Last Updated: 26.09.2019
1. Introduction
Welcome to Tech.mt. IP Address and Cookie Policy.
Tech.mt (“we”; “us”; or “our”) collects two types of information about you resulting from your use of our website (the “Website” or the “Site”): (i) personal information, including your name and e-mail address and (ii) aggregate information which is generated from the practices that we have in place regarding ‘cookies’ and the Internet Protocol Address (“IP Address”) pertaining to the users of the Website.
Our practices regarding the collection and processing of your personal information are set in our Privacy Notice. Correspondingly, the practices which we have in place regarding the generation of aggregate information are described here in our IP and Cookie Policy. In order to be able to access and use the Site, you must expressly agree and consent to the practices set out herein.
Please read the following carefully to understand how and why the Site uses your IP Address and cookies. If you do not accept or agree to the practices described in this policy, you must exit the Site immediately.
2. IP Address
2.1 What happens when you visit the Site
Every time you connect to the internet or, if you use an always-on connection, such as broadband or ADSL, when you boot up or restart your computer, you are automatically assigned a unique identifying number known as an IP Address. This IP Address, which contains information regarding the location of your computer on the internet (your country of origin) and the name of your internet service provider (“ISP”), is automatically logged by the Site.
2.2 What is an IP Address?
When you first started your internet session (i.e. your computer connected to the internet), your computer was automatically assigned a unique number (normally in the region of 9 or 10 decimal numbers), known as an IP Address. This is your computer’s unique address on the internet. Without an IP Address, websites would not be able to deliver their content to you given that they would not be able find your computer on the internet. Since each time you disconnect and reconnect to the internet a new IP Address is automatically assigned to your computer, IP Addresses are not inherently capable of identifying you as an individual (at least, by themselves and not combined with other identifiers). An IP Address does, however, contain information regarding the location of your computer on the internet (your country), and the name of your ISP.
2.3 How do we collect your IP Address?
Each time you visit a page on the Site, your computer sends out a message to the Site asking for the content to be delivered. This message sent by your computer also encloses your IP Address as a form of “return address”, so that the Site may find your computer in order to send it the requested content. Our web-server automatically logs all these messages.
2.4 What do we do with your IP Address?
When we log your IP Address, the data collected is grouped up with the other logged IP Addresses in order to provide us with the statistics on the geographic location of visitors to the Site, how long they stay on the Site, which are the most viewed pages and for other statistical reasons.
We gather your IP address automatically and store it in log files. These files also contain information relating to your browser type, ISP, operating system, date/time stamp, clickstream data and the files viewed on the Site. Collecting this type of information allows us to generate aggregate information for the purposes of the Site, including in terms of overall user trends and activities online (such as the number of unique visitors, pages access most frequently or the search terms entered). Furthermore, it also allows us to administer the Site, diagnose any potential server problems, analyse visitor trends and statistics, and generally helps us to provide you with a better internet experience.
IP Addresses are not stored for longer than necessary for the above stated purposes.
3. Cookies
3.1 Information about our use of Cookies
The Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users. They allow us to analyse trends and administer the Site, to help us to provide you with a good experience when you browse the Site and to improve it at the same time.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. A cookie enables the website to remember users that have already visited. Without a cookie, every time you open a new web page, the server where that page is stored will treat you like a completely new visitor. Cookies allow us to remember your custom preferences such as your language preference and allow you to complete tasks without having to re-enter your information when browsing.
We use the following cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of the Site. Namely, by way of illustration, they include cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of the Site and make use of its check-out functionality.
- Analytical and Performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and see how visitors move around the Site when using it. This helps us to improve the way the Site works, such as by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
- Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when your return to the Site. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
- Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to the Site, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make the Site and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
- Session cookies. These cookies contain encrypted information to allow our system to uniquely identify you while you are logged in. Session cookies exist only during an online session. They disappear from your computer when you close your browser software. These allow us to process your requests and help us make sure you are who you say you are after you have logged in.
- Third party cookies. These cookies allow the Site to interact with different websites. As explained, the Site uses social media widgets such as Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google Plus to facilitate setting up your account.
Please note that third parties (including advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical and performance cookies or targeting cookies.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies), you may not be able to access all or parts of the Site.
Furthermore, some parts of the Site, or the services that you connect to through it, may not function properly if you choose not to accept cookies.
Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after 30 days.
You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use the Site, but your ability to use some features or areas of the Site, as well as the services that you connect to through it, may be limited.
Many browsers allow you to browse privately, whereby cookies are automatically erased after you visit a site. The following is a list of the most common browsers and the way in which you can activate private browsing:
- Internet Explorer 8 and later versions: In Private
- Safari 2 and later versions: Private Navigation/Browsing
- Firefox 3.5 and later versions: Private Navigation/Browsing
- Google Chrome 10 and later versions: Incognito
Further information on cookies can be found on various sites such as www.allaboutcookies.com
- Social Media Features and Widgets
The Site includes social media features such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. These features may collect your IP address, which pages you are visiting on the Site, and may set a cookie to enable this feature to function properly.
Any personal information that you provide via such social media applications may be collected and used by other members of that social media application and such interactions are governed by the privacy policies of the companies that provide the application. We do not have control over, or responsibility for, those companies or their use of your information.