Website Cookie Policy

INFORMATION ABOUT OUR USE OF COOKIES

Our websites use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our websites. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our websites and also allows us to improve our sites. By continuing to browse the sites, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our websites. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our websites, 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 websites when they are using them. This helps us to improve the way our websites work, 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 websites. 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 websites, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our websites 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 Purpose Expires
_utma  

This helps us count how many people have visited the site and it also lets us know if you’ve visited before, so we can count how many of our visitors are new to our site or to a certain page.

 

2 years
_utmz

 

 

This tells us how you reached our site e.g. from another website or a search engine.

6 months
_utmb  

This works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on our site.

 

30 minutes
_utmc This works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser

 

When you close your browser

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. Browser specific instructions to block and remove cookies are listed below. 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.

 

Browser specific instructions to block and remove cookies:

 

Internet Explorer

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/how-to-manage-cookies-in-internet-explorer-9

Firefox

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Cookies

Google Chrome

http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647

Opera

http://www.opera.com/browser/tutorials/security/privacy/

Safari

http://support.apple.com/kb/ph11913

Safari iOS

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1677

Android

http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647

Blackberry

Turn off cookies in the browser

Windows Phone

Changing privacy and other browser settings