There are two types of cookies:
Persistent cookies remain on a user’s device for a set period of time specified in the cookie. They are activated each time that the user visits the website that created that particular cookie.
Session cookies are temporary. They allow website operators to link the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close the browser window. Once you close the browser, all session cookies are deleted.
Cookies also have, broadly speaking, four different functions and can be categorised as follow: ‘Necessary’ cookies, ‘Preference’ cookies, ‘Statistics’ cookies and ‘Marketing’ or ‘advertising’ cookies. There are also ‘Unclassified’ cookies, where the use has not been defined by the creator.
Necessary cookies (also known as Strictly Necessary or Essential cookies) are essential to navigate around a website and use its features. Without them, you wouldn’t be able to use basic services like viewing other pages etc. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you’ve been on the internet.
These cookies are always turned on as we do not have to gain your consent to set them.
Examples of how we use ‘necessary’ cookies include:
- Setting unique identifiers for each unique visitor, so site numbers can be analysed.
- Navigation of the website pages.
Statistics cookies collect data for statistical purposes on how visitors use a website; they don’t contain personal information such as names and email addresses and are used to improve your user experience of a website.
For us to set these cookies we need your consent, so the default setting is they are turned off, until we gain your informed consent to allow them.
Here are some examples of how we use Statistical cookies:
- Gathering data about visits to the website, including numbers of visitors and visits, length of time spent on the site, pages clicked on or where visitors have come from.
- For comparison with other websites using data collected by industry-accepted measurement and research companies.
Information supplied by Statistic cookies helps us to understand how you use the website; for example, whether or not you have visited before, what you looked at or clicked on and how you found us. We can then use this data to help improve our services. We generally use independent analytics companies to perform these services for us and when this is the case, these cookies may be set by a third-party company (third party cookies).
Preference cookies (also known as Functional cookies) allow users to customise how a website looks for them: they can remember usernames, language preferences and regions, and can be used to provide more personal services like local weather reports and traffic news.
For us to set these cookies we need your consent, so the default setting is they are turned off, until we gain your informed consent to allow them.
Here is an example of how we use functionality cookies:
- Remembering if you’ve been to the site before so that messages intended for first-time users are not displayed to you.
Marketing cookies (also known as Targeting cookies) are used to deliver advertisements more relevant to you but can also limit the number of times you see an advertisement and be used to chart the effectiveness of an ad campaign by tracking users’ clicks. They can also provide security in transactions. They are usually placed by third-party advertising networks with a website operator’s permission but can be placed by the operator themselves.
They can remember that you have visited a website, and this information can be shared with other organisations, including other advertisers. They cannot determine who you are though, as the data collected is never linked to your profile.
For us to set these cookies we need your consent, so the default setting is they are turned off, until we gain your informed consent to allow them.
