What Are Cookies and Tracking Technologies?
Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device when you visit them. Think of them as digital sticky notes that help websites remember information about your visit. At Helios Path, we use various tracking technologies beyond traditional cookies to create a more personalized and effective learning environment for our financial education platform.
Quick Fact: Most cookies are completely harmless and actually improve your browsing experience by remembering your preferences and login status.
Our tracking technologies include traditional HTTP cookies, local storage, session storage, and web beacons. Each serves a specific purpose in delivering our financial education content more effectively. We've designed our tracking approach to be transparent and focused on genuinely improving your learning experience rather than invasive data collection.
Types of Tracking We Use
Essential Cookies
Functional Cookies
Analytics Cookies
Marketing Cookies
| Cookie Type | Purpose | Duration | Can Be Disabled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session Cookies | Maintain your login status and course progress during your visit | Until browser closes | No - Required for functionality |
| Preference Cookies | Remember your dashboard layout and display preferences | 1 year | Yes - Via browser settings |
| Analytics Cookies | Help us understand which content is most helpful for learners | 2 years | Yes - Via browser settings |
| Performance Cookies | Monitor site speed and identify technical issues | 30 days | Yes - Via browser settings |
How Tracking Enhances Your Experience
Our tracking technologies work behind the scenes to create a more intuitive and personalized learning journey. When you return to Helios Path, cookies remember exactly where you left off in your financial education modules, saving you the frustration of hunting through content you've already completed.
- Progress Tracking: We save your course completion status so you can pick up exactly where you left off, even if you switch devices or browsers.
- Personalized Content: Based on your interaction patterns, we surface the most relevant financial topics and tools for your learning level.
- Performance Optimization: Tracking helps us identify which pages load slowly or cause issues, allowing us to fix problems before they affect many users.
- Content Improvement: Analytics show us which explanations resonate with learners and which topics need clearer examples or additional resources.
- Security Monitoring: Essential cookies help us detect unusual login patterns and protect your account from unauthorized access.
For example, if you frequently access budgeting tools but rarely engage with investment content, our system learns this preference and prioritizes budgeting resources in your dashboard recommendations. This isn't invasive profiling – it's responsive design that adapts to your learning style and interests.
Managing Your Cookie Preferences
You have complete control over most cookies on your device. Every modern web browser provides built-in tools for managing cookies, and we respect whatever choices you make. However, disabling certain essential cookies may limit some functionality of our financial education platform.
Browser Settings Guide: Look for "Privacy," "Security," or "Cookie Settings" in your browser's preferences menu. Most browsers allow you to block third-party cookies while keeping functional ones enabled.
Here's what happens when you disable different types of cookies: Essential cookies cannot be disabled without breaking core functionality like login and course progress. Preference cookies can be blocked, but you'll need to reconfigure your dashboard settings each visit. Analytics cookies can be disabled without affecting your user experience, though this limits our ability to improve the platform based on user behavior patterns.
We also support the "Do Not Track" browser setting, though we should mention that this mainly affects our analytics collection rather than functional cookies necessary for the platform to work properly.
Data Retention and Your Rights
We don't keep tracking data indefinitely. Most analytics information is automatically purged after two years, while functional cookies typically expire much sooner. Session cookies disappear the moment you close your browser, and preference cookies respect the expiration dates set when they're created.
You can request deletion of your tracking data at any time by contacting us directly. We'll process these requests within seven business days and confirm when your data has been removed from our systems. Keep in mind that clearing your data will reset any personalized settings and course progress tracking.
If you're located in the European Union, you have additional rights under GDPR including the right to access, rectify, or port your data. Australian users have similar protections under the Privacy Act. We're committed to honoring these rights promptly and transparently.
Third-Party Cookies and Services
Some cookies on Helios Path come from trusted third-party services that help us deliver better financial education. These might include analytics providers, content delivery networks, or embedded educational videos. We carefully vet all third-party services to ensure they meet our privacy standards.
Common third-party cookies you might encounter include Google Analytics for understanding how users navigate our content, CDN cookies that help load pages faster, and video platform cookies if you watch embedded educational content. Each third-party service has its own privacy policy and cookie management options.
We never sell or share your personal information with these third parties beyond what's necessary for them to provide their specific services. Analytics providers, for instance, receive anonymized usage data rather than personal identifiers.
Updates and Changes
This cookie policy gets updated periodically as we add new features or respond to changes in privacy regulations. We'll notify users of significant changes through email or prominent notices on the website. Minor clarifications or additions typically don't require separate notification.
The most current version of this policy is always available on our website with the revision date clearly marked. We encourage you to review it occasionally, especially if you have concerns about privacy or data usage.
Major changes that affect how we collect or use tracking data will include a transition period where you can adjust your preferences before new policies take effect.