On May 26th 2011, a new EU directive and UK Law came into practice regarding cookies.

What is a cookie?

In simple terms, cookies are little bits of code on website that allow the site to remember details about you. They can be used when you login to something, when you use a shopping basket feature on a shop website, when you use a ‘share’ widget for Twitter/Facebook etc., and other things. For a better idea of how cookies work, take a look at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ .

What do I need to do?

Previously, people could choose to opt out of using cookies. Now, new directive states that users now have to opt-in to using cookies on a website. This means that we need to tell you what cookies we will use on a site, and ask you to opt-in to using them.

Some cookies are necessary for the workings of a website, and you can’t opt out of these. This group mainly includes cookies for shop baskets, where a core function of the website needs to remember some of your information.

Since 26th May 2011, there has been an EU Law which states that all EU-based websites must ask permission before setting cookies that aren’t essential to the way a site works, but this will not be enforced until 26th May 2012. The ICO have official information about cookies – you can visit their website at www.ico.gov.uk, and learn more about cookies in general at www.allaboutcookies.org .

Which cookies am I opting into on this site?

Below is a list of cookies which we use – some are ours, and some are from third parties. Each company using cookies has a security policy linked, so you can find out how they use information from cookies.

Used frequently

Google Analytics –

This is something which allows us to keep track of who visits websites. This information lets us know how well a certain website is performing, but doesn’t give us any personal information. If you don’t want any sites to track your visit using Google Analytics, you can opt out by visiting http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout . However, if you choose to do this, it will affect all websites using Google Analytics.

To find out more information on how Google Analytics uses cookies, go to http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConceptsCookies.html. To view Google’s Privacy Policy go to http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/privacy/privacy-policy.html

ASP session cookies –

These cookies are on nearly all of our websites – we use them to help make your visit to the site faster and smoother. By using cookies, we can remember if you’ve visited the site before and any options you chose the first time…

Used sometimes

CloudFlare –

Cloudflare is a service used on some of our sites to serve content – this means you get to see pictures and text faster when it is sent from Cloudflare than if we sent it to you ourselves. Cloudflare uses cookies to help control what they call ‘malicious’ visitors. To find out more, go to http://www.cloudflare.com/security-policy.html.

Youtube –

We sometimes use YouTube to embed videos into our websites. YouTube use cookies to remember you so you don’t need to log in every time you visit the site. They also use cookies to select content which might be suitable for you, based on what you’ve previously watched. http://www.youtube.com/t/privacy_at_youtube

Other Google Cookies –

For information on all of Google’s products and how they use cookies, go to http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/privacy/.