Helping you understand cookies
Cookies are small text files that are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Your browser sends these cookies back to the website every time you visit the site again so it can recognise you as a return visitor and improve your experience.
What are cookies?
A cookie is a piece of text that is stored on your computer by your web browser. We use cookies to monitor how people use our site. This helps us to understand how our customers and potential customers use our websites so we can develop and improve their design, layout and more relevant content.
How they work
When you visit a site that uses cookies for the first time, a cookie is downloaded onto your computer. The next time you visit that site, your computer checks to see if it has a cookie that is relevant and if so sends the information contained in that cookie back to the site. Cookies may come from the website itself, advertising banners or other graphics that make up a webpage.
The following cookies collect information about how you use our website.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Their cookies are used to store details how long a visitor spends on a website and where they came from.
The Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on is available for Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Opera. Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on
Disabling cookies
If you do not want us to use cookies in your browser, you can remove cookies from your computer’s hard drive, or set your browser to block cookies or to send a warning notice before a cookie is stored on your computer. However, please note that you may not be able to use services on other websites without cookies.
Instructions by browser
While there are differences across browser versions and operating systems such as Windows,Linux and Mac OS the instructions provide should help you find your cookie settings. For more in-depth advice we have provided links to more detailed instructions.
Google Chrome
- Click the wrench icon
on the browser toolbar. - Select Settings.
- Click the Under the Hood tab.
- Select Content settings in the “Privacy” section.
- Click the Cookies tab in the Content Settings dialog that appears
- Choose your preferred settings.
- Select the Close button when you’ve finished.
Google Chrome allows all cookies by default, but you can restrict the behaviour of first-party and third-party cookies or even block them completely.For more detailed help on changing settings see Manage Cookies in Chrome
.
Firefox 3+ for Windows
- From the Tools menu select Options or in Linux from the Edit menu select Preferences.
- Select the Privacy tab.
- Select Cookies if the option is available otherwise select the option ‘Use custom settings for history’ from Firefox: drop down.
- Choose your preferred settings.
Firefox 3+ for Mac
- Choose Preferences from the Firefox menu or the Edit menu depending on which version you have.
- Select the Privacy tab.
- Select Cookies if the option is available otherwise select the option ‘Use custom settings for history’ from Firefox: drop down.
- Choose your preferred settings.
You can configure which sites are allowed to set cookies, how long to keep them for, and view and manage your existing cookies.For more detailed help on changing settings see Enabling and disabling cookies in Firefox.
Internet Explorer 7+
- From the Tools menu choose Internet Options.
- Select the Privacy tab.
- Move the slider to choose your preferred setting between Block All Cookies and Accept All Cookies.
- For more detailed cookie settings click on Advanced, check the ‘Override cookie handling’ checkbox and modify the settings to your preference.
For more detailed instructions see How to Set and Customize Cookies Settings in Internet Explorer
Safari 4+
- From the Safari menu choose Preferences.
- Select the Privacy tab.
- Choose your preferred settings.
For more detailed instructions see Managing cookies in Safari