Cookies
What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer by websites and which can be read back from your computer to the website. Cookies allow websites to store information as you move from one web page to the next, or between visits to the website.
Typical examples of the use of cookies include:
- The “remember me” tickbox on website logins. When you tick the tickbox a cookie is written to your computer containing your user name so that the next time you visit the website your user name can be filled in automatically.
- E-commerce shopping baskets that remember the items you add to the basket between visits. The items you add to the basket are written into a cookie so that the next time you visit they can be put back into the basket automatically.
- Tracking of visits. When you visit a website it may store a cookie containing the time and date of your visit. The next time you visit the website the cookie can be read by the website to see if you are a new visitor or if you have visited before.
How We Use Cookies
The use of cookies is integral to our website to help ensure you have the best possible user experience.
We use cookies (via Google Analytics) to record statistical information about how our website is used, including how many different people visit the website, how often they visit and which pages they look at. This statistical information does not include any personal details or allow us to identify individual people. We use the statistical information we gather to help us improve the website and recognise which pages/features are popular and which are not.
Cookies We Currently Use
We currently use the following cookies:
Cookie | Name | Purpose |
Google Analytics | __utma __utmb __utmc __utmz |
To collect anonymous statistical information including page visits and e-commerce product performance that helps us improve our website. |
How To Disable Cookies
If you would like to prevent our website and also any other website from storing cookies on your computer you can do so by changing the settings in your web browser. Full details of how to do this should be available in your web browser’s Help Information but the following is a brief guide for some common web browsers.
Internet Explorer 9 (Windows)
Select ‘Tools’ from the menu bar, then ‘Internet Options’. In the pop up box select the ‘Privacy’ tab then slider the slider to the top then select ‘OK’.
Mozilla Firefox 5 (Windows)
Select ‘Options’ from the ‘Firefox’ dropdown menu. In the pop up box select the ‘Privacy’ tab then change the ‘History’ dropdown to ‘Use custom settings for history’. Untick ‘Accept cookies from sites’ then select ‘OK’.
Google Chrome (Windows)
Click the Spanner icon and select ‘Settings’. Select ‘Show advanced settings’ then in the Privacy section select ‘Content settings…’. Select ‘Block sites from setting any data’ then select ‘OK’.
Safari (Mac)
Select ‘Safari’ from the menu bar, then ‘Preferences’. In the pop up box select the ‘Security’ tab then in the Accept Cookies section select ‘Never’.
More Information
More information about cookies can be found on the All About Cookies website.