Cookie Policy

Updated: April 2020

This cookie policy (“Cookie Policy”) is intended to inform you how Healthcare Consultancy Group (HCG) uses “cookies” and similar technologies on this website (“Site”) and in emails and to assist you in making informed decisions when using our Site or receiving an email. Please take a moment to read and understand this Cookie Policy. This Cookie Policy should also be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy (General) available at https://www.hcg-int.com/#privacy-policy and our European Privacy Policy available at https://www.hcg-int.com/#privacy-policy-gdpr

WHAT ARE COOKIES?

Cookies and similar technologies are very small text documents or pieces of code, which often include an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a website or use a mobile application, a computer asks your computer or mobile device for permission to store this file on your computer or mobile device and access information from it. Information gathered through cookies and similar technologies may include the date and time of visits and how you are using the particular website or mobile application.

First and third party cookies

We use first and third party cookies on our Site. First party cookies are cookies placed by us to collect information about you. However, certain cookies available on our Site are placed by third party website operators. This means that the information about you collected by those third party cookies will be shared with the relevant third party. Please refer to the relevant third party website operator’s privacy notice for more information about how they may use such information.

You should be aware that applications you use to access our Site, such as your web browser, may also place cookies on your device when visiting our Site, or other websites. An example of this would be where you sign in to Google Chrome using a Google Account (please note this is distinct from our use of Google Analytics – which is set out below). We have no control over these cookies so you will need to manage these cookies in the settings of the relevant applications.

For more details on cookies and similar technologies, please visit All About Cookies. For the purposes of the remaining sections of this Cookie Policy, we will refer to all technologies using the above features as “cookies”.

Please note that our Site may link to third party websites which are not operated by us (including websites which are operated by our partners which may have a similar look and feel to the Site). Where you follow links from our Site to the website of a third party that website may place different cookies on your device. Again, you should check the relevant privacy and/or cookie notice for more information about how that third party uses cookies.

HOW LONG DO COOKIES LAST?

All cookies have expiration dates that determine how long they stay in your browser:

Session Cookies – these are temporary cookies that expire (and are automatically erased) whenever you close your browser.

Persistent Cookies – these usually have an expiration date and so stay in your browser until they expire, or until you manually delete them.

More information is provided below about how long cookies from our Site stay in your browser

COOKIES USED ON OUR SITE

The following description sets out more information about the individual cookies we may use on our Site and the purposes for which they are used:

CATEGORY 2

Used to distinguish user.
This is included in each page request in a website and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the site analytics reports. For more information, please visit http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. If you wish to disable Google Analytics on your browser please visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

These cookies are used to throttle the request rate and to distinguishes unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. They are included in each page request in a website and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the Site’s analytics reports. For more information, please visit http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners, https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage?hl=en-US. If you wish to disable Google Analytics on your browser please visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

COOKIE CATEGORIES

Category 1: strictly necessary cookies
Category 1 cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the Site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the Site.

Category 2: performance cookies
Category 2 cookies collect information about how visitors use our Site, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies do not collect information that specifically identifies a visitor. All information that these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how the Site works. Category 2 cookies only collect information about the Site usage for our benefit as the Site operator.

Configuration of cookie settings
You may refuse our use of cookies at any point in time, either when you start navigating the Site or after having first accepted the cookies. You may also configure your browser settings to limit or exclude the use of cookies, or to delete the cookies that have already been placed on your computer. However, in such case, you might not be able to use certain functionalities of the Site. Cookie settings can vary from one browser to another. The below hyperlinks provide further guidance on how to disable the use of cookies on your browser, and/or on how to delete cookies:

• Chrome

• Internet Explorer

• Mozilla Firefox

• Safari

Please note that where cookies are dropped by third parties who operate the application through which you access the Site (such as Google Chrome), you will need to manage those cookie settings through the relevant third party application.

Furthermore, if you do not want to be tracked by Google Analytics, you can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

For further information on Google Analytics and its use of cookies, please consult the Google Analytics cookie policy.

Please note that where we use Google cookies to collect information about your use of this Site, such information is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, we have activated the IP anonymization function on this website so that Google will shorten your IP address within member states of the European Union or in other signatory states to the Agreement on the EEA previously. Only in exceptional cases, will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. In exceptional situations where your personal data is transferred in to a Google server in the USA, Google has submitted to the EU-US-Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

COOKIES USED IN EMAILS

Please note that any emails you receive from us may contain cookies or similar technologies to help us to see if recipients have opened an email and understand how recipients have interacted with it. Once you click on an email that contains a cookie, your contact information may subsequently be cross-referenced to the source email and/or the relevant cookie. If you have enabled images, cookies may be set on your computer or mobile device. Cookies will also be set if you click on any link within the email.

If you do not wish to accept cookies from any one of our emails, simply close the email before downloading any images or clicking on any links. You can also set your browser to restrict cookies or to reject them entirely. These settings will apply to all cookies whether included on websites or in emails.

In some instances, depending on your email or browser settings, cookies in an email may be automatically accepted (for example, when you’ve added an email address to your address book or safe senders list). Please refer to your email browser or device instructions for more information on this.