Cookie Policy

This cookie policy (“Cookie Policy”) applies to The Northern Virginia Technology Council, Inc. (“NVTC”, "we", "us" and "our").

Like many organizations, NVTC employs "cookies" or similar technologies on our websites (including www.nvtc.org) (collectively, our "Site"). This Cookie Policy tells you about the use of Cookies and similar technologies.

When you first access some of our Sites from certain jurisdictions, you will receive a message advising you that cookies and similar technologies are in use. By clicking “Accept”, closing the message, or continuing to use our Site, you signify that you understand and agree to the use of these technologies, as described in this Cookie Policy.

You do not have to accept cookies and consent can be withdrawn at any time (see How to Control Cookies, below). You can change your browser settings to refuse or restrict cookies, and you may delete them after they have been placed on your device at any time. If you do not accept or delete our cookies, some areas of the Site that you access may take more time to work, or may not function properly.

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small files containing a string of characters that we may store on your computer or mobile device when you access the Site. When you access the Site again, the cookies allow us to recognize your browser. Cookies may store your preferences and other information but cannot read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites.

Cookies set by a website owner (in this case, NVTC) are called “first party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third party cookies”. Third party cookies enable us to provide third party features or functionality through the Site (i.e. advertising, social media functions and analytics).

The Cookies We Use

Cookies make the use of our Site easier by, among other things, saving your preferences. We may also use cookies to deliver content tailored to your interests. Our cookies may enable us to relate your use of the Site to Personal Information that you previously provided.

Our visitors have the option of typing in their name or password each time they visit, or having this information automatically saved for them for their next visit. In the event a visitor wants this information saved for them, we use cookies to store their username and password. If you choose to have your information saved, your web browser will store a cookie in your computer in a special file called a cookie list. Whenever you log onto our site, your web browser will automatically transfer your name and password to our server, so you do not have to manually enter this information each visit.

The information that we collect with cookies allows us to statistically analyze usage of the Site, and to improve and customize our content and other offerings. However, we only disclose information collected with cookies to third parties on an aggregated basis without the use of any information that personally identifies you.

The specific types of first party and third party cookies placed by our Site and the purposes they perform are described in the table below:

  • Strictly Necessary Cookies: These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our websites, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing.
  • Performance and Functionality Cookies: These are used to recognize you when you return to our Site. This enables us to personalize our content for you and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region), but are non-essential to the performance of our Site.
  • Analytical or Customization Cookies: These cookies collect information about how users access and move through our Site. We use this information in either aggregate form to help us to improve the way our Site work, or to personalize our Site to your interests.
  • Advertising Cookies: These cookies are used to make the advertising displayed on our Site more relevant to you. These cookies prevent ads reappearing and ensure that ads are properly displayed. Certain third party cookies may track users over different websites are will provide ads relevant to your interests.
  • Social Media Cookies: These cookies allow us to integrate social media functions into our Site and may also be used for advertising purposes.

How to Control Cookies

When you first access our Site from certain jurisdictions, you will receive a message advising you that cookies and similar technologies are in use. By clicking “Got it”, closing the message, or continuing to access our Site, you signify that you understand and agree to the use of these technologies, as described in this Cookie Policy.

You do not have to accept cookies and consent can be withdrawn at any time, although you may not be able to use certain features of our Site. You can do this by activating the settings on your browser that allows you to refuse all or some cookies.

Web Beacons

As well as cookies, we use other technologies to recognize and track your use of our Site. A web beacon (also known as a “tracking pixel” or “clear GIF”) is a clear graphic image (typically a one-pixel tag) that is delivered through a web browser or HTML e-mail, typically in conjunction with a cookie.

Web beacons allows us, for example, to monitor how users move from one page within our websites to another, to track access to our communications, to understand whether users have come to our websites from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to measure how ads have been viewed and to improve site performance.

Targeted Advertising

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies. These companies may use information about your visits to our Site and third-party websites in order to provide relevant advertisements about goods and services in which you may be interested. They may also employ technologies that are used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements.

Changes in Our Policy

If our information practices change at some time in the future, we will post the policy changes to our Web site. If you are concerned about how your information is used, please refer to our Web site periodically.