What are cookies?
Way back when the web was designed, nobody dreamed of the things we can do here. The technology didn't know who you were from one click to the next ("stateless" is the term). That was fine when all anyone wanted to do was click from one text document to the next. Web servers are pretty simple - every time you ask one for a new page, you're asking as a completely new person, like checking out in the supermarket and needing to do it separately for every item in your basket.
So cookies were invented as a simple solution to the problem.
They're basically small bits of text that usually contain what looks like random letters and numbers. When you ask our webserver for a new page, your browser sends the cookie back so it knows it's talking to the same person.
Cookies we use
We don't use many cookies, but the ones we do are either essential to make the site work properly, or very important to helping us run our business properly without imposing on user privacy or expectation. Here's what we set along with a couple of services our site uses and typical information you might see therein if you look in your browser settings:
| quotiva.co.uk | qn_uid qn_4a94cca84a64e, PHPSESSID o384pds5doocxdcn4113nqs745 | These are essential for us to make the site work properly as they stop us from showing you the wrong content, helps us with displaying and fixing errors when our users are filling in forms and other state management things |
| .google.com | PREFID=9aa4e9a5a7dbadf:U=caa9ee1a680aa11d:FF=0:TM=1332251718:LM=1337291016:S=MVOKNm_QpURrxZLmk | We use Google for advertising and our website statistics. It sets a few cookies which help us make sure we're showing the right ads to the right people and how people interact with our website so we can monitor performance and usability. Any cookies we set that start with __ut are also used here. |
| optimizely.com | external_4636033_end_user_i oeu13352340485r0.59420543df65902 | We use this third party service to help us monitor which parts of our website are working and which aren't. Using their data helps us understand if a form we've made for you can be understood and operated easily, or if we need to go back to the drawing board! |
| msn.com, bing.com | MSAnalytics 4ve5914acb9d4fca2900d7a0f225c637263sd9446f138345a05ae2075cdfg299982949e05776a3457b01ed5de27a465d8ec8ecef8bc6e4ce6eae7e57ef56ef483c4424e485ccacac4086f1457cdd05ea82147a010 | Bing (MSN) sets a few cookies again related to our advertising on their website. These cookies help us understand how much we spend on advertising and how it works, making sure we're advertising to the right people and not wasting anyone's time! |