Cookies are our friends
Our Use Of Cookies
We use "cookies" to store and collect information regarding your usage of our website. These cookies do not contain any personally identifying information, but they do enable us to put in place personal settings and load your personal preferences. This makes it a better experience for you.
What are cookies?
Cookies are tiny files which websites use in order to work properly and provide important visitor data to website owners. They can be placed on your computer when you visit a website and help to make your web experience quicker, easier and tailored to you.
Session cookies are those which expire upon the closing of the web browser and persistent cookies are those which remain in place after a session has ended.
There are four key types of cookie:
Essential Cookies:
Without essential cookies, websites will not work properly. Essential cookies allow you to move around a website and complete basic functions, such as adding items to your shopping basket or going through the checkout process to make a purchase.
They enable:
- E-commerce checkout and basket functionality
- Login/registration
- Location targeting - showing users the correct site based upon their location.
- Device targeting - showing users the correct site depending on which device they are using e.g. mobile or PC.
Website Information Cookies:
Informational cookies allow website owners to gain an understanding of their traffic and visitor engagement levels, with this they can continually improve their website and better the user experience.
They can tell us:
- Where visitors are coming from (e.g. via search engines, referred from other sites or direct visits)
- Which pages they view
- How long visitors spend on the website
- How many visitors convert (make an enquiry/purchase/place an order etc.)
Setting Cookies:
Setting cookies allow websites to improve user experience and remember the site preferences for returning visitors and users.
Examples include:
- Font size and style
- Page layout e.g. colours and layout styling
- Number of search results/posts/threads/news items to display per page
- Login settings
Advertising Cookies:
Advertising cookies allow for improved advert targeting, ensuring that you get to see ads for things which are the most relevant to you.
How can I disable cookies?
If you wish to disable cookies within your browser, please visit the relevant links below for further information.
Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196955
Firefox
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Cookies
Google Chrome
http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647
Opera
http://www.opera.com/browser/tutorials/security/privacy/
Safari
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/5.0/en/9277.html
Safari iOS
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1677
Android
http://support.google.com/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=169022
Windows Phone
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/howto/wp7/web/changing-privacy-and-other-browser-settings.aspx
Our use of cookies is outlined within the table below:
Information Commissioner's Office
http://www.ico.gov.uk/cookies
Simple information about cookies
http://www.aboutcookies.org/
Detailed information about cookies http://www.allaboutcookies.org/
Cookie | Name | Purpose | Further Information |
Session Cookies | |||
ASP .NET Session Cookie | ASP.NET_SessionId | This cookie is essential to the use of our online shopping functionality and allows us to keep track of your shopping basket as you browse through the site and checkout process. This cookie is also used for login and registration purposes, referral and affiliate tracking and geolocation for our mobile site. The cookie expires when you leave our website and no personal data is obtained. | http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899918 |
Other Session Cookies | bid | Used internally to store the brand of the website | |
rtp | Used to track navigation methods that lead to purchases | ||
a | Used to track navigation methods that lead to purchases | ||
membershipnumber | Used during the checkout process for some employee benefit sites | ||
aff | Used to store affiliate IDs | ||
ref | Used to store referral codes | ||
menabled | Used to redirect users from the mobile to the desktop site | ||
Persistent Cookies | |||
Shopping Basket | basket | Used to store items in your basket. Expires 90 days after last visit to the site. | |
Third Party Services Which May Use Session/Persistent Cookies | |||
Google Analytics | _utma _utmb _utmc _utmz | Google analytics cookies are used in order to collect information about how visitors use our website. All data collected via this cookie is anonymous and non user specific. Information includes the number of visitors to the site, where the visitors have come from and which pages they have viewed. This information is important as it helps us to improve the performance of our website and monitor our visitor levels. The _utma and _utmb cookies expire after a maximum period of 2 years, unless cookies are cleared before this date. The _utmc cookie is no longer set and the _utmz cookie expires after 6 months, or less if cookies are cleared prior to this date. | http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout |
Advertising | Google Ad Services Affiliate Window Criteo My Things | We use third party ad and affiliate network cookies to enable us to track the success of our online advertising and retarget visitors who have not made a purchase. The cookies provide us with information such as the number of people to see our ads and the number of sales associated with advertising traffic. The cookies do not allow us to identify individual users. | http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ads/ https://www.affiliatewindow.com/ http://www.criteo.com/us/privacy-policy http://mythings.com/ http://mythings.com/optout_website.htm http://www.adjug.com/info/privacy.asp |
Website Monitoring | eStats iCrossing | In addition to Google Analytics, we use various other tools to monitor our traffic, visitor engagement and conversion levels, some of which use cookies. Access to this data allows us to take steps to improve our website and overall user experience for our visitors. The cookies do not allow us to identify individual users. | http://www.estat.com |
Social Networking | YouTube Google+1 | We use a variety of social media applications and plugins, some of which may make use of cookies in order to function. | http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/policies/privacy/ http://twitter.com/privacy http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ |
Website Security | Thawte | Our online payment system is secured by Thawte, which may use cookies. | http://www.thawte.com |
Google Maps | We use Google maps to highlight our experience day locations within our product pages. | http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/policies/privacy/ | |
Qubit | _qubitTracker | the user's specific ID that QTracker user | |
_qubitTracker_s | session expiring version of _qubitTracker | ||
_qst | Session count for QTracker | ||
_qst_s | Tells _qst when to increment the session, (has minutes counting to 30) | ||
_qsst | Second session counter (different to _qst) | ||
_qsst_s | Tells _qsst when to increment the session (has a timestamp counting 30 minutes in ms) | ||
_qPageNum_virginexperiencedays | the page number for the session | ||
_qtag_101246-1291605 | session related information for Opentag | ||
HotJar | _hjUserId | the user's specific ID that HotJar user | |
_hjIncludedInSample | whether to include your session in HotJar tracking | ||
Flash Cookies (LSOs) | |||
Flash Cookie | JWPlayer | Used to store volume, mute state and last known bandwidth data. | http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/ |