Web Analytics and Anonymous Visits
[Privacy Policy Overview] When your Web browser requests information from our site, our Web server automatically writes information to a standard log file which records the date, time, and IP address from which your request came. Most of our Web pages also contain code to post information to Google Analytics, a Website analytics services. Google Analytics records, but doesn't always pass on to us, "referrer" information, such as the keywords you typed in a search engine to find our site.
The information written to the Website log file and posted to Google Analytics is generally insufficient to identify you individually, and we do not seek to do this. You are an "anonymous user" of our site, unless you choose to register on our Web site and log in when you visit. The information sometimes, but not always, will identify the domain and host name of the network provider to which you are connected, such as AT&T / SBC, Comcast, RoadRunner, etc. or, if your company operates the network, the domain name of your company.
We use these Web analytics services to help us improve our site and make it more useful to you. We use the aggregate information in our log files and Google Analytics to determine usage and "popularity" of various Web pages and search engine keywords. We also use the "anonymous user" data to improve the effectiveness of our display advertising on other websites. This means your visits to our website may make it more likely that you'll see our ads when visiting other websites -- but note that you can "opt out" as explained under "Identification Via Cookies" below.
For more information, visit Google's Privacy Center.
Identification Via "Cookies"
On request by a Web server, your Web browser can write a small file called a "cookie," containing server-supplied data, to your hard disk, or read it back at a later time and send the data to the server. Without this feature or something similar, the Web server cannot tell which requests for Web pages came from a given user.
Our Web server uses cookies to implement site registration, log in, our shopping cart, and access to downloads and other "protected" Web pages, to check for search engine keywords and in-links, and to post information to Google Analytics. We may also use cookies to provide user conveniences, such as a pre-filled-in field on a form for easy login.
You can set your Web browser to accept cookie requests automatically (the usual setting), notify you whenever a server requests a cookie, or deny all requests for cookies. If your Web browser denies a cookie request from our Web server, you can still visit all of the public pages on our site, but you won't be able to download our software, User Guides or example models, use our shopping cart, or visit "protected" pages that require a user to be logged in.
We and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to provide a more customized user experience. Third-party cookies make it possible to show ads on another site based on pages you visit on our site. If you don't find this useful, you can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customize Google Display Network ads by using Google's Ads Preferences Manager.
We hope this discussion answers your questions about our Privacy Policy. If you have any questions, please contact us. Thank you!