How we use cookies
What’s a cookie?
- A “cookie” is a piece of information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive and which records how you move your way around a website so that, when you revisit that website, it can present tailored options based on the information stored about your last visit. Cookies can also be used to analyse traffic and for advertising and marketing purposes.
- Cookies are used by nearly all websites and do not harm your system.
If you want to check or change what types of cookies you accept, this can usually be altered within your browser settings. You can block cookies at any time by activating the setting on your browser that allows 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 all or parts of our site.
Cookies set by us
_hash – these cookies are set to allow us to identify the status of a user on our website and are generally used across the web for things such as log-in routines and shopping baskets. This cookie expires within a month.
PHPSESSID – this cookie stores the identifier for your current session in PHP. It is removed at the end of your session.
CSRF token – Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is an attack that forces a user to perform unwanted actions on a website (for example your data could be hijacked and used to perform tasks). This cookie is required to protect users from a CSRF attack and allows us to mask your data.
Cookies set by third parties
_ga/_gat/_gid – these cookies are used by Google Analytics to collect information about how visitors use our site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come from geographically, and the pages they have visited, the devices and browsers the visitor is using. These cookies expire after 2 years.