NCS Australia and our service providers such as our analytics, advertising and ad-serving partners use cookies, pixels, tags, beacons, scripts, software development kit (“SDK”), authenticated tokens, internet scraping tools and other similar browser or device-based technologies to collect information when you interact with our websites, mobile sites, apps, electronic communications and other online products, services and offerings.  This also includes the collection of Advertising IDs, Cookie IDs, IP addresses and other unique identifiers associated with the devices you use to access our products, services and offerings.

This policy explains how these technologies are used when you interact with our products, services, and offerings, and how you can manage your preferences regarding such use if you choose to.  We'll mostly refer to these kinds of technologies as "cookies" in this policy.

The information that is collected through cookies generally doesn't identify you individually, but any personal information we do collect is handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy (https://www.ncs.co/en-au/privacy-policy/).  Any information that is collected through cookies by third parties such as our analytics, advertising and ad-serving partners is handled in accordance with their respective privacy policies.

Cookies are small files that are saved within your browser or on your device when you interact with a website, app or other online product or service.  This technology recognises and remembers your browser and/or device in order to develop a record of your browsing and other online activities performed within that browser or on that device.

Pixels (sometimes referred to as web beacons or clear GIFs) are small electronic tags with a unique identifier that are sometimes embedded in websites, apps, online ads and/or electronic communications.  This technology provides usage information like ad impressions (how many times an ad is viewed) or clicks and is used to measure performance of online services and associated advertising, and to access information from user cookies.

Most websites, apps or online products or services make use of these technologies, because they improve your online experience.  We may use, and allow third parties to use, cookies to collect information to help us operate our websites, apps and other online products or services more efficiently and effectively, and to provide better or more relevant products, services, content and advertising to you.

Our service providers and trusted partners may do the same in order to provide more relevant products, services, content and advertising to you through other websites, apps and platforms that you may visit or use (including social media).  We do not have control over the placement of cookies by other websites, apps or platforms you visit, even if you are directed to them from our website, app or other online product or service.

We may also aggregate anonymous information we receive from our analytics, advertising and ad-serving partners with other information you have provided to us, so that we can customise the content and advertising that you see when you are using our websites, apps and other online products, services and offerings, and associate the browser/device you're using with other browsers/devices that you also use.

Specifically, cookies may be used to:

• enable essential features and support services on our websites, apps and other online products, services and offerings;
• improve the performance and usability of these services (for example, so we can remember your log-in details or so we may limit how often you see the same advertising or content);
• personalise your experience across our products, services and offerings by remembering your preferences and settings;
• deliver relevant advertising or other information which might interest you including when you visit other websites or social media (for example, we may place a Facebook pixel on our websites or apps so we can promote relevant NCS Australia products or services to you when you later visit Facebook, or other websites or apps where Facebook pixels are also saved);
• measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and those of our trusted partners (for example, monitoring whether our messages have been opened and acted upon and tracking sales, conversions and potential leads);
• measure browsing and viewing behaviour and traffic and consumption such as how, how often and when users engage with and share our content including via social media platforms (where this information may also be recorded and linked to targeting/ advertising activities across our products, services and offerings and any third-party platforms);
• enable us to see how each visitor or user engages with our websites, apps and other online products, services and offerings so that we may make the necessary improvements to enhance their experience in the future; and
• allow us, and analytics and measurement services providers such as Google Analytics, Nielsen and OzTAM, to collect and analyse information about trends and aggregate user behaviour and to generate other forms of anonymised analytics such as audience ratings and anonymous viewing data.

Some cookies may be erased when you close your browser, but others may be stored on your device between browsing sessions for a set period of time, for example, to allow you to remain logged in across multiple sessions or devices.

We’ve set out some useful links and information on how to manage cookies below.  Please note however that not all devices and browsers are the same and the methods described below may change at any time.  We encourage you to always refer to the relevant instructions for your particular device, browser or app.

You can usually control the extent to which cookies are saved in your browser or on your device, by changing your browser and/or device settings. In some cases, you’ll be able to opt-out of relevant advertising for all applications on a device and you can also opt-out of certain analytics tools. In other cases, you may have the option to opt out of cross-site third party relevant advertising via Google or several industry provided frameworks that many advertisers and advertising networks, exchanges, platforms, and technology providers participate in such as the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance or Your Online Choices.

Common opt-outs are set out below:

• Click here for Google Chrome
• Click here for Internet Explorer
• Click here for Firefox
• Click here for Safari
• Click here for Microsoft Edge
• Click here for Google Analytics based tools
• Click here for Bing
• Click here for Facebook
• Click here for Instagram
• Click here for Twitter
• Click here for Pinterest
• Click here for Snapchat
• Click here for TikTok

You may also have the option to reset your advertising ID, which is a non-persistent identifier used specifically for advertising.  Depending on your device, this may be as simple as:

• for iOS devices, go to Settings, select Privacy, select Advertising, and enable the Limit Ad Tracking setting; or
• for android devices, open the Google Settings App, select Ads, and enable the Opt-Out of interest-based advertising setting.

Other actions you may take to manage cookies (and opt-out of relevant advertising, where applicable) include:

• regularly clearing cookies from your browser in your browser settings; and
• setting your privacy settings on your social media profiles to 'private' to block screen scrapers and/or prevent the sharing of your data.

Taking these steps may stop you from receiving some forms of advertising, but it may also stop you from being able to use some online products, services or functionality which rely on cookies. It is also unlikely to change the number of ads that you see, but they might be less relevant to you. You may also need to repeat the steps above if you use a different device or delete browser cookies.

If you would like more information on how NCS Australia uses your personal information, visit our Privacy Policy (https://www.ncs.co/en-au/privacy-policy/).