General
The Albright & Wilson Web Site makes some use of data that only indirectly identifies users. We take great care with practises that affect personal privacy. As a general rule, we do not collect or record data that directly identifies users.

Data Collection
Data that indirectly identifies users is gathered during interactions with the Albright & Wilson Web Site in the following circumstances:

• Computer Information
  It is necessary that your web browser provides your machine's network address, so the web server can address its replies back to the correct machine. In addition, the browser type and operating system information may be recorded.
• Navigation and Click-Stream Data
  Browsing any web site generates a trail of pages visited, the amount of data transferred and the time of access. This information is recorded against the network address supplied by your web browser.
• Electronic Mail
  It is necessary part of electronic mail that a sender and receiver address is supplied. These are recorded as well as a message identifier, amount of data and time. The address you supply as sender is only a pseudonym and may possibly bear no relation to your real name, so is not considered as directly identifying you. We will only record your e-mail address if you send us a message. It will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it and will not be added to a mailing list. We will not use your e-mail address for any other purpose and will not disclose it, without your consent.

The data is used by Albright & Wilson Web Site software, and by our support staff, only for web site and systems administration, including monitoring as a security measure. Aggregated data from log files is used in the customisation of the web site to meet your needs, evaluation, research and development.

The data collected will not be disclosed to a third party except where it is legally required, such as in the investigation of a criminal offence, and in compliance with search warrant or subpoena.

Cookies
A cookie is a very small text file placed onto your computer when you visit a Web site. A cookie can be 'persistent' meaning that it is written to a permanent file on your hard disk) or 'session-only' in which case the cookie is deleted at the end of your browsing session).

Cookies are not generally used on the Albright & Wilson Web site. The exception to this is the search facility, which has been built to use only temporary 'session ID' cookies. One cookie is created at the beginning of the user's search session and discarded at its conclusion. The cookie is not used to collect or store any information about the user, only to allocate a temporary identifier to the search session.

Without such a session ID, the user would loose the entire search context each time a new web page is visited during a search session e.g. by viewing a document retrieved by a search. If cookies are disabled, the search program could not provide more than a very basic functionality - far less than is expected by users.

Importantly, the cookie is held in memory on the user's computer, and is not written to the hard disk. Consequently the next time a user connects to the search facility on the Albright & Wilson's site, it has no knowledge of any previous connections.

Links to other sites
This site contains links to other sites. Albright & Wilson is not responsible for the privacy practise or the content of such web sites.

Accountability
Albright & Wilson Staff comply with information privacy principles.