Last updated: 30 March 2018
- INFORMATION ABOUT OUR USE OF COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES
- Our website (“Website”) and any mobile applications (“Apps”) we provide use technologies like cookies, pixel tags, device or other identifiers and local storage (collectively described as “Cookies”) to distinguish you from other users of our Website or Apps. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Website, and also allows us to improve and secure our site. Third parties that you interact with as you use our Services may also use these technologies for a variety of purposes.
- This policy may change from time to time. We recommend you check back here from time to time to get the latest information about these technologies and how they are used.
- Your browser or device may offer settings related to these technologies. For more information about whether these settings are available, what they do, and how they work, visit your browser or device’s help material. We may not recognize or respond to browser or device signals around tracking, and some settings may interfere with your use of features we offer. Additionally, the settings offered by a browser or device often only apply to that particular browser or device.
- Cookies are small files that are placed on your browser or device by the website or app that you’re using or ad that you’re viewing. Pixel tags (also called clear GIFs, web beacons, or pixels) are small blocks of code on a webpage or app that allow them to do things like read and place other cookies and transmit information to us or our partners. The resulting connection can include information such as a device’s IP address, the time a person viewed the pixel, an identifier associated with the browser or device and the type of browser being used. Local storage is a technology that allows a website or app to store and retrieve data on a person’s computer, mobile phone or other device. Some examples include device or HTML5 local storage and caching.
- We use the following types of Cookies:
- “Persistent”– stored on your computer or device, and used to recognise you when you return to our Website. This assists with our security services, and also enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your region) and provide personalised features such as start page, or deliver ads that are relevant to you.
- “Session” – temporarily stored in your computer or device’s memory, and used as an integral part of the identification process for our services. This is for security purposes to determine that you are who you say you are and to provide you with your confidential account information during a session. No personal information is kept in the Cookie and the cookie is not written to your hard drive. When you log out of your session the Cookie is no longer valid and is discarded when you close your browser.
- The Cookies we use may be categorised as:
- “Essential”. These are Cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, authentication Cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services. For example, they help protect your account from being accessed by anyone other than you, and let us know when several people have logged in from the same computer. With login approvals if someone logs into your account from a browser you’ve never used before, we may block them and ask for more information. They also help us implement login notifications, so you can be alerted when your account is accessed and disable any active sessions.
- “Analytical/performance”. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our Website and Apps when they are using them. This helps us to improve the way our Website and Apps work, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
- “Functionality”. These are used to recognise you when you return to our Website and/or Apps. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your region). For example, we may store information in a Cookie that is placed on your browser or device so you will see the site in your preferred language.
- “Targeting”. These record your visit to our Website or Apps, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our Website, Apps and the advertising displayed on them more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose but will never share any information which enables you to be identified.
- By continuing to browse or use our Website or Apps, you are agreeing to our use of Cookies, but note that you can block these by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse Cookies. Please note however that:
- if you use your browser settings to block all Cookies (including “essential” ones) you may not be able to access all parts or features of our Website or Apps, or they may operate more slowly or require re-entry of data already entered on other occasions.
- We still use some Cookies if you don’t have an account or have logged out of your account. For example, if you have logged out of your account we use Cookies to help:
- Identify and disable the accounts of spammers;
- Recover your account if you ever lose access to it;
- Provide extra security features like login notifications and login approvals;
- Prevent people who are underage from signing up with a false birth date;
- Identify public computers so that we can discourage people from using ‘Keep me logged in’ and putting their account at risk; and
- Generate insights about the people who interact with our Website and/or Apps, any services we provide, and the websites of our advertisers and partners.
- Third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use Cookies, over which we have no control. These are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting Cookies.
- Except for Essential Cookies, all Cookies we use will expire after they are no longer required for their original purpose.