We use a few different types of cookies to improve the user experience on ericsson.com. They can generally be categorized as session cookies, persistent cookies and third-party cookies. Session cookies last until you close your web browser or restart your computer. Persistent cookies stay in your computer for varying lengths of time, from minutes to years. Third-party cookies are created by other companies that provide services to our website. Some cookies can fall into more than one category. Here is a list of the cookies we use.
Session cookies
eTALatest lasts until the end of your browser session.
eShowEventDet lasts until the end of your browser session. It lets your browser show or hide the details of events at http://www-ericsson.com/thecompany/events.
sifrFetch lasts until the end of your browser session. It allows the sIFR flash converter to display the Ericsson typeface in the page headings.
Third-party cookies
Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, uses four different cookies which are stored in your computer for varying lengths of time. These collect anonymous information including the number of visitors to the site, where the visitors came to the site from, and the pages they visit while they are here.
The _utma cookie remains in a computer for two years or the cookie cache is cleared. It tracks anonymous user behavior, such as first visit and last visit.
The _utmb cookie lasts for 30 minutes and the _utmc lasts until the end of your browser session. They work together to calculate the time a user spends on the site, the first showing when you arrive and the second showing when you leave.
The _utmz cookie indicates where a user was before they came to ericsson.com. It might have been at a search engine like Google or Bing, on a social network site, or just straight from entering the address. It shows geolocation data too (roughly where you are). If the visitor searched for a keyword, it stores that too. This cookie lasts six months, and is probably the most important Google Analytics cookie.
For more information on the cookies used by Google Analytics, visit their site.
Another third-party cookie comes from our partner Akamai, but is called Ericsson. It is stored in your computer for a year and creates statistics about visitors to any of the pages on ericsson.com.
Then there are a couple of cookies that help with social media and content sharing. The AddThis social bookmarking widget lets visitors bookmark and share our site. It generates eight different cookies – di, dt, loc, psc, ssh, sshs, uid and uit &ndasH; which last two years. They help the AddThis platform remember which of the social networking/sharing tools you like to use. The information they collect does not identify you personally, but it used more to identify which services are the most popular. You can get more information at AddThis.
The final third-party cookie comes from Twitter, and allows users to share content from our Networked Society blog via Twitter. The guest_id cookie lasts two years.