Last Updated: May 12, 2025
This Cookie Policy explains how The Moral Firewall (“we,” “us,” or “our”) uses cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website moralfirewall.org (the “Website”). It should be read in conjunction with our main Privacy Notice, which provides more detailed information about our data processing practices, including data collected through cookies, and our commitment to ethical AI through our AI Governance Framework.
1. What Are Cookies and Similar Technologies?
- Cookies: Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device by websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
- Web Beacons (or Pixels/Clear GIFs): These are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognize when someone has visited our Website or opened an e-mail that we have sent them. This allows us, for example, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our Website to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to our Website from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to improve site performance, and to measure the success of e-mail marketing campaigns.
- Local Storage: Technologies like HTML5 local storage allow websites to store information locally on your device, similar to cookies but capable of storing larger amounts of data.
- SDKs (Software Development Kits): In the context of mobile applications (if applicable), SDKs are blocks of code provided by third parties that may be installed in our apps. SDKs can help us understand how you interact with our mobile services and collect certain information about the device and network you use to access the application.
For simplicity, this policy will refer to all these technologies as “cookies” unless specified otherwise.
2. Why Do We Use Cookies?
We use cookies for a variety of reasons, detailed below:
- Essential Operations (Strictly Necessary Cookies): Some cookies are essential for you to be able to experience the full functionality of our Website and for us to provide our services. For example, they allow us to maintain user sessions, manage security, and enable core site features. These cookies do not typically collect personal information that identifies you.
- Performance and Analytics: These cookies collect information about how you use our Website, such as which pages you visit most often, how much time you spend on those pages, links clicked, and if you get error messages from web pages. This helps us understand and improve how our Website works. The information collected is typically aggregated and anonymous, although some analytics services may collect IP addresses or other identifiers.
- Functionality and Preferences: These cookies allow our Website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language, or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For example, they can be used to remember your login details, display preferences, or language settings. They may also be used to remember your consent choices regarding other cookies or AI-related data processing preferences.
- Targeting and Advertising (if applicable): These cookies are used to deliver advertisements more relevant to you and your interests. They may also be used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organizations such as advertisers. As a general policy we do not use targeting/advertising cookies.
3. Types of Cookies We Use
We use the following types of cookies:
- Session Cookies: These are temporary cookies that remain on your device until you close your browser.
- Persistent Cookies: These remain on your device for a set period or until you manually delete them. They are activated each time you visit the Website that created that particular cookie.
- First-Party Cookies: These are set directly by our Website. Only our Website can read them.
- Third-Party Cookies: These are set by a domain other than ours. This occurs when our Website incorporates elements from other sites, such as images, social media plugins, or advertising. When your browser or other software fetches these elements from the other sites, they can set cookies as well.
Below is a more detailed breakdown of the types of cookies we use and their purposes:
| Cookie Category | Purpose | First/Third Party | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly Necessary | Essential for website navigation, security, and core functionalities like user authentication, form submissions, and managing your cookie consent preferences. Cannot be disabled. | First-Party | Session & Persistent |
| Performance & Analytics | Help us understand how visitors interact with our Website by collecting and reporting information anonymously (e.g., page visits, traffic sources, error rates). Used to improve website performance. | First & Third-Party | Persistent |
| Functional Cookies | Enable the Website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization (e.g., remembering your username, language, region, or preferences for interacting with site features, including AI tools). | First & Third-Party | Persistent |
| Targeting & Advertising (If applicable) | Used to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on this and other websites. They do not store directly personal information but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. | Third-Party | Persistent |
Examples of Third-Party Cookies we may use:
- Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to understand how our Website is being used in order to improve the user experience. User data is all anonymous. You can find out more about Google’s position on privacy as regards its analytics service at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245 and opt-out via Google’s browser add-on available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
4. Your Choices and How to Manage Cookies
You have several options to control or limit how we and third parties use cookies:
- Cookie Consent Banner/Tool: When you first visit our Website, you may be presented with a cookie consent banner or tool. This tool allows you to choose which categories of cookies you consent to, apart from Strictly Necessary cookies which are essential for the site to function. Your preferences will be saved for future visits.
- Browser Settings: Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. You can usually find these settings in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
- Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647
- Mozilla Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences
- Microsoft Edge: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/delete-cookies-in-microsoft-edge-63947406-40ac-c3b8-57b9-2a946a29ae09
- Apple Safari: https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/manage-cookies-and-website-data-sfri11471/mac Please note that if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies), you may not be able to access all or parts of our Website.
- Third-Party Opt-Outs: Many advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. For more information, visit:
- Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) in the USA: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/
- Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (DAAC): http://youradchoices.ca/
- European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA): http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/
- Network Advertising Initiative (NAI): http://optout.networkadvertising.org/
- Mobile Device Settings: You can also adjust your mobile device settings to control whether you see online interest-based ads.
5. “Do Not Track” Signals
Some web browsers may transmit “Do Not Track” (DNT) signals to websites. Currently, there is no industry-standard for DNT signals, and we do not currently alter our practices when we receive a DNT signal. We will continue to monitor developments around DNT browser technology and the establishment of a standard.
6. Other Tracking Technologies
As mentioned, we may use web beacons, pixels, and local storage. These technologies often work in conjunction with cookies. Disabling cookies in your browser may also limit the functionality of these other technologies, but not always completely. For example, even if you turn off cookies, web beacons may still load when you open an email, but their functionality will be restricted.
7. Cookies and Personal Data
While some cookies may collect anonymous or aggregated data, others may be linked to personal data as defined in our [Privacy Notice Link]. Our Privacy Notice describes how we collect, use, and share personal data, including any personal data collected through cookies, and outlines your data protection rights.
8. Changes to This Cookie Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Cookie Policy on our Website and updating the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy. We encourage you to review this Cookie Policy periodically to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.
9. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about our use of cookies or this Cookie Policy, please contact us:
- By Email: privacy [@] moralfirewall.org