We use, and allow certain other companies to use, cookies, web beacons and other similar technologies on our sites, applications and communications. We do this to understand your use of our services, improve your user experience, enable personalized features and content, optimize our advertising and marketing and to enable third party advertising companies to assist us in serving you advertisements specific to your interests across the internet. The technologies we use do not collect any information which directly identifies you in the real world, such as your name, email address, address or phone number.
What Are ‘Cookies?’
A cookie is a small text file that we, and in certain circumstances third parties, place on your browser (for example, Internet Explorer or Safari) when you visit our sites or open some of our emails. Cookies are useful in enabling us to better serve you because, among other things, they allow us to recognize you each time you re-visit one of our sites. The entity that places cookies on your browser can then read the information on the cookie that it set.
Cookies are typically classified as either “session cookies” which do not stay on your device after you close your browser or “persistent cookies” which will usually remain on your device until you delete them or they expire.
We use cookies that are essential in order to enable you to move around our sites and use their features, such as accessing secure areas. Without these cookies, features that you use, like shopping baskets, cannot be provided.
Certain cookies, however, while useful, are not essential, and we require your consent before we can use these cookies. By continuing to browse on our sites you agree to the use of these non-essential cookies unless you specifically set your browser to reject them. Please see How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies below for further details on your choices.
Different cookies are used to perform different functions which we explain below. A visit to any of our sites could generate the following types of cookie:
Site Performance Cookies
We use cookies to remember your selections on our sites: These cookies allow us to remember choices you make on our sites and provide enhanced, more personalized features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customize. They can also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. These cookies cannot track your browsing activity on other sites.
Analytics Cookies
We use cookies for performance and analytics purposes: We use our own cookies and third-party cookies and other identifiers (such as web beacons) to see how you use our sites and services in order to enhance their performance and develop them according to the preferences of our customers and visitors. For example, cookies and web beacons can be used to: test different designs and to ensure that we maintain a consistent look and feel across our sites; recognize repeat visitors, track and provide trend analysis on how our users interact with our sites and communications; track errors and measure the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns.
The information collected from these types of cookies can be used in conjunction with other information we or our third-party partners hold in order to record specific browsing information (for example, regarding the way visitors arrive at our sites, pages viewed, options selected, information entered and the path taken through our sites). The data collected will generally be aggregated to provide trends and usage patterns for business analysis, site/platform improvement and performance metrics and to inform our advertising and marketing strategies. Our cookies, or the resulting analysis, can also be shared with our business partners. We also receive similar information about visitors to the sites of our group companies and other partners.
For example, we use Google Analytics which is a web analytics tool that helps us understand how users engage with our sites. Google Analytics uses first-party cookies to collect information about how users interact with our sites, which is used to compile reports for improvements to our services. The reports disclose website trends without identifying individual visitors. For some of the advertising features described below, data from Google Analytics could be combined with our first-party data and third-party cookies (like Google’s advertising cookies). For information on how to opt-out of Google Analytics Advertising Features, please go to How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies.
Advertising Cookies
We use cookies to personalize your experience and for targeting advertisements: We use cookies (and allow data management platform providers to use cookies on our behalf) to collect information about your browsing habits across our sites in order to provide personalized content, services and communications, as well as targeted advertising on our sites, sites operated by our group companies and selected partner sites. For example, we could show you advertisements for relevant publications or products and services if we know you have been browsing sections about related products or services on our sites. If you use more than one device or computer on a regular basis, we can link cookies together so that you can still receive a personalized online experience. We also personalize the information you see based on what already know about you or presume about you based on your online activities, so that you spend less time looking for things. With the use of cookies, each visitor to our site can have a web experience that is unique to them.
Cookies can also be linked with other information we hold or presume about you for these purposes. For example, if you are a registered user or provide us with your name, email address, social media log-in details or other contact information (e.g. by entering a competition or signing up to our newsletter) or interact with our email communications (e.g. by clicking on links within the emails), this information can be linked with your browsing activity across all your devices to tailor content, services, advertising and offers for you.
We also obtain information from third party service providers such as demographics and interest categories created from a combination of sources that permit us to provide you with more relevant and useful content, communications and advertising. This information does not identify you personally.
You can opt out of receiving interest-based advertising on our sites by blocking these cookies as described below in the section on How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies.
Third Party Advertising Cookies
We partner with advertisers, ad network providers and ad serving companies to place cookies on our sites to allow them to show you advertisements both on and off our sites that are more relevant and useful to you, limit the number of times you see a particular ad and to customize ads. We do not share any information with these third parties that will directly identify you in the real world, such as your name, email address, address or phone number. However, these third parties can assume that users who interact with or click on a personalized advertisement or content are part of the group that the advertisement or content is directed towards. The third parties that generate these cookies have their own privacy policies and we have no access to read or write these cookies.
Social Media Cookies
Cookies are also used when you share information using a social media sharing button on the sites. The social network will record that you have done this. This information can be linked to targeting and advertising activities. The types of cookies used by these third parties and how they use the information generated by them will be governed by those companies’ privacy policies. For information on how to opt out of targeting advertising, please go to How to manage or refuse cookies and similar technologies.
How We and Third Parties Use Web Beacons
We use and permit selected third parties to use web beacons (usually in combination with cookies) to compile aggregate information about your site usage and your interaction with email and other communications to measure performance and to provide content and advertisements that are more relevant to you. A web beacon (also called a web bug, clear GIF or pixel tag) can be embedded in online content, videos and emails, and allows a server to read certain types of information from your device, to know when you have viewed the beacon and the IP address of your device. The type of information collected includes, but is not limited to, information relating to advertising responses, page views, promotion views and purchases made. We will include web beacons in certain promotional email messages and newsletters to determine whether the messages have been opened or acted upon and whether our mailing tools are working correctly. The web beacons can be used to recognize cookies generated by third parties and inform us and third parties of which advertisement or link brought you to our site, allowing us to monitor the efficacy of our business relationships with third parties.
How to Manage or Refuse Cookies and Similar Technologies
If you do not want your browser to accept cookies and use them in the ways described above, you can change your browser settings. You can also delete existing cookies from your browser. However, blocking all cookies will affect your web experience and can result in parts of our sites not functioning properly. Certain cookies are designed to help save you time by, for example, remembering your contact details when you place an order.
Alternatively, you can turn off third party cookies relating to interest-based advertising by visiting www.youronlinechoices.eu. However, this will not opt you out of receiving advertisements altogether – it simply means that the ads will not be targeted to you. Please note that there are many more networks listed on this site than we use on our sites.
You can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our site – for more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit this Google page. For Google Analytics Advertising Features, you can opt-out through Google Ads Settings or by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page. You can find more information about how Google uses information from our sites here.
Web Beacons
As web beacons are the same as any other content request included in the architecture of a website page, you cannot opt out or refuse them. However, you are able to disable web beacons in email messages by not downloading images contained in messages you receive (this feature varies depending on the email software used on your personal computer). However, doing this will not always disable a web beacon or other tracking technologies in the email message due to specific email software capabilities. For more information about this, please refer to the information provided by your email software or service provider. Web beacons can also be rendered ineffective in certain circumstances by opting out of cookies or amending your cookie settings in your browser. Further details on web beacons, and how to manage them, can be found here: www.allaboutcookies.org/faqs/beacons.html
If you have any other queries about our use of cookies, you can contact us at [email protected].
