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Cookie Policy

Introduction

Cookies are small pieces of information, normally consisting of just letters and numbers, which online services provide use when users visit them. Software on the user’s device (for example a web browser) can store cookies and send them back to the website next time they visit.

How are cookies used?

Cookies are a specific technology that store information between website visits. They are used in numerous ways, such as:

  • supporting users to log in to a website;
  • analysing traffic to a website; or
  • tracking users’ browsing behaviour.

We could use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website.
  • Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
  • Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
  • Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
  • Tracking Cookies. Tracking cookies are cookies, i.e. text files dropped on browsers, that are able to record data about the user of that specific browser, such as their actions on a site, browsing activity, purchases and preferences, IP address and geographical location. This information is used for targeted marketing, to direct and display advertisements as accurately as possible.

Cookies and purpose

We use cookies on our website(s). Please see below information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

The below list details the cookies used in our website.

Cookie Description
_fbp Facebook implements this cookie to deliver advertisements to users when they are using Facebook, or a digital platform powered by Facebook advertising, after visiting a website. who then visit one of our websites.
_ga This cookie is associated with Google Universal Analytics, which is a significant update to Google’s more commonly used analytics service. It distinguishes unique users by assigning them with a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session, and campaign data for the site’s analytics reports. It is set to expire after 2 years by default, although website owners can customise this.
_gat_gtag_<UA_ID> This cookie is set by Google and used to distinguish users.
_gcl_au This cookie is used by Google Analytics to understand user interaction with a website.
_gid This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. It stores information of how visitors use a website and helps to create an analytics report of how the website is performing. The data it collects includes visitor volumes, the source of where they have come from, and the pages they have visited anonymously.
IDE Used by Google DoubleClick, this stores information about how a user uses a website and interacts with other advertisements before visiting the website. It presents users with ads that are relevant to them according to their user profile.
CONSENT Google uses the ‘CONSENT’ cookie, lasting for 2 years, to store a user’s state in relation to their cookie choices.
SOCS ‘SOCS’ lasts for 13 months and is also used to store a user’s state in relation to their cookie choices.
NID Security, Analytics, Functionality, Advertising for Google Ads and AdSense for Search. It can remain in a browser for up to 6 months.
test_cookie This cookie is set by doubleclick.net. The purpose of the cookie is to determine if the user’s browser supports cookies.
_uetsid This is a cookie utilised by Microsoft Bing Ads and a tracking cookie. It allows us to engage with a user that has previously visited a website and expires 30 minutes after their browsing session ends.
_uetvid This is a cookie utilised by Microsoft Bing Ads and a tracking cookie. It allows us to engage with a user that has previously visited a website.
MUID Used by Microsoft as a unique identifier, this cookie is set by embedded Microsoft scripts. The purpose of the cookie is to synchronize the ID across many different Microsoft domains to enable user tracking.
adiErr adiErr is a cookie used to help us understand visitor interactions between our websites and call centre.
__adiCookieCheck This is a test cookie.
CLID This cookie is usually set by Dstillery to enable the sharing of media content to social media. It may also gather information on website visitors who use social media to share website content from the page visited.
aka_debug This cookie is set by the provider Vimeo. It is essential for a website to have video functionality and collects statistical information, like how many times the video is displayed and what settings are used for playback.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement This cookie is set up by GDPR cookie consent to record user consent for cookies in the category of “”Advertisement””.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics This cookie is set up by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is used to store user consent for cookies in the category of “”Analytics””.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional This cookie is set up by GDPR cookie consent to record user consent for cookies in the category of “”Functional””.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary This cookie is set up by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is used to store user consent for cookies in the category of “”Necessary””.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others This cookie is set up by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is used to store user consent for cookies in the category of “”Other””.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance This cookie is set up by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It is used to store user consent for cookies in the category of “”Performance””.
viewed_cookie_policy This cookie is set up by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
CookieLawInfoConsent This cookie stores a user’s consent, remembering a user’s choices. It expires in a year time.
stickyButtonsStatus A cookie set by a website to control visibility of the sticky bar.
_biz_flagsA A single cookie that stores multiple information, such as whether or not a user has submitted a form, performed a cross-domain migration, sent a view-through pixel, opted out from tracking, etc. viewthrough pixel, opted out from tracking, etc.
ajs_anonymous_id These cookies are generally used for Analytics and help count how many people visit a certain site by tracking if they have visited it before. They have a lifespan of 1 year.
amplitude_id_67f7b7e6c8cb1b558b0c5bda2f747b07trustpilot.com Expires after 3650
_biz_nA This cookie is used to record website and server performance with each visit to a site. The data is aggregated and analysed; therefore, it remains anonymous upon use.
OptanonConsent This cookie is set by the cookie compliance solution from OneTrust. It stores information about the categories of cookies the site uses and whether visitors have given or withdrawn consent for the use of each category. This enables site owners to prevent cookies in each category from being set in a user’s browser when consent is not given. The cookie has a normal lifespan of one year, so that returning visitors to the site will have their preferences remembered. It contains no information that can identify a site visitor.
_biz_uid This cookie is used to record website and server performance with each visit to a site. The data is aggregated and analyzed; therefore, it remains anonymous upon use.
_ttp A cookie that is set by the TikTok pixel for identifying users via an anonymous ID.
_hjSessionUser_xxxxxx A Hotjar cookie that is set when a user first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behaviour in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
_biz_pendingA This cookie is used to record website and server performance with each visit to a site. The data is aggregated and analyzed; therefore, it remains anonymous upon use.
pys_start_session Anonymous cookie used to facilitate the ‘PixelYourSite’ plugin, which manages our analytical services.
pys_first_visit Anonymous cookie used to facilitate the ‘PixelYourSite’ plugin, which manages our analytical services.
pysTrafficSource Anonymous cookie used to facilitate the ‘PixelYourSite’ plugin, which manages our analytical services.
pys_landing_page Anonymous cookie used to facilitate the ‘PixelYourSite’ plugin, which manages our analytical services.
last_pysTrafficSource Anonymous cookie used to facilitate the ‘PixelYourSite’ plugin, which manages our analytical services.
last_pys_landing_page Anonymous cookie used to facilitate the ‘PixelYourSite’ plugin, which manages our analytical services.
tawk_uuid_* An essential HTTP cookie.
TawkConnectionTime Manages visitor connection ends at each session. It is part of performance and functionality.
riq_cookie_widget_id_2553 A Responseiq essential cookie. It expires after a year.
afl_wc_utm_main Stores the timestamp of the last updated server-side communication.
afl_wc_utm_sess_landing Stores a visitor’s first landing page URL.
afl_wc_utm_cookie_expiry Stores the number of days that the cookies should expire after a visitor’s last visit.
afl_wc_utm_sess_visit Stores a visitor’s first landing page visit timestamp.

Please note that the following third parties may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These named third parties may include, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services. These third party cookies are likely to be analytical cookies or performance cookies or targeting cookies:

To deactivate the use of third party advertising cookies, you may visit the pages above to manage the use of these types of cookies.

We do not share the information collected by the cookies with any third parties.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.

Find out more about cookies

You can read more about cookies on the website for the UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office – https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/online/cookies/ 

Accreditations