Duff & Phelps and Cookies
What is a cookie?
Most websites you visit will use cookies in order to improve your user experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you,
either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’).
Cookies do a lot of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, storing your preferences, and generally
improving your experience of a website. Cookies make the interaction between you and the website faster and easier. If a
website doesn’t use cookies, it will think you are a new visitor every time you move to a new page on the site.
Some websites will also use cookies to enable them to target their advertising or marketing messages based for example, on
your location and/or browsing habits.
Cookies may be set by the website you are visiting (‘first party cookies’) or they may be set by other websites who run content
on the page you are viewing (‘third party cookies’). Find out more
What is in a cookie?
A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be
able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous
information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers. It allows a website to remember things
like your preferences or what’s in your shopping basket.
What to do if you don’t want cookies to be set
Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their computer or mobile device a bit intrusive, particularly when
this information is stored and used by a third party without them knowing. Although this is generally quite harmless you may
not, for example, want to see advertising that has been targeted to your interests. If you prefer, it is possible to block some or
all cookies, or even to delete cookies that have already been set; but you need to be aware that you might lose some functions
of that website. Find out more
How does Duff & Phelps use cookies?
Cookies enable us to identify your device, or you when you have logged in. We don’t sell the information collected by cookies,
nor do we disclose the information to third parties, except where required by law (for example to government bodies and law
enforcement agencies). We only use cookies to help us to improve the performance of our website to provide you with a better
user experience.
If you wish to control what cookies are set on your device through the Duff & Phelps website then you can find out how to do
this in Managing Cookies.
We use performance cookies across the Duff & Phelps website for internal purposes to improve site performance and to help
us to provide you with a better user experience. Information supplied by cookies helps us to understand how our visitors use
the Duff & Phelps website so that we can improve how we present our content to you. They also allow us to test different
design ideas for particular pages, such as the Duff & Phelps Homepage.
We utilize Google Analytics, a third party, to obtain site usage statistics. Google Analytics sets a number of cookies which are
listed below.
Name
Description
ASP.NET_SessionId
Used to cache data and improve overall site performance.
Expiration
When
browser
closed
This cookie is typically written to the browser upon the first visit to your site from
that web browser. If the cookie has been deleted by the browser operator, and the
browser subsequently visits your site, a new __utma cookie is written with a
__utma
different unique ID. In most cases, this cookie is used to determine unique visitors
to your site and it is updated with each page view. Additionally, this cookie is
2 years from
set/update.
provided with a unique ID that Google Analytics uses to ensure both the validity
and accessibility of the cookie as an extra security measure.
This cookie is used to establish and continue a user session with your site. When a
user views a page on your site, the Google Analytics code attempts to update this
cookie. If it does not find the cookie, a new one is written and a new session is
__utmb
established. Each time a user visits a different page on your site, this cookie is
updated to expire in 30 minutes, thus continuing a single session for as long as
user activity continues within 30-minute intervals. This cookie expires when a user
pauses on a page on your site for longer than 30 minutes. You can modify the
30 minutes
from
set/update.
default length of a user session with the _setSessionCookieTimeout() method.
This cookie is no longer used by the ga.js tracking code to determine session
status.
__utmc
Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to
determine whether or not to establish a new session for the user. For backwards
compatibility purposes with sites still using the urchin.js tracking code, this cookie
will continue to be written and will expire when the user exits the browser.
However, if you are debugging your site tracking and you use the ga.js tracking
code, you should not interpret the existence of this cookie in relation to a new or
expired session.
Not set.
This cookie stores the type of referral used by the visitor to reach your site, whether
via a direct method, a referring link, a website search, or a campaign such as an ad 6 months
__utmz
or an email link. It is used to calculate search engine traffic, ad campaigns and
from
page navigation within your own site. The cookie is updated with each page view to set/update.
your site.
This cookie is not normally present in a default configuration of the tracking code.
The __utmv cookie passes the information provided via the _setVar() method,
__utmv
which you use to create a custom user segment. This string is then passed to the
Analytics servers in the GIF request URL via the utmcc parameter. This cookie is
2 years from
set/update.
only written if you have added the _setVar() method for the tracking code on your
website page.
Click here for more details on how Google Analytics sets cookies.
Managing Cookies
How can I control cookies?
If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or
you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.
If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your
browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit
aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop
browsers.
The Duff & Phelps website does work without cookies, but you may notice the slower performance if you choose to
disable cookies.
About Cookies
First party cookies
First party cookies are set by the website you are visiting and they can only be read by that site.
Third party cookies
Third party cookies are set by a different organization to the owner of the website you are visiting. For example, the
website might use a third party analytics company who will set their own cookie to perform this service. The website
you are visiting may also contain content embedded from, for example YouTube or Flickr, and these sites may set
their own cookies.
Session cookies
Session Cookies are stored only temporarily during a browsing session and are deleted from the user’s device when
the browser is closed.
Persistent cookies
This type of cookie is saved on your computer for a fixed period (usually a year or longer) and is not deleted when the
browser is closed. Persistent cookies are used where we need to know who you are for more than one browsing
session. For example, we use this type of cookie to store your preferences, so that they are remembered for the next
visit.
Flash cookies
Many websites use Adobe Flash Player to deliver video and game content to their users. Adobe utilizes their own
cookies, which are not manageable through your browser settings but are used by the Flash Player for similar
purposes, such as storing preferences or tracking users.
Flash Cookies work in a different way to web browser cookies (the cookie types listed above are all set via your
browser); rather than having individual cookies for particular jobs, a website is restricted to storing all data in one
cookie. You can control how much data can be stored in that cookie but you cannot choose what type of information
is allowed to be stored.