Cookie Policy

 

Cookies – what are they?

A "cookie" is a small text file that's stored on your computer, smartphone, tablet, or other device when you visit a website or use an app.

Some cookies are deleted when you close down your browser. These are known as session cookies. Others remain on your device until they expire or you delete them from your cache. These are known as persistent cookies and enable us to remember things about you as a returning visitor.

This website uses session and persistent cookies.

Cookies – how we use them

If you delete cookies relating to this website we will not remember things about you, including your cookie preferences, and you will be treated as a first-time visitor the next time you visit the site.

We use cookies (and other similar technologies) to:

• Provide products and services that you request and to provide a secure online environment
• Manage our marketing relationships
• Give you a better online experience and track website performance
• Help us make our website more relevant to you

Here we explain a bit more about each of these types and how you can control their use.

Performance Cookies: Tracking website performance

These cookies collect aggregated information and are not used to identify you.

We use this type of cookie to understand and analyse how visitors use our online services and look for ways to improve them.

The analytics cookies we use include:

• Google Analytics, which uses cookies to help us analyse how our visitors use the site.

Please see below the cookies we use on our website that relate to Google Analytics, for further information on Google Analytics cookies, please visit 

https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/concepts/gaConceptsCookies or view Google's privacy policy http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

• _utma
  • This is a ‘persistent’ Google Analytics cookie and tracks the number of times someone visits a website, first visit, last visit etc.
• _utmb
  • The utmb & utmc cookies work out how long a visit takes, b takes a timestamp on entry and c takes a timestamp on exit. ‘b’ expires on site exit, ‘c’ expires 30 minutes before expiring
• _utmc – See above
• _utmt_UA-26451629-1
  •  
• _utmz
  • Keeps track of where the visitor has come from, what search engine they used, search term used etc. Should have a 6 month expiry set
• _ga
  • Google Universal cookie
• _vis_opt_s
  • Visual Website optimiser cookies to track site variations a user may view
    • _vis_opt_test_cookie
    • _vwo_ds
    • _vwo_uuid
    • _vwo_uuid_v2
• Uuid
  • Unique user ID – This could use an HMAC (Hashed message authentication Code) which is not ever visible off the server to make this more secure
• _atuvc
  • This is associated with the AddThis social sharing Widget
• PHPSESSID
  • Session ID stored on web server, no info is stored in the browser, this can store logged in user info.

 

Functionality Cookies: Giving you a better online experience IS THIS ALSO KNOWN AS SESSION COOKIE

• These cookies remember your preferences and tailor the website to provide enhanced features. Without these cookies, we cannot remember your choices or personalise your online experience.
• We use this type of cookie to:
• Assist navigation through our website
• Remembering relevant information as you browse from page to page to save you re-entering the same information repeatedly
• Provide enhanced features, such as playing videos or allowing you to post a comment.

 

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are usually third-party cookies from marketing partners used to deliver adverts relevant to you and your interests. These cookies can track your browsing history across websites. If you wish to prevent this type of cookie, you may do so through your device’s browser security settings.

The third-party companies we partner with include:

• Facebook
• Google Search Adwords
• LinkedIn

Cookies in emails

As well as the cookies we use on our website, we use cookies and similar technologies in emails. These help us to understand whether you’ve opened an email and how you’ve interacted with it. Cookies may also be set if you click on a link within the email.

How to control and delete cookies.

If you want to restrict or block the cookies we set, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘help’ function within your browser should tell you how.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. or https://ico.org.uk/-the-public/online/cookies/.