Cookie Policy

This is our initial policy and the first stage towards achieving cookie compliance for our visitors. These details are to provide you with information so that you are fully aware of the cookies we have in use, enabling you to make an informed choice about your continued acceptance of them. We are working on a multiple-stage approach to meet the EU guidelines relating to online privacy and cookies and this will be updated and monitored regularly.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small files sent back and forth with web pages which can be used to identify that you have previously visited a site or to store small bits of information locally with you. If you want to know more about what cookies are visit aboutcookies.org. Cookies on our site – set by our 3rd party partners or us – can be in the form of session or persistent cookies, or may be used by different technologies, such as JavaScript or Flash. If you would like to ‘opt out’ of the cookies set by our site, this can be accomplished on a cookie-by-cookie basis subject to browser settings. These cookies may be used to collect analytics of non-personal visitor activity and to help manage your user experience. You may limit site operation or functions if you limit the cookies. To find out how to control them via your browsers/device, visit allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies.

Name of cookie	Type of cookie	Reason for use	Level of privacy/tracking	Description
_utma	Persistent	Analytics	Low to Medium	Google Analytics
_utmb	Persistent	Analytics	Low to Medium	Google Analytics
_utmc	Persistent	Analytics	Low to Medium	Google Analytics
_utmz	Persistent	Analytics	Low to Medium	Google Analytics
NID	Persistent	Saved Preferences	Low to Medium	Google Maps
PREF	Persistent	Saved Preferences	Low to Medium	Google Maps
SSID	Persistent	Saved Preferences	Low to Medium	Google Maps
HSID	Persistent	Saved Preferences	Low to Medium	Google Maps
SID	Persistent	Saved Preferences	Low to Medium	Google Maps
APISID	Persistent	Saved Preferences	Low to Medium	Google Maps
SAPISID	Persistent	Saved Preferences	Low to Medium	Google Maps
Cookie Consent	Persistent	Saved Preferences	Low to Medium	Display Cookie Messages

Definitions

A number of terms used in this guide are defined below. These definitions are based on those used in the ICO guidance.

Affiliate

An affiliate is a website operator who can send traffic to a website using links from another website. The affiliate is paid an agreed commission from the referral

First & third-party cookies

Whether a cookie is ‘first’ or ‘third’ party refers to the domain placing the cookie

First-party cookies

Are those set by a website that is being visited by the user at the time — the website displayed in the URL window

Third-party cookies

Are cookies that are set by a domain other than that of the website being visited by the user. If a user visits a website and another entity sets a cookie through that web site this would be a third-party cookie

Persistent cookies

These cookies remain on a user’s device for the period of time specified in the cookie. They are activated each time that the user visits the web site that created that particular cookie

Session cookies

These cookies allow web site 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. Session cookies are created temporarily. Once you close the browser, all session cookies are deleted

Flash cookies

Many web sites use Adobe Flash Player to deliver video and game content to their users. Adobe utilises their own cookies, which are not manageable through your browser settings but are used by the Flash Player for similar purposes, such as storing preferences or tracking users. Flash Cookies work in a different way to web browser cookies (the cookie types listed above are all set via your browser); rather than having individual cookies for particular jobs, a web site is restricted to storing all data in one cookie. You can control how much data can be stored in that cookie but you cannot choose what type of information is allowed to be stored.

Further information

For further background information on the EU directive and cookies, please visit: ICO Cookies Guidance PDF www.ico.org.uk