Cookies
What are “cookies”?
Cookies are tiny text files which are stored on your computer’s hard drive through your web browser or your mobile device when you visit certain web pages on our website. Cookies won’t harm your computer or mobile device; however, we understand that some people may find them intrusive.
How and why do we use cookies on this website?
Cookies often include an anonymous unique identifier and track and store your user preferences, as well as technical information about your use of the website. Cookies help us to improve our website and deliver a better service to you.
Specifically, we use analytical tools (Google Analytics) to better understand how our website is being used. These tools collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) is transmitted to third party service providers such as Google. This information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of the website and to compile statistical reports on our website activity.
Some of the cookies we use are session cookies (i.e. temporary cookies that remain in your browser until you leave the website) and others are persistent (i.e. which remain in your browser for much longer than session cookies (although how long they last will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie)).
The table below explains the cookies we use and why:
Provider |
Cookie |
Expiry |
Category |
Description |
AddThis.com (owned by Oracle) |
__atuvc |
13 months |
Statistics |
Updates counter on a website’s social sharing function. User visitor count. AddThis collects information from visitors that does not directly identify an individual and is designed to identify the devices used by visitors. AddThis privacy policy ; Opt out |
AddThis.com |
__atuvs |
30 minutes |
Statistics |
Makes sure the user sees the updated count if they share a page with AddThis social sharing. Holds the ID of a visit (a group of related views), and a counter for the number of views in the visit so far. AddThis privacy policy ; Opt out |
AddThis.com |
uvc |
13 months |
Targeting |
Detects how often the social sharing service, AddThis, encounters the same user. AddThis privacy policy ; Opt out |
AddThis.com |
loc |
13 months |
Targeting |
Geolocation, used to help providers determine how users who share information with each other are geographically located (state level). AddThis privacy policy ; Opt out |
AddThis.com |
mus |
25 days |
Targeting |
Profile store status. AddThis privacy policy ; Opt out |
AddThis.com |
ouid |
25 days |
Targeting |
|
AddThis.com |
uid |
13 months |
Targeting |
Unique user ID that recognizes the user on returning visits. AddThis privacy policy ; Opt out |
AddThis.com (go.affec.tv) |
ck |
5 years |
Targeting |
This is a cookie created by the AddThis social media sharing plugin. Affectv is a social analytics company that helps brands and companies to understand the users that visit their webpages. Affectv privacy policy ; Opt out |
AddThis.com (go.affec.tv) |
oo |
5 years |
Targeting |
This is a cookie created by the AddThis social media sharing plugin. Affectv is a social analytics company that helps brands and companies to understand the users that visit their webpages. Affectv privacy policy ; Opt out |
AddThis.com (go.affec.tv) |
pt |
5 years |
Targeting |
This is a cookie created by the AddThis social media sharing plugin. Affectv is a social analytics company that helps brands and companies to understand the users that visit their webpages. Affectv privacy policy ; Opt out |
AppNexus (adnxs.com) |
sess |
Session cookie |
Targeting |
Used to check if the user’s browser supports cookies. AppNexus privacy policy ; Opt out |
AppNexus |
uuid2 |
90 days |
Targeting |
Registers a unique ID that identifies a returning user’s device. The ID is used for targeted ads. AppNexus privacy policy ; Opt out |
Google Analytics |
_gat |
Session cookie |
Statistics |
Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate. Google Analytics privacy policy ; Opt out |
Google Analytics |
_ga |
2 years |
Statistics |
Used by Google to distinguish unique users. Google Analytics privacy policy ; Opt out |
Google Analytics |
_gid |
Session cookie |
Statistics |
Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. Google Analytics privacy policy ; Opt out |
How do I manage cookies?
Browsers are typically set to accept cookies automatically. You can choose to have your browser notify you when cookies are being written to your computer or accessed, or you can disable cookies entirely. To do this, please check your browser documentation or click the online ‘help’ files of your particular browser. However, please note that if you disable cookies in your browser some website features and services may not function properly.
If you would like to learn more about cookies generally and how to manage them, please visit allaboutcookies.org (opens in a new window).
Full details of how we collect, hold and process your personally identifiable information via the website are set out in our Privacy Policy.
Changes to this policy
We keep this policy under review, and we will place any updates on this webpage. This policy was last updated on 17 March 2020.
How to contact us
If you have any questions about this policy or our use of cookies, please contact us