A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is a piece of data stored by a website within a browser, and then subsequently sent back to the same website by the browser. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember things that a browser/user had done there in the past, which can include having clicked particular buttons, logging in, having read pages on that site, usage statistics for a given site and compiling long-term records of browsers/users histories.

How we use cookies

Information supplied by cookies can help us to analyze the profile of our visitors and help provide you with a better user experience.

A visit to a page on a Smart Finance Strategies website may generate the following types of cookie:

  • Session cookies
  • Google Analytics cookies

Session Cookies are used to store information about user page activities so users can easily pick up where they left off on the server’s pages. These cookies may also collect authentication details, dependent on which Smart Finance Strategies website you are logged on; the details collected indicates when you’re logged on to the website, who you are and what interface you are using. By default, web pages really don’t have any ‘memory’. Cookies tell the server what pages to show the user so the user doesn’t have to remember or start navigating the site all over again. Cookies act as a sort of ‘bookmark’ within the site.

Google Analytics cookies

Every time a user visits our website, Google Analytics generates anonymous analytics cookies. These cookies can tell us whether or not you’ve visited the site before. Your browser will tell us if you have these cookies, and if you don’t, we generate new ones. This allows us to track how many individual unique users we have, and how often they visit the site.

How to control and delete cookies

If you prefer, you can restrict, block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings. All modern browsers allow users to change the cookie settings, which typically can be found in the ‘preferences’ or options menu of your browser. To help you better understand these settings, we have provided links to enable you to look as these settings for some of the more common browsers below:

For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.