Cookies

About cookies

A cookie is a small piece of data. They're downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website or application.

We use cookies to:

• remember information about you, so you don't have to give it to us again
• keep you signed in as you move around the site if you have an account
• help us understand how people are using our services, so we can make them better
• personalise the site to you by remembering your preferences and settings

For more information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Types of cookies

First-party cookies

These cookies are set by the website you're visiting and only that website can read them.

Third-party cookies

These cookies are set by someone other than the owner of the website you're visiting. Some web pages may also contain content from other sites (for example YouTube), which may set their own cookies.

Also, if you share a link to a page, the service you share it on (for example Facebook) may set a cookie on your browser. We have no control over third-party cookies, but we do use these to understand how people use our site, and where we can improve.

Session cookies

These cookies only last as long as your online session. They disappear from your computer or device when you close your browser (like Edge, Chrome or Safari).

Persistent cookies

These cookies stay on your computer or device after your browser has been closed and last for a time specified in the cookie.

We use persistent cookies when we need to know who you are for more than one browsing session. For example, if you've accepted the cookie policy, so we don't need to keep asking you.

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies let you use all the different parts of the website. Without them, services that you've asked for can't be provided.

Functional cookies

These help us personalise the site to you by remembering your preferences and settings. Some examples of how we use these cookies are remembering:

• if you visited the website before so messages for new visitors aren't displayed to you
• settings on the website like colour, font size and layout

Performance cookies

These help us understand how people are using the site, so we can make it better. And they let us try out different ideas. We sometimes get other companies to analyse how people are using the site. These companies might set their own performance cookies. Some examples of how we use these cookies are:

• collecting information on which web pages visitors go to most often so we can improve our online services
• making sure the website is working properly and fixing any errors
• testing designs to help improve the look and feel of the website

Advertising cookies

Some websites use advertising networks to show you specially targeted adverts on other sites based on the sites you visit. These networks may also be able to track your browsing across different sites.

Other tracking technologies

Some sites use things like web beacons, clear GIFs, page tags and web bugs. They're used to understand how people are using the sites and to target advertising to them.

They usually take the form of a small, see-through image that's embedded in a web page or email. They work with cookies and capture data like your IP address, when you viewed the page or email, what device you were using and where you were.

So, how can you control cookies?

You can set your browser to not accept cookies.

www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org tell you how to remove cookies from your browser.

Keep in mind: some parts of our website may not work if you don't choose to accept cookies.