Cookie Policy
Cookie policy
Information about our use of cookies
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
This policy outlines what cookies and similar tracking technologies our websites use, how we use them and information on how to opt out of these cookies if you wish to do so.
What are cookies?
Cookies and similar tracking technologies, such as tags, scripts and beacons, are small pieces of code (referred to as cookies hereafter) that are stored on a device (computer, mobile phone, tablet etc) and enable a website to “personalise” itself to users by remembering information about the user’s visit to the website.
Cookies are used to collect information, where available, about your device, your IP address, operating system and browser type and how you have interacted with our websites.
While cookies are used to identify users and devices, they only ever collect non-personal information such as IP addresses and device IDs. If the data cookies collect are ever merged with any other information with which you have provided us, such as email addresses, these are anonymised in such a way that identification to actual people is impossible.
Why do we use them?
Our websites use cookies to:
Store any preferences you have made and display content to you in a more personalised way gain insight into the nature of our audience so we can tailor our content accordingly we have a legitimate interest to use cookies so that we can show you adverts we believe you might be interested in, to control the number of times you see an advert and to measure the effectiveness of a campaign. We advertise on our site and in our newsletters to help keep the content free for our audiences.
- Per-session cookies: We only use these while you are visiting our website and they are deleted when you leave. They remember you as you move between pages, for example recording the items you add to an online shopping basket. They also help maintain security.
- Persistent cookies: These cookies stay on your computer until they expire or are deleted. We set automatic deletion dates so that we don’t keep your information for longer than we need to.
- First and third-party cookies: Whether a cookie is ‘first’ or ‘third’ party refers to the website or domain placing the cookie. First party cookies in basic terms are cookies set by a website visited by the user – the website displayed in the URL window. Third party cookies are cookies that are set by a domain other than the one being visited by the user. If a user visits a website and a separate company sets a cookie through that website this would be a third-party cookie.
- How to opt out of using cookies: We provide you with choice over the use of cookies as described in this policy.Please note that our websites may not work correctly if you change certain preferences, such as disabling all cookies.
- Browser Level cookie controls: Most browsers allow you to manage cookie settings. These settings can usually be found in the ‘Options’, ‘Settings’ or ‘Preferences’ menu of your browser. The links below are provided to help you find the settings for some common browsers.
Find out more about managing cookies:
- Manage cookie settings in Chrome and Chrome Android and Chrome iOS
- Manage cookie settings in Firefox
- Manage cookie settings in Internet Explorer
- Manage cookie settings in Microsoft Edge
- Manage cookie settings in Safari and Safari iOS
We use the following cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
- Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
- Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
- Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:
Cookie | Name | Purpose | More information |
Necessary | __cfduid | Used by the content network, Cloud flare, to identify trusted web traffic. | Expiry: 1 year |
Necessary | PHPSESSID | Preserves user session state across page requests. | Expiry: Session |
Statistics | _dc_gtm_UA-# | Used by Google Tag Manager to control the loading of a Google Analytics script tag. | Expiry: Session |
Statistics | _ga | Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the web site. | Expiry: 2 years |
Statistics | _gat | Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate. | Expiry: Session |
Statistics | _gid | Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the web site. | Expiry: Session |
Marketing | __atuvc | Updates the counter of a website’s social sharing features. | Expiry: 13 months |
Marketing | __atuvs | Ensures that the updated counter is displayed to the user if a page is shared with the social sharing service, Add This. | Expiry: Session |
Marketing | _at.cww | Used by the social sharing platform Add This. | Expiry: Persistent |
Marketing | at-lojson-cache-# | Used by the social sharing platform Add This. | Expiry: Persistent |
Marketing | at-rand | Used by the social sharing platform Add This. | Expiry: Persistent |
Unclassified | /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php-wc_cart_hash | This unclassified HTML cookie enables functionality of the shopping cart and is removed when you quit your browser. | Expiry: Session |
Unclassified | cm_cookie_policy=1 | This cookie enables us to show cookie warning message to those who have visited our website for the first time. | Expiry: 1 years |
Unclassified | wc_fragments | This is an unclassified HTML session cookie that is removed when you quit your browser. | Expiry: Session |
Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
You block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire as above.