Webpages and HTML emails may contain a small snippet of code called a web beacon. In their simplest form, web beacons allow a website to transfer or collect information through a graphic image request. Websites may use web beacons and cookies for many purposes, including site usage analytics, advertising auditing and reporting, and content and advertising personalisation.

BELS's Practices Regarding Web Beacons.

BELS may collect information through web beacons about your web browsing activities such as the address of the page you are visiting, the address of the referrer page you previously visited, the time you are viewing the page, your browsing environment and your display settings. We may use the information we collect through web beacons:

• To understand traffic patterns and the number of visitors to the branded BELS network of websites, websites within the BELS Network, and other non-BELS websites that we partner with.
• To understand how you use and interact with BELS products and services.
• To improve BELS products and services.
• To optimise your browsing experience.
• To provide anonymous individual and/or aggregate auditing, research, modeling and reporting for our advertisers and other partners. No personally identifiable information about you is shared with our advertisers and other partners as part of these services.
• To offer BELS Web Analytics.
• To provide you relevant advertising and content.
• To determine which email messages sent by BELS, or its agent, were opened and to note whether a message was acted upon.

Your Choices Regarding BELS's Use of Web Beacons

If you would rather not receive interest-based advertising and content provided by BELS, or to remove yourself from BELS's analytics services, please visit our Ad Interest Manager.

You can visit the Interactive Advertising Bureau to see other companies that offer opt outs and to use other tools to manage your opt-out choices.

Other Companies' Web Beacons on BELS

In addition to BELS using web beacons on our network of websites, we allow certain Third Parties to include their own web beacons within our webpages. These companies use of web beacons is subject to their own privacy policies, not the BELS Privacy Policy.

Server Access Logs

This policy applies to access logs created when Web pages are requested from, and served through, BELS's main Web servers.

BELS records only basic information about the activity supported through these servers. BELS retains these records (or logs) for 90 days after their creation date to allow effective management and analysis of our network and Website.

All network and web access logs are considered confidential, and as such BELS takes active measures to prevent unauthorized access during the retention period. During a log's normal retention period, access is restricted to BELS staff that need these data to do their job.

BELS recommends that individuals, groups, departments, labs and centers which operate autonomous Web servers follows the same policy or create similar policies.