Do we use cookies?
Yes we do. A cookie is a piece of text that is stored on your computer by your web browser. We use cookies to monitor how people use our site. This helps us to understand how our customers and potential customers use our websites so we can develop and improve their design, layout and more relevant content.
We use a number of different cookies on our site. If you do not know what cookies are, or how to control or delete them, then we recommend you visit http://www.aboutcookies.org for detailed guidance.
The list below describes the cookies we use on this site and what we use them for. Currently we operate an ‘implied consent’ policy which means that by using our website you agree we can place these types of cookies on your device. If you are not happy, then you should either not use this site, or you should delete the cookies having visited the site, or you should browse the site using your browser’s anonymous usage setting (called “Incognito” in Chrome, “In Private” for Internet Explorer, “Private Browsing” in Firefox and Safari etc.)
First Party Cookies
These are cookies that are set by this website directly.
- Login: A login cookie is used to preserve your personal login preferences as set on the login screen.
- Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to collect information about visitor behaviour on our website. Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. This Analytics data is collected via a JavaScript tag in the pages of our site and is not tied to personally identifiable information. We therefore do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are.
You can find out more about Google’s position on privacy as regards its analytics service here.
- Banner advertising: These cookies allow us to know whether or not you’ve seen an advert and how long it is since you’ve seen it.
- PPC: These cookies use Flashtalking and Google Analytics to track our PPC campaigns by dropping cookies onto users’ browsers.
More info on Flashtalking and Google Analytics can be found here:
http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/cookie-usage
http://www.flashtalking.com/privacy/policy.pdf
Third Party Cookies
These are cookies set on your machine by external websites whose services are used on this site. Cookies of this type are the sharing buttons across the site allow visitors to share content onto social networks.
Cookies are currently set by:
- AddThis
- YouTube
In order to implement these buttons, and connect them to the relevant social networks and external sites, there are scripts from domains outside of our website. You should be aware that these sites are likely to be collecting information about what you are doing all around the internet, including on this website.
You should check the respective policies of each of these sites to see how exactly they use your information and to find out how to opt out, or delete, such information.
Blocking & deleting cookies
Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. For example:
- Internet Explorer – to refuse all cookies click “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and select “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector
- Firefox – to block all cookies click “Tools”, “Options”, and un-check “Accept cookies from sites” in the “Privacy” box or select “Clear private data” if you want to delete all cookies.
- Chrome – click on the Chrome menu in the toolbar, click on “settings”, click on “advanced settings”, choose “Privacy” section, then click on ” Content settings” button and choose either block or delete as appropriate.
Blocking or deleting all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.