We use cookies and similar tools across our websites to improve their performance and enhance your user experience. This policy explains how we do that.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which a website may put on your computer or mobile device when you first visit a site or page. The cookie will help the website, or another website, to recognise your device the next time you visit. Web beacons or other similar files can also do the same thing. We use the term “cookies” in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way.

There are many functions cookies serve. For example, they can help us to remember your username and preferences, analyse how well our website is performing, or even allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you.

Certain cookies contain personal information – for example, if you click to “remember me” when logging in, a cookie will store your username. Most cookies won’t collect information that identifies you, and will instead collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our websites, or a user’s general location.

What are the advantages of cookies?

A cookie contains information linked from a web browser (the user) to a specific web server (the website). If a web browser accesses that web server again, the web server can read from and react to that information. Cookies ensure a user-friendly experience and support safety efforts for many online offers and services, e.g. language preferences, privacy settings, shopping baskets of online shops or relevant adverts.

Do cookies pose a security or safety risk?

No, cookies do not pose any safety or security risks. They are not ‘active’, executable, software. They do not spy on data that is stored in the computer nor can they carry a virus.

Is my privacy protected?

Usually cookies contain only a generic browser recognition or are associated with anonymous data. When cookies are set, the user is informed about it (typically in the privacy section of a website or in the terms of use or other user contract). If websites use cookies to collect personal data, data protection laws require those websites to inform users about the collection of personal data and the purpose of such collection.

Can I control cookies?

Yes, browsers offer cookie management setting tools (please see some help below). Browser settings can be set to require the user’s confirmation for each cookie that might be stored on his / her PC. You can also set the browser to accept cookies only from specific web sites (e.g. your favourite news site). Browsers can also enable users to delete specific cookies. It is even possible to set a browser to reject all cookies. Note that choosing to disable all cookies could significantly affect your web browsing experience because many Internet services rely on cookies.

How can I manage or remove cookies?

Google Chrome

Open your browser. Click on the icon representing “Tools” at the right of the window and choose Options. Click the “Under the Hood” tab and Click Content Settings in the Privacy section. Choose your preferred settings in the Cookies tab.

For newer versions of Chrome, click on the icon representing “Tools” at the right of the window and choose Settings. Click the “Show advanced settings…” at the bottom and Click Content Settings in the Privacy section. Choose your preferred settings in the Cookies tab.

Internet Explorer

Open your browser. Click on Tools at the right of the window and choose Internet Options. Click on the Privacy tab. You can choose between different levels of automatic cookies management or choose to do it manually by clicking on Advanced.

Mozilla Firefox

Open your browser. Click on Tools and choose Options. Click on the Privacy tab. In the History section you can choose between different scenarios (Remember history/ Never remember history /Use custom settings for history) and define exceptions.

Opera

Open your browser. Go to the main menu and click on Settings. Choose Preferences and click on the Advanced tab. Choose the Cookies tab and define your preferred settings.

Safari

Open your browser. Click on the menu icon on the far right. Choose Preferences and click on the Security tab. Define your preferred settings.

To find out more about managing cookies, including how to see what cookies have been stored and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/

Please remember that if you do choose to disable cookies, you may find that certain sections of our website do not work properly.

Can I disable a cookie?

Yes, some browsers will let you block just third party cookies (these are cookies placed on your browser by an entity other than the particular website’s owner- e.g., an advertising partner) or will allow the use of settings to block only cookies that do not meet your privacy preferences. However, most Websites use cookies in order to enhance a user-friendly experience and the safety of their online offers, e.g. the shopping basket of an online shop or the display of a relevant advertisement. You can choose to disable all cookies but this could significantly affect your web browsing experience.

What is the lifespan of a cookie?

Cookies are managed by web servers. The lifespan of a cookie can vary significantly, depending on its purpose. Some cookies are used only during an online session (‘session cookies’) and are not retained once you leave a website, and some cookies are retained and used each time you visit a website (‘permanent cookies’). However, cookies can be deleted by a user at any given time through the browser settings.

What kinds of cookies exist? There are two types of cookies: ‘session cookies’, which are automatically deleted after each session and ‘permanent cookies’, which have a longer life-span. Both kinds of cookies can be deleted at any given time by the user.

What are third party cookies?

Some content on a Website can be placed by a third party provider (e.g. a news box ticker, a video or an advertisement). Those third parties can also place cookies through a Website and they are called ‘third party’ cookies because they are not the Website owner. Third party providers must of course respect the applicable legislation and typically the policies of the Website owner. See also question “Can I control cookies?”.

Do cookies fill up my hard disk?

No, cookies are small text files and require very little storage.

What are flash cookies (or LSOs)?

‘Flash cookies’, referred to also as Local Shared Objects (LSOs), operate in a similar way to cookies and store preferred settings of players like Flash or Silverlight. In most cases, LSOs cannot be managed by browsers but through special manager tools:

Adobe Settings Manager for LSOs using Flash Player

www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

The “Global Storage Settings panel” will allow you to choose how much disk space websites can use to store information for websites you have not visited yet (zero to unlimited). If you want to change the settings for the websites you have already visited, go to “Website Storage Settings Panel”. You can choose the level of information storage for a website or delete the website so that, if you visit it again, it will use the global settings you have set under the “Global Storage Settings panel”.

Microsoft Settings Manager for LSOs using Silverlight

www.microsoft.com/GetSilverlight/resources/documentation/AppStorage.aspx

Open the Silverlight application. Click the Application Storage tab to see which Web sites are currently using application storage.

Add-on extensions have also have been created by the Firefox Web browser (Click&Clean, Objection, BetterPrivacy).

How do we use cookies?

Cookie Notice

Cookie Name: CookieNotice

What this cookie does: When you visit this site at the top will be a message displayed informing you that this site uses cookies. There is also a button ‘Don’t show me this message again’ which when clicked will hide this message bar and not show it to you again.

In order to remember that you have clicked this button, a cookie will be stored on your computer. This is purely to enhance your experience and no other information is stored.

Third Party Cookies

Google Analytics

Cookie Name: __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmz

What this Cookie does: These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site.

The information collected is anonymous and does not identify a visitor. The data includes the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come from and the pages they visited.

Select this link for an overview of privacy at Google.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit.

Twitter Cookies

We embed feeds from Twitter on this site. Twitter may use cookies to better understand how you interact with their services, to monitor aggregate usage by Twitter users and web traffic routing to their services.

You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases, this may impact your ability to use Twitter.

For more information, visit Twitter’s Privacy Policy.

More Information

More detail on how businesses use cookies is available at www.allaboutcookies.org.