Cookies
Below you can find information about the cookies that we use on our website.
If this page doesn't answer your question, or you have a different question you'd like to ask us, please email us at [email protected].
What are cookies?
To make this site simpler, we sometimes place small data files on your computer while you browse. These are known as cookies. Most big websites do this too.
Why use them?
Cookies improve things by:
- measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs
- remembering settings, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page
- tracking the effectiveness of our content
Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. Indeed, you can manage and/or delete these small files as you wish.
To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit AboutCookies.org. Or please read on to find out more about how and where we use cookies.
How we use cookies
MEASURING WEBSITE USAGE
We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use this site. We do this to make sure it’s meeting its users’ needs and to understand how we could do it better.
The cookies collect information such as the number of visitors to the site, which pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. We do not collect or store your personal information (eg your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
The following cookies are placed on your computer by Google Analytics:
| Cookie ID | Typical content | Expires | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _utma | Randomly generated number | After 2 years | First party | Keeps track of the number of times you visit the site, when your first and last visit occurred |
| _utmb | Randomly generated number | After 30 minutes | First party | Records the time you arrive at the site |
| _utmc | Randomly generated number | As soon as you close your browser window | First party | Records the time you leave the site |
| _utmz | Randomly generated number | After 6 months | First party | Tracks which site you came from, which search engine you used, which link you clicked, which keyword you used, and where in the world you are |
For more information about Google Analytics visit Google Analytics website.
The AddThis service allows you to share a webpage with social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, save it to your browser bookmarks, or send it to a friend via email.
AddThis places cookies on your machine to track the usage of their service, so we can see how people are using and sharing our content. It is the world’s largest content sharing platform and is used by many sites.
AddThis is owned and operated by Clearspring Technologies, who offer an opt-out service should you wish them to stop collecting non-personally identifiable information about you.
The following cookies are placed on your computer by AddThis:
| Cookie ID | Typical content | Expires | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| di | Randomly generated number | After 2 years | Third party | Determines expiration of other cookies |
| dt | Randomly generated number | After 2 years | Third party | Determines expiration of other cookies |
| loc | Country code and randomly generated letters and numbers | After 30 days | Third party | Identifies your rough location |
| psc | Randomly generated number | After 2 years | Third party | Counts number of views of this page |
| ssc | Randomly generated number | As soon as you close your browser window | Third party | Records the time you leave the site |
| ssh/sshs | Your preferences | After 2 years | Third party | Configures your preferences according to changes to settings you make |
| uid | Randomly generated letters and numbers | After 30 days | Third party | Tracks an anonymised user ID and log-in time |
| uvc | Randomly generated letters and numbers | Expires | Third party | Tracks usage of the social sharing buttons at the bottom of each page |
We use the WordPress blogging platform for our News Pages. On some articles you can leave comments about the posts we write, and when you do, WordPress stores some information so you don’t have to write them all out again.
The following cookies are placed on your machine to allow you to leave comments:
| Cookie ID | Cookie name | Typical content | Expires | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| comment_author | WordPress | User name entered | A little under 1 year | First party | Remembers your name so you don’t have to re-type it when you leave another comment |
| comment_author_email | WordPress | Email address entered | A little under 1 year | First party | Remembers your email address so you don’t have to re-type it when you leave another comment |
| comment_author_url | WordPress | Website URL entered | A little under 1 year | First party | Remembers your website URL so you don’t have to re- type it when you leave another comment |
| wordpress_test_cookie | WordPress | WP+Cookie +check |
As soon as you close your browser window | First party | Determines whether you have cookies enabled or not |
| wordpress_logged_in | WordPress | Y or N | A little under 1 year | First party | Determines whether you are logged in or not |
OTHER THIRD-PARTY COOKIES
If you already use social media platforms, they might set cookies on your machine as you use our website. Data can then be collected by these companies that enables them to serve up adverts on other sites that they think are relevent to your interests.
Twitter Cookies: ab_sess_search_relevance_ranked_hits_189, dnt, t1, auth_token_session, secure_session, twll, twid, ab_sess_wtf_user_to_user_rec_155, ab_sess_search_relevance_social_167, ab_sess_t1_actions_156, _twitter_sess, _twitter_sess, ab_sess_activity_ddg_126, ab_sess_activity_up_top_98, ab_sess_promoted_arrows_and_pills_78, ab_sess_Relevance_V1-49, _sm_au_d, auth_token, external_referer, guest_id, k, lang, original_referer, pid
Facebook Cookies: lu, L, L, datr, e, c_user, c_user, presence, sct, sct, _sm_au_d, act, _e_bWDI_21, _e_bWDI_22, _e_bWDI_23, _e_bWDI_24, _e_CTMK_0, _e_CTMK_1, _e_CTMK_2, _e_e6Yv_0, _e_e6Yv_1, _e_e6Yv_2, _e_0ITr_10, wd, x-referer, xs, xs, reg_ext_ref, reg_fb_gate, reg_fb_ref, reg_ext_ref, reg_fb_gate, reg_fb_ref
Google Cookies: PP_TOS_ACK, IGTP, NID, ULS, OTZ, APISID, SAPISID, SSID, _sm_au_d, S, S_awfe, SID, SS, W6D, BEAT, HSID, PREF?
Microsoft Cookies: MC1, WT_FPC