Cookie policy
About cookies
Cookies are small pieces of information that are sent from web servers to web browsers and are then stored by the browser. When a subsequent request is made to the web server the cookies are sent with each request, this allows the web server to track usage of the site in various ways.
This website uses cookies to more effectively deliver its content, to save your preferences and past choices on our site as well as to analyse how you and other visitors use the site. Analytics cookies allow us to see which pages and content are most popular and therefore help us to improve the site for our visitors.
The default cookies used by this site are anonymous meaning we cannot identify you personally from them. If you choose to use a feature of this site that does require some of your personal information we will first ask for your consent.
Control your cookies
To find out more about cookies and to view, delete or manage the cookies that have been stored on your computer you can visit www.allaboutcookies.org or www.aboutcookies.org.
Cookie controls for common browsers are shown below:
You can also use a private browsing feature of your browser to stop cookies being stored all together (called “Incognito” in Chrome, “InPrivate” for Internet Explorer, “Private Browsing” in Firefox, Safari etc.).
Cookies we use
Below is a list of the main cookies we use across our sites. For a full, categorised list please click Manage cookies in the footer.
Google Analytics and related
We use Google Analytics to track how visitors use our sites and to understand our most popular pages and content, all analytics data is anonymous and we do not send your IP address to Google. You can view Google’s own policies here.Google Analytics sets the following cookies:
| Cookies | Purpose | Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| _ga, __utma | Used to distinguish users to determine if a user is new or returning to the site | 2 years |
| _gid | As above | 24 hours |
| _gat, __utmt | Used to limit the number of requests to Google’s servers to one per minute | 1 minute, 10 minutes |
| __utmb, __utmc | Used to measure how long a visitor stays on the site | 30 minutes |
| __utmz | Used to measure where a visitor came from when visiting our site | 6 months |
| IDE | Used to serve more relevant advertisements or to track the effectiveness of ads | 1 year |
Hotjar
We occasionally use Hotjar to analyse how visitors use our sites to help us improve the design and user experience. All data sent to Hotjar is anonymous and no data entered on the site is sent to Hotjar, you can view Hotjar’s privacy policy here. Hotjar sets the following cookie:
| Cookies | Purpose | Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| _hjIncludedInSample | Let’s Hotjar know if the current visitor is included in the current analysis of the site’s performance. | Session only |
Temporary Cookies
All of the following cookies are removed when the visitor closes their browser and are necessary for the current visit and otherwise essential workings of the sites:
| Cookies | Purpose |
|---|---|
| [large alphanumeric strings], frontend, frontend_cid, external_no_cache, PHPSESSID, sentisum_session, .ASPXANONYMOUS, ARRAffinity, .AspNet.TwoFactorRememberBrowser, .AspNet.ApplicationCookie | These session cookies are used to store things like shopping cart contents, products for comparison, list filters, etc. |
Preference Cookies
These cookies are used to store the visitor’s choices on a site:
| Cookies | Purpose |
|---|---|
| cookie-banner, reDimCookieHint | Used to store that the visitor has confirmed a cookie banner |
| FIRSTSTEPS | Used to store that the visitor has read a popup message |
| .AspNet.Consent | Used to store consent to cookie policy |
| becd | Used to store ID on our BE configurator tool to aid interaction and store progress |
Other Cookies
| Cookies | Purpose | Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| __cfduid | Used to distinguish users | Permanent |
| becs | Used to store id on our BE configurator tool to aid interaction and store progress | Permanent |