service, and to exercise your choice with respect to their collection of information on this Site:

    To disable Google Analytics, please download the browser add-on for the deactivation of Google Analytics provided by Google at http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en. To learn more about privacy and Google Analytics please consult the Google Analytics overview provided by Google at: http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/privacyoverview.html;

    We may implement certain Google Analytics Advertising Features (including Remarketing with Google Analytics; Google Display Network Impression Reporting or Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting). You can opt-out of the Google Analytics Advertising Features through Google Ad settings or by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

For our services and platforms our customers use to interact with our services, we partner with provider FullStory, who provides use with analytics as to how our customers interact with our various services. This tool works by capturing page views, mouse movements and clicks made within those platforms our customers use to interact with our services.

8. HOW TO CONTROL AND DELETE COOKIES

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by deleting cookies using your browser and refreshing any page on our sites or by utilizing the links contained in the footer of our sites.

You may wish to visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your device, as well as more general information about cookies. Please note that, as these websites are not owned or operated by us, we are not responsible for any of the content on them.

9. CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE

We may make changes to this Cookie Statement at any time by posting a copy of the revised policy on our site. Any changes will take effect 7 days after the date on which we post the modified terms on our site, whichever is the earlier.

10. CONTACT US

If you have any questions or concerns about cookies or your privacy when using our Sites, please contact us at info@hoploninfosec.com.