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What Are Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit our website. They help us recognize your browser and remember certain information about your preferences and activities. Think of them as digital bookmarks that help the site remember who you are between visits.

We also use similar technologies like web beacons, pixels, and local storage. These work alongside cookies to collect information about how you interact with our financial modeling courses and resources. Some are temporary and disappear when you close your browser, while others stick around until you delete them or they expire.

The tracking helps us see which Excel modeling tutorials are most popular, where people get stuck in our learning materials, and what features analysts find most useful. It's pretty straightforward data collection that helps us make the platform better for everyone.

Types of Tracking We Use

Different cookies serve different purposes on our site. Here's how we've organized them:

Essential Cookies

These keep the site functioning properly. They remember your login status, maintain your session as you move between pages, and store your security preferences. Without these, basic features like accessing your course dashboard or completing exercises wouldn't work. You can't really turn these off without breaking the site.

Functional Cookies

These remember choices you've made to give you a more personalized experience. They track things like your preferred currency display for financial examples, whether you like video or text tutorials, and which modeling templates you've bookmarked. The site works without them, but you'll have a more generic experience.

Analytics Cookies

We use these to understand how people use the platform. They tell us which valuation methods get the most attention, how long analysts spend on DCF exercises, and where people exit the learning program. All this data is aggregated and anonymous. It helps us spot problems and improve content that isn't landing well.

Marketing Cookies

These track your activity across our site to show you relevant information about our programs. If you've been looking at merger model courses, we might show you related LBO modeling content. They also help us understand which marketing channels bring in the most engaged learners and measure campaign effectiveness.

How Tracking Improves Your Experience

The data we collect isn't just sitting in a database somewhere. We actually use it to make decisions about the platform. When analytics showed that mobile users were struggling with complex Excel screenshots, we rebuilt those sections with responsive images and added mobile-friendly alternatives.

For example, cookies remember where you left off in a multi-part financial statement analysis tutorial. When you return three days later, you can pick up right where you stopped instead of hunting through modules trying to find your place.

Functional tracking also helps with practical things. If you're working through sensitivity analysis exercises and keep switching between Australian and US dollar examples, the site learns your preference and adjusts future examples accordingly. Small things, but they add up to a smoother learning experience.

We also track error messages and technical issues. When several users hit the same problem downloading a modeling template, we know about it quickly and can fix it before it affects more people. That kind of monitoring only works with tracking enabled.

Managing Your Cookie Preferences

You're not stuck with our default settings. Most browsers let you control cookies pretty easily, though the exact steps vary depending on what you're using.

Browser-Level Controls

Chrome users can find cookie settings under Settings > Privacy and Security > Cookies and other site data. You can block third-party cookies while keeping functional ones.
Firefox puts controls under Settings > Privacy & Security. Their Enhanced Tracking Protection blocks a lot by default.
Safari on Mac has tracking prevention built in. Go to Preferences > Privacy to adjust how aggressively it blocks cookies.
Edge users should check Settings > Cookies and site permissions for granular control options.

Just keep in mind that blocking all cookies will break some features. You might have to log in repeatedly, lose your course progress tracking, or see the same introductory messages every visit. It's a trade-off between privacy and convenience.

If you want to block only marketing cookies while keeping the functional stuff, most browsers support that level of customization. Takes a bit of digging through settings, but it's doable.

Data Retention and Storage

We don't keep tracking data forever. Different types have different retention periods based on their purpose and legal requirements.

Session cookies disappear as soon as you close your browser. These handle temporary things like keeping you logged in during a single study session.
Functional preference cookies typically last 12 months. That's long enough to remember your settings but short enough that outdated preferences don't stick around indefinitely.
Analytics data is aggregated and stored for up to 26 months. We need that longer timeframe to spot trends in how learning behavior changes over time.
Marketing cookies expire after 90 days. That gives us enough time to understand campaign effectiveness without tracking people's activity for years.

You can delete cookies manually through your browser at any time. That wipes out all stored data immediately, though new cookies will be set when you visit again if you haven't adjusted your browser settings.

We also periodically audit our tracking systems to remove anything we're not actively using. There's no point collecting data we're not analyzing, and it creates unnecessary privacy risks.

Third-Party Tracking

Some cookies on nalorenthis.com come from third-party services we use. Our video hosting platform sets its own cookies to track playback quality and buffer performance. Analytics tools have their own tracking to measure site speed and technical performance.

We're selective about which third parties we work with. Every service goes through a review to verify they meet reasonable privacy standards and actually provide value worth the tracking trade-off. We don't just integrate random tools because they're popular.

Those third parties have their own privacy policies explaining what they collect and how they use it. We can't control their practices directly, but we can choose not to work with services that handle data irresponsibly. And we do drop providers if their policies change in ways we're not comfortable with.

Updates to This Policy

This policy changes occasionally as we add new features or adjust how we handle data. When we make significant updates, we'll post a notice on the site and update the revision date at the top of this page.

We try to keep changes straightforward and explain them in plain language. You shouldn't need a law degree to understand what we're doing with tracking technologies. If something isn't clear, you can always reach out and ask for clarification.

Cookie Policy