Our Cookie Policy

Cookie Policy

 

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are messages sent by the web server to your web browser (FireFox, Internet Explorer, Chrome etc.) When you visit a website, your browser downloads and stores the cookies from that website as small text files. These text files most commonly contain the name of the website, and a unique user ID.

 

What do Cookies do?

The main purpose of cookies is to identify visitors to websites, and most commonly offer them customised web pages. When you enter a website you’ve visited before, your computer checks if it has stored any cookies from that website. If it has, it sends the information on the cookie(s) back to the website, enabling the website to “remember” your previous visit. The website may then tailor its information specifically to you, showing you products or pages you’ve looked at before, filling in your login details or forms you’ve filled, or simply showing when you last visited the page.

 

What are Cookies NOT?

Cookies are NOT programs or viruses, they do not install anything onto, or make changes to your computer. Cookies do not gather personal information on you, or access information you have on your computer, such as your personal folders.

 

What cookies do we use and why do we use them?

We use Session Cookies to preserve browsing sessions. Out of the two main types of cookies, session cookies are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of the website. For example, session cookies are needed for the shopping cart, otherwise the cart would not remember what you put in it, and empty itself as soon as you moved onto another page. They’re also needed for logging in on a website. Session cookies expire as soon as you close your browser, and do not collect any information on you.

We also use some permanent cookies which help us improve our website and service. Permanent cookies aren’t really permanent, but stay on your computer’s memory until their set expiration date, or until you clear your cookies. They’re used to offer customised information, such as remembering your login details, or showing you products you looked at when you last visited. Permanent cookies are also used to track visitor behaviour on websites to optimise user experience. We use Google Analytics and Google AdWords cookies to track things such as how do visitors find our website, what search terms they use, and how long does an average visitor stay, and SmartSupp cookies to offer a live chat customer service. Just like session cookies, permanent cookies do not gather (or even know) your personal data, and the knowledge we get from these cookies is strictly internal and never shared with anyone.

 

How to control cookies on your browser?

Bearing in mind that certain cookies are necessary to the functioning of our websites on your browser, you can choose to disable cookies, or clear them after browsing. Below are instructions (links lead to respective browsers’ websites) on how to enable, disable, clear, and manage cookies on three of the most popular browsers.