A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user’s web browser while a user is browsing a website, this is stored as a text file on the computer. When the user browses the same website in the future, the data stored in the cookie is sent back to the website by the browser to notify the website of the user’s previous visit.
There are two main types of cookies in usage;
Transient (or session) cookies.
These are set and exist for the duration of your visit to a specific website and are removed when you finish.
They store the route of your browsing on the website and how you navigate between the different pages. This is particularly useful if you have entered information in a form and don’t need to re-enter it.
Persistent (or permanent) cookies.
These remain on your computer until they expire or are deleted and have a set duration to stay active.
Most persistent cookies will have set deletion dates to help ensure your computer doesn’t get full with excessive files stored. A persistent cookie will retain previously entered information offering to simplify any future data input, this is typically for things such as login credentials or an email address.
This website and many other websites use both types of cookies. This is done to make the visiting experience of our website more useful. We use third-party cookies to operate our cookie tracking.
What we use cookies for?
- Gather information on a user’s visiting flow across our site
- Gauge the over all user experience based on our marketing and promotional strategies. Please note, we will never pass on details to third- parties. The data is only used for evaluative purposes.
We don’t and will never:
- use cookies to track your Internet usage after leaving one of our sites
- store personal information in them that others could read and understand
- sell or distribute cookie information without your prior consent.
Cookies we use on our sites
The following table provides a list of all cookies used on our site with a brief information of their purpose and their key attributes.
Table of 3rd (third) party cookies provided by Google
| COOKIE NAME | DEFAULT EXPIRATION TIME | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | 2 years | used to distinguish users. |
| __utma | 2 years from set/update | used to distinguish users and sessions. the cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. the cookie is updated every time data is sent to google analytics. |
| __utmb | 30 mins from set/update | used to determine new sessions/visits. the cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. the cookie is updated every time data is sent to google analytics. |
| __utmc | end of browser session | not used in ga.js. set for interoperability with urchin.js. historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user was in a new session/visit. |
| __utmz | 6 months from set/update | stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. the cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to google analytics. |
| __utmv | 2 years from set/update | used to store visitor-level custom variable data. this cookie is created when a developer uses the _setcustomvar method with a visitor level custom variable. this cookie was also used for the deprecated _setvar method. the cookie is updated every time data is sent to google analytics. |
Changing your cookie settings
To enable or disable cookies, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the ‘Help’, ‘Tools’ or ‘Edit’ facility). Alternatively, an external resource is available at www.aboutcookies.org who provide specific information about cookies and how to manage them.
