Cookie & Data Usage Policy

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 bookmarks that help websites remember information about your visit. At Pathery, we use various tracking technologies beyond traditional cookies to enhance your experience on our financial education platform.

These technologies include web beacons, pixel tags, local storage, and session storage. Each serves a specific purpose in helping us understand how you interact with our content and services. We believe in transparency about these processes, which is why we're explaining exactly what happens when you browse pathery.com.

Our tracking technologies work behind the scenes to remember your preferences, keep you logged in, and help us improve our financial education resources. They're essential for providing the personalized learning experience that makes Pathery effective for South African users seeking to improve their financial skills.

Types of Tracking We Use

How Tracking Enhances Your Experience

When you're working through our budgeting course, for example, our tracking technology remembers exactly where you left off. If you're halfway through a lesson on debt management, you can close your browser and return later to pick up right where you stopped. This continuity is crucial for effective learning.

Our analytical tracking helps us identify which financial concepts South African users find most challenging. If we notice many people struggling with investment basics, we can create additional resources or simplify our explanations. Your anonymous usage patterns directly improve our educational content.

• Personalizing course recommendations based on your completed modules and interests
• Remembering your quiz progress and performance across different financial topics
• Adapting content difficulty based on your interaction patterns and completion rates
• Providing relevant examples that match your financial situation and goals
• Streamlining navigation by highlighting sections you use most frequently
• Offering timely reminders about courses you've started but haven't finished

Managing Your Cookie Preferences

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically find these options in your browser's privacy or security section. However, keep in mind that disabling certain cookies might affect how well our financial education platform works for you.

If you block essential cookies, you might have trouble logging into your account or accessing your course progress. Functional cookies help remember your preferences, so disabling them means you'll need to reset your settings each time you visit. Analytical cookies don't contain personal information, but they help us improve our services.

• Chrome: Settings → Privacy and Security → Cookies and other site data
• Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
• Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data
• Edge: Settings → Site permissions → Cookies and stored data
• Mobile browsers: Usually found under Privacy or Security in browser settings

Data Retention and Storage

We keep different types of data for different periods, depending on their purpose and your relationship with Pathery. Essential cookies typically last for the duration of your session, while preference cookies might be stored for up to two years to maintain your customized experience.

Analytical data is anonymized and aggregated, meaning we can't trace it back to individual users. This information helps us understand broad patterns in how people learn about personal finance, but it doesn't reveal anything about your specific financial situation or personal details.

If you decide to delete your Pathery account, we'll remove your personal data according to our retention schedule. Some anonymized usage statistics might be kept for longer periods to help us continue improving our educational resources, but these won't be connected to your identity.

Third-Party Services and Tracking

Like most websites, we work with trusted third-party services to provide certain features and analyze our website performance. These might include educational content providers, payment processors for course purchases, and analytics services that help us understand user behavior.

Each of these services has their own privacy policies and cookie practices. While we carefully select partners who share our commitment to user privacy, we recommend reviewing their policies if you're concerned about how your data is handled across different services.

We never sell your personal information to third parties. Any data sharing occurs only when necessary to provide the services you've requested, such as processing a course enrollment or delivering educational content that requires external resources.