Cookies & Similar Technologies Policy

We think it's important for you to understand how cookies and other similar technologies are used by Sourcing Insider Ltd and our partners. These technologies help Sourcing Insider function, allow us to understand how you use the Services, and have a number of purposes (beyond just advertising) that you can read about in this policy.

In this policy, we'll refer to sourcinginsider.net as the "Site" . We'll refer to the Site and our other services collectively as the "Services". Sourcing Insider Ltd is referred to as "Sourcing Insider" throughout this policy. We’ll refer to cookies and similar technologies collectively as “Cookie Technologies”.

1. Types of Cookie Technologies

Cookies

Cookies are small data files sent from a server to your web browser. They are stored in your browser’s cache and allow a website or a third party to recognise your browser. There are three primary types of cookies:

Session cookies are specific to a particular visit and carry information as you view different pages so you don’t have to re-enter information every time you change pages or attempt to checkout. Session cookies expire and delete themselves automatically in a short period of time like after you leave the Site or when you close your web browser.
Persistent cookies remember certain information about your preferences for viewing the site, and allow Sourcing Insider to recognise you each time you return. Persistent cookies are stored on your browser cache or mobile device until you choose to delete them, and otherwise typically delete themselves at expiration.
Third-party cookies are placed by someone other than Sourcing Insider, and may gather browsing activity across multiple websites and across multiple sessions. They are usually a type of persistent cookie and are stored until you delete them or they expire based on the time period set in each third-party cookie.

Cookies store data about your use, but they are helpful because they allow us to help sourcing insider function and customise your experience. You can configure your desktop or mobile browser's settings to reflect your preference to accept or reject cookies, including how to handle third-party cookies (see Managing Your Cookie Technology Preferences below).

A description of sourcing insider ’s principal first party cookies can be found in our Cookies & Similar Technologies Disclosures.

Other Technologies

In addition to cookies, there are other similar technologies used by sourcing insider and elsewhere on the web or in mobile ecosystems.

Web beacons: These are tiny graphics (sometimes called “clear GIFs” or “web pixels”) with a unique identifier that are used to understand browsing activity. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user's computer hard drive, web beacons are rendered invisibly on web pages when you open a page.
Social widgets: These are buttons or icons provided by third-party social media providers that allow you to interact with those social media services when you view a web page or a mobile app screen. These social widgets may collect browsing data, which may be received by the third party that provided the widget, and are controlled by the third parties.
UTM codes: These are strings that can appear in a URL (the “Uniform Resource Locator”, which is typically the http or https address entered to go to a web page) when a user moves from one web page or website to another, where the string can represent information about browsing, such as which advertisement, page, or publisher sent the user to the receiving website.
Application SDKs: These are mobile application third-party software development kits that are embedded in the Apps (and are used in many mobile applications). These app SDKs permit the collection of information about the app itself, activity in the app, and the device the application is running on.
Local Storage Objects: These are sets of data that can be stored on your browser by a site or app. They can be used to maintain preferences, a history of usage, or even the state or settings of a site or an app.
Internet of Things identifiers: Like mobile identifiers, internet-connected devices such as voice activated assistants or smart TVs may send identifiers and other data analogous to web browsers or mobile SDKs.

2. Purposes

Sourcing insider uses Cookie Technologies to recognise your logged-in state on sourcing insider, to understand what purchases members and visitors are interested in, to make sourcing insider’s Sites function for you, and to help your browsing experience and use of the Site, Services, and Apps feel more customised. More generally, Sourcing Insider uses Cookie Technologies for the following.

Security and Authentication (Strictly Necessary)

Some cookie and similar technology functions are necessary and vital to ensuring that sourcing insider works properly for visitors and members, such as maintaining the security, safety, and integrity of the Site, authentication and logging into sourcing insider (including remembering permissions and consents you have granted), and ensuring the ability to securely complete transactions.

Account and User Preferences

Some technologies are used to remember your account and preferences over time, such as keeping yourself logged in when returning to sourcing insider, maintaining your choices on sourcing insider features and how you want sourcing insider to appear (including keeping track of your preferred language and country), and customising content based on how you use sourcing insider.

Social Networks

Some technologies help you to interact with social networks you are signed into while using the Services, such as sharing content with the social network, logging in with the social network, and other features you employ with the social network, or that are allowed in the social network’s privacy policy. These may be set and controlled by the social networks, and your preferences with those social networks.

Social networks may also work with sourcing insider or with you for analytics or for marketing purposes, as discussed below. You may be able to manage your privacy preferences for these social networks and their tools and widgets via your account with the social network. You can find more information on specific social media tools and widgets in our Cookies & Similar Technologies Disclosures.

Performance and Analytics

Some technologies help provide performance data on how the Services are functioning in order to improve sourcing insider and the Services, including, for example, data on site and app functionality and speed to help us optimise sourcing insider , how the Services are used to help us improve your experience on sourcing insider, and detecting and gathering reporting on bugs to help make sourcing insider work better.

In addition, sourcing insider may employ transient technologies, including cookies or local stored objects, for site performance, experiments, form information, and interactions with the site, and may use temporary, short-term cookies for limited-time site events such as sales and promotions.

The Site employs Google Analytics to help understand how Sourcing Insider is used by its community. For some of the advertising features listed below, like retargeting, data from Google Analytics may be combined with Sourcing Insider’s first-party data and third-party cookies (like Google’s advertising cookies) as permitted by Google’s and Sourcing Insider’s respective policies. To see how to opt-out of Google Analytics Advertising Features, see Managing your Cookie Technology Preferences at the bottom of this policy. The Site also employs Facebook App Events SDKs for analytics in the Apps in a similar fashion, subject to your Opt-Out.

You can find more information on how Google Analytics works in this Google guide and on Facebook App Events here.

Marketing Services

Sourcing Insider partners with third-party service providers that may use various Cookie Technologies to permit us and them to learn about which ads you see and click when you visit Sourcing Insider, the Apps, and affiliated sites or to show you ads on and off Sourcing Insider. These may include things such as:

Frequency capping, which limits the number of times a user’s browser or mobile device displays the same ad;
Attribution tracking, which estimates which advertising or marketing source brought someone to Sourcing Insider, or determines which marketing source led to actions like a visit or a purchase;
Remarketing and retargeting, which shows relevant ads to an audience based on prior shopping and browsing patterns on Sourcing Insider;
Audience targeting, which refers to targeting advertisements to a large audience based on the audience’s known or inferred demographics; and
Cross-device recognition, which recognises actions across multiple devices or browsers.

Some third-party service providers may provide information like demographics, cross-device information, or interest categories from a combination of sources that, while not identifying you personally, permit us to provide you with more relevant and useful advertising. In some cases, this information may have non-marketing performance analytics uses as well.

These technologies allow a partner to recognise your computer, mobile device or network device (like an IoT device such as a voice-activated assistant or smart TV), each time you visit Sourcing Insider or other websites and mobile applications based on data like a cookie, your IP address, or device ID, but do not allow access to other personal information from Sourcing Insider. However, these technologies may allow us or a third party to recognise you, either from a single device or across devices, over time. These third parties are required to follow applicable laws, self-regulatory programmes, and Sourcing Insider’s data protection rules where applicable. Sourcing Insider does not have control over these third parties, who each have their own privacy policies and privacy practices. Sourcing Insider adheres to the Digital Advertising Alliance's Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioural Advertising.

For audience targeting, Sourcing Insider may share hashed identifiers that represent an email address or name with partners Google and/or Facebook so they can provide Sourcing Insider with audiences interested in specific types of products and services. Google and/or Facebook will only provide this information, and can only identify you, based on their separate policies and agreements with their users. More information is provided in Sourcing Insider’s Cookies and Similar Technologies Disclosures.

You can find a description of third-party Cookie Technologies used by Sourcing Insider, along with their respective privacy policies and options for controlling your privacy on these platforms, in our Cookies & Similar Technologies Disclosures.

3. Services in the Apps (SDKs)

The Apps may include third-party application software development kits (“SDKs”) that provide mobile performance and analytics data, bug reporting features, and application program interfaces ("APIs") to third parties that help provide the Services, for social media functionality, and for marketing and advertising.

You can find a description of principal third-party SDKs used by Sourcing Insider, along with their respective privacy policies and options for controlling your privacy on these platforms, in our Cookies & Similar Technologies Disclosures.

4. Consent, Contract, and Legitimate Interests in Processing

Certain Cookie Technologies are employed to make the Site function for its intended purpose, and are provided based on contractual necessity based on your agreement with Sourcing Insider to perform the services you have requested. These include the functions strictly necessary to the service noted above.

By choosing to use our Services after having been notified of our use of Cookie Technologies in the ways described in this Policy, and, in applicable jurisdictions, through notice and unambiguous acknowledgement of your consent, you agree to such use. More information is laid out in our Privacy Policy.

5. Managing Your Cookie Technology Preferences

You have the ability to control the use of certain Cookie Technologies. You can opt out of third party marketing cookies and similar technologies via the Privacy Settings link available at the bottom of most Sourcing Insider site pages, or via the GDPR Preferences link for users in the European Union and EEA. You can also manage your Sourcing Insider marketing preferences in your account settings. As noted previously, information on third party privacy policies and opt-out process can be found in our Cookies & Similar Technologies Disclosures.

Opt-in and Opt-out for Browsers

In addition, when you use Sourcing Insider via a browser, you can change your web browser's settings to reflect your cookie preferences. Each browser is a little different, but usually these settings are under the "options" or "preferences" menu. The links below provide information about cookie settings for the browsers supported by Sourcing Insider:

Opt-out of Third-Party Networks

If you do not wish to have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based advertisements, you may exercise your preferences as described below. Please note this does not stop you from being served advertisements. You will continue to receive generic advertisements. If you reject or block all cookies in your browser settings, you will not be able to take advantage of Sourcing Insider's Services as some cookies are necessary for the Site to function properly.

You can learn more about managing your preferences for ads online, particularly for many third-party advertising networks, through resources made available by the Digital Advertising Alliance at https://www.aboutads.info or the Network Advertising Initiative at https://optout.networkadvertising.org or if you are located in the European Union click here.

Google Analytics Opt-out

For Google Analytics Advertising Features, you can opt-out through Google Ads Settings, Ad Settings for mobile apps, or any other available means (for example, the NAI's consumer opt-out listed above). Google also provides a Google Analytics opt-out plug-in for the web.

Third-Party Tools

Various third parties provide browser plug-ins and apps that can help provide you information on and limit or block third-party cookies, web beacons, and some Javascript-based technologies. Sourcing Insider cannot vouch for the efficacy of a particular third-party product, but popular products that provide these privacy enhancements include Ghostery and AdBlock Plus.

Both Google and Facebook provide tools to control use of advertising on their respective platforms, including advertising on and with Sourcing Insider. More information can be found in your account settings on the respective platforms, including in Google’s Privacy Centre and in Facebook’s Ad Settings.

Mobile and Third Party Device Opt-out

If you access Sourcing Insider through the Apps, you may also control interest-based advertising on an iOS or Android device by selecting the “Limit Ad Tracking” option in the privacy section of the Settings App on iOS or via advertising preferences on Android-based devices (usually in the Google Settings app). This will not prevent you from seeing advertisements but will limit the use of device advertising identifiers to personalise ads based on your interests.

For third party IoT devices such as voice activated assistants or smart TVs, consult with the manufacturer and/or service provider for the opt out mechanism for their respective devices and services.

6. Contact Us

If you have questions about the use of Cookie Technologies at Sourcing Insider, please see the “Contact” section of Sourcing Insider’s Privacy Policy.

Last updated on 04/03/2023