Cookie & Tracking Policy

What Tracking Technologies Actually Are

When people say "cookies," they usually mean small text files stored on your device. But there's more to it than that. Here's what we're really talking about:

Each type serves a different purpose. Some keep the site functional. Others help us understand usage patterns so we can improve things.

The Four Categories We Use

Essential Cookies (Can't Be Disabled)

These are non-negotiable because without them, the site simply doesn't work. When you log into your account to access budget reports, we need to remember who you are as you move between pages. When you're halfway through setting up a new performance metric dashboard, we need to keep that data in memory.

What falls under essential:

• Authentication tokens that keep you logged in
• Security features that protect against form spam and unauthorized access
• Load balancing data that distributes traffic across our servers
• Session identifiers for active user sessions

Functional Cookies

These make your experience better but aren't strictly necessary. They remember things like which currency you prefer to view (AUD vs other currencies), whether you want dark mode enabled, or what time zone you're in for scheduling budget reviews.

When you adjust your dashboard layout to show certain metrics first—that preference gets saved through functional cookies. Same with language settings or notification preferences.

Analytics Cookies

Here's where we learn how people actually use the site. Which features get ignored? Where do users get stuck? What pages load too slowly?

For example, if analytics show that 60% of users never scroll past the first three budget categories, that tells us something important about our interface design. Or if we notice everyone abandons the advanced filtering tool halfway through, we know there's a usability problem.

We aggregate this data—we're not watching individual users. We're looking for patterns across hundreds or thousands of sessions.

Marketing Cookies

These track your activity to show you relevant information about our services. If you visited our learning program page but didn't enroll, you might see a follow-up about upcoming 2026 courses when you return.

We also use these to measure whether our educational content actually reaches the Australian finance professionals we're trying to help. Did someone read our blog post about budget variance analysis and then sign up for our program three weeks later? Marketing cookies help us connect those dots.

Managing Cookies Through Your Browser

You're not limited to our controls. Every major browser lets you manage cookies directly. Here's how:

Keep in mind that blocking all cookies will break essential functionality on most websites, including merquavosent.com. You won't be able to stay logged in or save preferences.

Data Retention and Storage

Different cookies stick around for different lengths of time. Here's our retention schedule:

You can delete cookies manually at any time through your browser settings, regardless of our retention periods.

Third-Party Services

We don't operate in a vacuum. Some tracking comes from external services we integrate with:

• Analytics platforms that help us understand site performance and user behavior
• Email service providers that track campaign delivery and open rates
• Customer support tools that remember your previous conversations
• Payment processors that handle transaction security

These third parties have their own privacy policies. When you use merquavosent.com, you're interacting with both our systems and theirs. We choose partners carefully, but we can't control their practices once data leaves our servers.

Updates to This Policy

Technology changes. Our services evolve. Sometimes we add new tracking to support new features, or remove outdated systems.

When we make significant changes to how we track user activity, we'll update the date at the top of this page and notify active users through email. Minor clarifications or formatting updates won't trigger notifications.

We recommend checking back every six months or so if you're particularly concerned about tracking. Last major update was January 2025, and the next scheduled review is July 2025.