What are cookies?

We use small files (known as cookies) to see how you use our site. We put them on your computer when you visit our site, and use them to recognise you and store information in between visits.

Why do we use them?

With cookies we can give you a better browsing experience, improve the quality of our website, and keep our marketing costs down. In this policy, we have explained how and why we use cookies, and what each of them do.

What are the cookies?

They are broken them down into four groups:

1) Strictly necessary cookies.
We need these cookies to run our website — they let us save your cookie preferences, and keep the site secure. They’re always on.

• cookiePreferences - Used to store your preferences relating to cookies. This is stored persistently, for 365 days since your last visit.

2) Cookies that give you a better browsing experience
These let us tailor the site to your needs, like displaying it in the same language as your web browser. Sometimes they are referred to as functionality cookies.

• visitor - Used to store important details that help us to tailor the website to you, for example the country you are visiting from and your preferred language. This is stored persistently, for 365 days since your last visit.

3) Cookies that help us improve our website These let us use tools that show us how you interact with our website. They help us identify and fix problems without you having to take the time to contact us, and they’re also known as analytical or performance cookies.

The following cookies are all required by a third party service called Mixpanel that we share anonymised and non-confidential data with to identify issues where a customer may be unable to complete flows through our site. They are stored persistently, for 365 days since your last visit.

• mp_#_mixpanel
• _mpq#_ev

The following cookies are all required by a third party service called Google Analytics that we share anonymised and non-confidential data with to help us understand how we can support our customers better. At most, these are stored persistently, for 2 year since your last visit.

• _ga
• ga#

The following cookies are all required by a third party service called HotJar that we share anonymised and non-confidential data with to help us understand how we can support our customers better. At most, these are stored persistently, for 365 days since your last visit.

• hjSessionUser{site_id}
• _hjid
• _hjFirstSeen
• _hjHasCachedUserAttributes
• _hjUserAttributesHash
• _hjUserAttributes
• hjViewportId
• hjActiveViewportIds
• hjSession{site_id}
• _hjSessionTooLarge
• _hjSessionResumed
• _hjCookieTest
• _hjLocalStorageTest
• _hjSessionStorageTest
• _hjIncludedInPageviewSample
• hjIncludedInSessionSample{site_id}
• _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress
• _hjTLDTest

4) Cookies that keep our marketing costs down
These improve our marketing — helping us to spend less on sites like Google and Facebook, and more on charging as little as we can. When our costs go down, so do our prices. We share this information in aggregate form with third parties, for the purpose of advertising.

How to block cookies

You can choose to block cookies by activating the settings on your browser that allow you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access parts of the website. Your browser settings also allow you to delete all cookies stored on your device whenever you wish.

How to control cookies

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office has provided the following guidance on controlling cookies:

You can use your web browser to:

• delete all cookies;
• block all cookies;
• allow all cookies;
• block ‘third-party’ cookies (ie, cookies set by online services other than the one you are visiting);
• clear all cookies when you close the browser;
• open a ‘private browsing’ / ‘incognito’ session, which allows you to browse the web without recording your browsing history or storing local data such as cookies (you should however be aware of the limitations of this feature in a privacy context); and
• install add-ons and plugins that extend browser functionality.

Useful information

• A number of websites provide detailed information on cookies, including AboutCookies.org and AllAboutCookies.org.
• The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance website Your Online Choices allows you to install opt-out cookies across different advertising networks.
• Google has developed a browser add-on to allow users to opt-out of Google Analytics across all websites which use it. This is also available in the Chrome web store.
• Some browsers include a feature known as ‘Do Not Track’ or DNT. This allows you to indicate a preference that websites should not track you. However, whilst DNT is available in many browsers, websites are not required to recognise its request, so it may not always work. You can get help on how to use DNT in Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.
• Internet Explorer has a feature called Tracking Protection Lists which allows you to import a list of websites you want to block.
• For more information on how private browsing works as well as its limitations, visit the support pages for your browser: Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari (mobile and desktop) and Opera.

We recommend:

• Install a privacy-friendly browser on your device, such as Mozilla Firefox, Firefox Focus or Brave
• Install anti-tracking and ad-blocking plug-ins on that browser, such as Ad Block Plus, Ghostery or PrivacyBadger; and
• Use privacy-friendly web search engines, such as DuckDuckGo or Quant.

If you have any questions about the cookies or similar technologies in use on our website, please contact us using our contact page.