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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

Blackberry
http://docs.blackberry.com/en/smartphone_users/deliverables/32004/Turn_off_cookies_in_the_browser_60_1072866_11.jsp

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:

More cookie info

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/

CookieNamePurposeFurther Information
Session Cookies
ASP .NET Session CookieASP.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 CookiesbidUsed internally to store the brand of the website 
rtpUsed to track navigation methods that lead to purchases 
aUsed to track navigation methods that lead to purchases 
membershipnumberUsed during the checkout process for some employee benefit sites 
affUsed to store affiliate IDs 
refUsed to store referral codes 
menabledUsed to redirect users from the mobile to the desktop site 
Persistent Cookies
Shopping BasketbasketUsed 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
AdvertisingGoogle 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 MonitoringeStats
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 NetworkingYouTube
Twitter
Google+1
Facebook

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 SecurityThawteOur 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_qubitTrackerthe user's specific ID that QTracker user 
_qubitTracker_ssession expiring version of _qubitTracker 
_qstSession count for QTracker 
_qst_sTells _qst when to increment the session, (has minutes counting to 30) 
_qsstSecond session counter (different to _qst) 
_qsst_sTells _qsst when to increment the session (has a timestamp counting 30 minutes in ms) 
_qPageNum_virginexperiencedaysthe page number for the session 
_qtag_101246-1291605session related information for Opentag 
HotJar_hjUserIdthe user's specific ID that HotJar user 
_hjIncludedInSamplewhether to include your session in HotJar tracking 
Flash Cookies (LSOs)
Flash CookieJWPlayerUsed to store volume, mute state and last known bandwidth data.http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/