"Cookies" and JavaScript
We may use cookies. Web cookies are small bits of information that your web browser may allow our server to store on your computer. We use this information to anonymously track your visit to our site. Even if you elect to give us personal information, that information will never appear in the cookies. We may use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookies, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user's hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions. You can disable cookies (consult support information from your browser's publisher). If you disable cookies, you may experience difficulty logging into your MyUSEF Account.

JavaScript is a programming language that's used to automate certain web features such as buttons that light up when you select them and menus that expand as you use them. We may use JavaScript to enhance our web site and to assist in the tracking of anonymous data. If you disable JavaScript, many of the features on our web site may not work with your computer.

In addition to the cookies we use through this Site, certain third parties may deliver cookies to you for a variety of reasons. For example, we use Google Analytics, a web analytics tool that helps us understand how visitors engage with the Site. To learn more about Google Analytics, click here.

Web Beacons (Clear Gifs)
Certain USEF web sites may also contain electronic images known as Web beacons, or clear gif technology, that can be used to assist in determining what content is effective on the web site. Web beacons are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movement of Web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Web beacons are not used to access your personal information. They are a technique used to compile aggregate statistics about usage of USEF web sites. Web beacons collect a limited set of information including a cookie number, time and date of a page view and a description of the page on which the Web beacon resides.

Clear Gifs can "work with" existing cookies on a computer if they are both from the same Web site or web marketing/customer service company. That means, for example, that if a person visited “www.companyX.com”, which uses a web marketing company's clear gif, the Web site or web marketing company would match the clear gif's identifier and the web marketing company's cookie ID number, to show the past online behavior for that computer. This collected information would then be given to the Web site.

In addition, we may use clear gifs in our Hyper Text Markup Language (“HTML”) HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by the recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.

Log Files
Like most standard Web site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are tied to personally identifiable information to enable our Web-based service.