Cookie Policy

New laws have recently come into force governing the use of cookies on the pages you visit on the World Wide Web. In alignment with these new laws, this page is intended to tell you a little more about cookies and what they mean to you.

What is a “cookie”?

Websites make use of cookies to identify your computer when you are interacting with that website. A cookie is a small, often encrypted text file that the website sends to your hard drive in order for that website to identify you or to improve the website itself, but mainly to improve and personalise your experience as a visitor to the webpage.

They can do this because when you return to a webpage that has sent a cookie to your computer previously, that webpage can then access that cookie and the information it holds. For example, a cookie can save preferences you have set on a webpage such as the preferred text size; or a cookie can save information for you such as a username or even a password, meaning that you do not have to type them in every time you visit the page. Additionally a cookie can provide information to the users of a site to help them make the the site work more efficiently.

For a full description of the various types of cookies and what exactly the new rules governing their use are, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. You can also check out a short video on cookies by visiting www.google.co.uk/goodtoknow/data-on-the-web/cookies.

Managing Cookies:

You can control a website’s use of cookies on your computer quite easily from your internet browser. For example, on Firefox, go to Options > Options > Privacy > Remove Individual Cookies; on Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Privacy > Advanced to override automatic cookie handling.

You should be aware that websites depend upon cookies for full functionality and that should you disable all cookies, you may not be able to use the website properly and may be unable to access some parts of the website.

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