A cookie is a small data file that certain websites write to your computer's hard drive when you visit them. A cookie file can contain information such as a user ID that the site uses to track the pages you have visited, but the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie cannot read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Some parts of Annese & Associates, Inc.'s website use cookies to track user traffic patterns. We do this in order to determine the usefulness of our website information to our users and to see how effective our navigational structure is in helping users reach that information.

Some Annese & Associates, Inc. websites and HTML-formatted e-mail newsletters may use web beacons in conjunction with cookies to understand user behavior. A web beacon is an electronic image, called a single-pixel (1x1) or clear GIF. Web beacons can recognize certain types of information on a visitor's computer, such as a visitor's cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page where the web beacon is placed. Some Web beacons may be unusable if you elect to reject their associated cookies. Annese & Associates, Inc. may also use customized links or other similar technologies to track email links that you click. We may associate that information with your personal information in order to provide you more focused e-mail communications or purchase information. Each e-mail communication includes an unsubscribe link allowing you to stop delivery of that type of communication.

If you prefer not to receive cookies while browsing our website or via HTML-formatted emails, you can set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies and refuse the cookie when your browser alerts you to its presence. You can also refuse all cookies by turning them off in your browser, although you may not be able to take full advantage of Annese & Associates, Inc.'s website if you do so. In particular, you may be required to accept cookies in order to complete certain actions on our website. You do not need to have cookies turned on, however, to use/navigate through many parts of our website, except access to certain of Annese & Associates, Inc.'s web pages may require a login and password.