A web cookie, a commonly used data collection technology, is simply a piece of text which can be placed on the browser of your personal computer or mobile device and subsequently read as you visit a web site. A cookie may be a session cookie, that is, a cookie that remains on your browser while you are logged on to a particular web site and then disappears when you close your browser, or it may be a persistent cookie, a cookie that remains on your browser over a period of time. Information from a cookie may be collected and used in aggregate form. Or data may be collected into an individual profile or record. That individual record may either be unique but anonymous, or the profile can be linked with information that identifies you as an individual.

HOW DO WE USE COOKIES?

We may use cookies for a number of purposes:

  • Essential cookies. We may use a limited number of cookies essential to particular services you have requested or for security purposes. A few of our sites use a cookie for a shopping cart function when you purchase services or offerings. In particular, if you have registered for a site or use a customer portal we may use a cookie to authenticate the pc or mobile device that you are using.
  • Performance cookies. We allow third parties to set analytics, or performance, cookies to collect and report aggregate information. These cookies provide reporting to us on an aggregate basis and so, do not identify you at all. We use the aggregate reports to understand how our web sites are used and improve their usefulness to our audiences.
  • Functional cookies. A number of cookies also support how our web sites function, identifying your pc or end device on a unique but anonymous basis. These cookies may, for example, remember your language preferences or recognize an individual’s activity within a single session. If you register for a site, we use a cookie to associate your presence with a specific user name and password or account. We may use a persistent cookie to recognize you automatically each time you return, but only if you ask us to do so. We may also use cookies to prepopulate your login or forms you fill out on the site with information you have already provided. We may conduct analyses of user traffic to measure the use of our sites and to improve the content of our web sites and our services. These analyses will be performed through the use of IP addresses and cookies. We use web beacons and pixels in our emails to track delivery and open rates. Our email provider delivers cookies with our email to recognise a user’s response. The results are stored and reported on against the individual’s email address and the account profile within our database.

HOW YOU CAN CONTROL COOKIES

  • The cookies we use or allow are an accepted part of eCommerce and important to your use of our web sites. Performance cookies allow us to understand our audiences as a whole and improve how our sites meet your needs and expectations. Many of the functional cookies are basic to how our sites and services work. The cookies we use for registration allow us to conduct our business online. Our sites and services, or parts of them, may not work properly without these cookies.
  • Browser controls. Most modern browsers offer you ways to control or block cookies. These browser controls will usually be found in the “options’ or “preferences” menu. For more help, you may take a look at the “Help” settings.
  • Ad cookies and targeting.