Cookie Policy

When you return to the site, the browser sends those files back, so the site can recognise your session, remember your preferences or measure how pages are used. Similar technologies - such as local storage, session storage and small tracking pixels - work in comparable ways, and this policy covers them all under the general term “cookies”.

A cookie typically includes the domain of the website that created it, a value (frequently a randomly generated code) and an expiration date. Cookies lack the ability to access other data on your device and do not function as executable programs.

Sterling Fondvale deploys cookies to ensure the website operates securely and reliably, to retain your preferences and selections, to analyze which content provides value to visitors, and - provided you have granted permission - to track the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. Essential cookies are deployed immediately upon site access because the site's operation depends on them. All remaining cookie types activate exclusively following your explicit approval, which you may revoke whenever you wish.

Strictly necessary cookies

These keep the site usable: they maintain your session while you move between pages, balance traffic across servers, protect forms against automated abuse and remember the cookie choices you have already made. They do not build a profile of you and cannot be switched off through our banner, because without them core functions such as signing in would fail.

Preference (functionality) cookies

These remember the settings you choose - for example the interface language, a region, a display preference or whether you have dismissed an informational notice. They make the site more convenient but are not essential; if you refuse them, the site still works and simply asks for your preferences again on each visit.

Analytics (performance) cookies

These help us count visits, see which pages are read, how long people stay and where errors occur. The reporting is aggregated: it tells us that a page is popular or slow, not who you are. We use the results to fix problems and to improve the structure of the site.

Marketing (advertising) cookies

These record that you arrived from a particular campaign or advertisement, help avoid showing you the same message repeatedly, and measure whether a campaign led to a sign-up. They may be read by advertising partners on other websites. They are only set with your explicit consent.

Session cookies exist only while your browser window is open and are erased automatically when you close it. Persistent cookies remain until their expiry date or until you delete them; on this site their lifetimes range from a few days to roughly two years, depending on the purpose. The exact expiry of an individual cookie can always be inspected in your browser’s storage settings.

We preserve your consent preferences for a designated timeframe to prevent the banner from appearing upon each new visit; following this timeframe we will request your preferences once more.

Certain cookies originate from external vendors who provide services on our behalf, such as suppliers of traffic analysis, network distribution, protection against fraudulent activity or ad performance tracking. When you browse other websites utilizing these same vendors' services, those vendors may retrieve their own cookies. We do not manage the substance of cookies set by third parties; how they process collected information is determined by their respective privacy and cookie policies.

Where a third-party cookie is not strictly necessary, it is only placed after you have consented through the cookie banner. If you would like a list of the providers currently in use, contact support and we will provide the up-to-date details.

Through our banner

Use the cookie banner or the cookie settings link on the site to accept or reject the preference, analytics and marketing categories. Rejecting a category stops new cookies of that type from being written; cookies already stored can be cleared through your browser.

Through your browser

All major web browsers provide functionality to view stored cookies, remove them one at a time or in bulk, restrict cookies from particular websites, restrict all non-first-party cookies, or clear all data automatically upon browser closure. These options are typically accessible through a menu identified as "Settings", followed by "Privacy", "Privacy and security", "Site permissions" or "Cookies and site data". Browsers on mobile devices include equivalent capabilities within their preference menus, and mobile systems include independent controls governing advertising identifiers.

Private browsing

Opening the site in a private or incognito window means most cookies are discarded when you close that window, though this does not prevent them from being set during your visit.

Disabling essential cookies will impair website functionality: you may experience difficulty maintaining login status, submitting information through forms or progressing through encrypted transactions. Disabling preference cookies results in personalization options like language selection not being preserved. Disabling performance or advertising cookies does not impact how the website works - you will simply be excluded from our data collection and advertising analysis.

We review this policy periodically and update it when the cookies we use, the technologies behind them or the applicable rules change. The current version is always published on this page; material changes will be signalled on the site or through the cookie banner, and continued use after the update means the revised policy applies.

If you have a question about this policy, want details of a specific cookie or wish to exercise a data-protection right, please write to our support team through the contact page. Supplementary information can be found in the footer region on all pages, along with our Data Protection Notice.

Read the Privacy Policy