What are cookies?
Cookies are small text fragments, normally comprising letters and/or numbers, sent by a website that you visit and stored by the software (e.g. a web browser) installed on your device. Cookies are then sent back to the website when you next visit.
Cookies hold information about your visits to a website. They are a very useful technology: e.g. they facilitate the website’s operation, making it more efficient and providing helpful information to website owners. Without cookies or similar technologies, websites would have no way to remember information about their visitors, e.g. how many items you placed in your basket and whether or not you logged in.
Cookies can be classed by their:
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duration: persistent or session cookies
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source: first-party or third-party cookies
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purpose: technical, analytics or profiling cookies.
Cookies that expire when a browser session ends (normally on closing your browser) are termed session cookies. They serve, for instance, to memorise a purchase order or for security when you access your online banking or webmail. Cookies that are stored for longer (from one session to another) are persistent; their uses include remembering your preferences and offering targeted advertising.
A cookie is first-party or third-party depending on which website or domain places the cookie. First-party cookies are installed directly by the website that you are visiting, whereas third-party cookies come from a different domain: e.g. when the website incorporates images, social-media plugins or adverts from other sites.
A cookie’s job can also be done by equivalent technologies that can identify devices and thus analyse the visits to a website. This Cookie Policy covers any technology that stores or accesses information on your device – such as HTML5 local archiving, Local Shared Objects (also called flash cookies) and fingerprinting techniques. Fingerprinting involves uniquely identifying a given device by detecting, associating or deducing various pieces of information, such as:
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its configuration data
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data derived from using particular network protocols
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the use of JavaScript
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information on HTTP headers
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information about the clock
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the installed fonts
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the installed browser plugins.
These elements can be combined with other data, such as IP addresses or unique identifiers.
For the rest of this Cookie Policy, all references to cookies also include those other equivalent technologies.
Why does this website use cookies?
There are technical, analytics and profiling cookies on this website.
Technical cookies are needed for the site to operate. They facilitate your browsing experience, e.g. by enabling you to access your account without having to log in every time or by setting your preferred language without your having to set it manually on each visit.
Technical cookies are strictly necessary, because the information in them must be saved in order to provide the services you request. Technical cookies cannot therefore be disabled. And under article 122 of the Italian Privacy Code, we do not have to seek your consent before installing them.
Analytics cookies, whether first- or third-party, collect information about website use. They provide statistics on how users access and visit the site, enabling the Data Controller to improve the structure, content and navigability. We use this information for aggregated statistical analyses to help enhance the user experience and tailor the content to users’ interests.
The website uses third-party analytics cookies with tools to protect users’ identity (e.g. by masking significant portions of the IP address). The data from these cookies is not enriched or cross-mapped with other information.
These analytics cookies are like technical cookies, in that we use them to provide you with the service. Analytics cookies cannot therefore be disabled, and we do not have to seek your consent before installing them.
Profiling cookies, whether first- or third-party, serve to track how users browse the website, to analyse their behaviour for marketing purposes, and to profile their tastes, habits and choices. This enables us, for example, to target advertising messaging based on users’ interests, in line with the preferences they exhibit when browsing. These cookies cannot be installed on your device without your consent.
Managing your cookie preferences
When you first visit any page on the website, a banner displays a short information notice and the panel for managing your cookie preferences. You can then select/unselect cookie types as you prefer, accessing the dedicated cookie centre. Your consent to use cookies is recorded in a dedicated technical cookie.
You can also indicate your cookie preferences via your web browser settings. Nearly all browsers are configured to accept cookies automatically by default. But you can change this in your browser settings, by deleting/removing all or some cookies, blocking cookies or restricting them to certain websites. If you disable, block or delete cookies, this can impair the operation of some functions or some parts of the website; third-party services may also be affected.
Cookie management settings are configured differently on different browsers. Here is how to change your cookie settings on several popular browsers:
If you use a different browser, please consult your user guide or online help.