Privacy & Cookie Policy
We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors; this policy sets out how we will treat your personal information.
(1) What information do we collect?
We may collect, store and use the following kinds of personal data:
(a) information about your computer and about your visits to and use of this website;
(b) information that you provide to us for the purpose of registering with us;
(c) information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our website services, email notifications and/or newsletters;
(2) Cookies
What is a cookie?
Most websites you visit will use cookies in order to improve your user experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you, either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’).
Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, storing your preferences, and generally improving your experience of a website. Cookies make the interaction between you and the website faster and easier. If a website doesn’t use cookies, it will think you are a new visitor every time you move to a new page on the site – for example, when you enter your login details and move to another page it won’t recognise you and it won’t be able to keep you logged in.
Some websites will also use cookies to enable them to target their advertising or marketing messages based for example, on your location and/or browsing habits.
Cookies may be set by the website you are visiting (‘first party cookies’) or they may be set by other websites who run content on the page you are viewing (‘third party cookies’).
What to do if you don’t want cookies to be set
Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their computer or mobile device a bit intrusive, particularly when this information is stored and used by a third party without them knowing. Although this is generally quite harmless you may not, for example, want to see advertising that has been targeted to your interests. If you prefer, it is possible to block some or all cookies, or even to delete cookies that have already been set; but you need to be aware that you might lose some functions of that website.
How do I disable cookies?
If you want to disable cookies you need to change your website browser settings to reject cookies. How to do this will depend on the browser you use and we provide further detail below on how to disable cookies for the most popular browsers:-
For Google Chrome:
1. Click on the ‘spanner’ icon then ‘Settings’
2. Scroll down to Privacy and click on ‘Content settings’
For Microsoft Internet Explorer:
1. Choose the menu “tools” then “Internet Options”
2 Click on the “privacy” tab
3 Select the setting the appropriate setting
For Mozilla firefox:
1. Choose the menu “tools” then “Options”
2 Click on the icon “privacy”
3 Find the menu “cookie” and select the relevant options
For Opera 6.0 and further:
1. Choose the menu Files”> “Preferences”
2 Privacy
What happens if I disable cookies?
This depends on which cookies you disable, but in general the site may not operate properly if cookies are switched off.
Cookie Name | Purpose |
---|---|
PHPSESSID | Standard session created for passing site varibles to pages. This session expires once the viewer leaves the site. |
__utma | Used by Google Analytics. Each unique browser that visits a page on the site is provided with a unique ID via the __utma cookie. In this way, subsequent visits to the website via the same browser are recorded as belonging to the same (unique) visitor. Thus, if a person interacted with the website using different browsers, the Analytics reports would track this activity under two unique visitors. Similarly if the same browser were used by two different visitors, but with a separate computer account for each, the activity would be recorded under two unique visitor IDs. On the other hand, if the browser happens to be used by two different people sharing the same computer account, one unique visitor ID is recorded, even though two unique individuals accessed the site. |
__utmb, __utmc | Google Analytics uses these two cookies to establish a session. If either of these two cookies is absent, further activity by the user initiates the start of a new session. |
__utmz | When visitors reach the site via a search engine result, a direct link, or an ad that links to the page, Google Analytics stores the type of referral information in a cookie. The parameters in the cookie value string are parsed and sent in the GIF Request (in the utmcc variable). The expiration date for the cookie is set as 6 months into the future. This cookie gets updated with each subsequent page view to the site; thus it is used to determine visitor navigation within the site. |
(3) Using your personal data
Personal data submitted on this website will be used for the purposes specified in this privacy policy or in relevant parts of the website.
We may use your personal information to:
(a) administer the website;
(b) improve your browsing experience by personalising the website;
(c) enable your use of the services available on the website;
(d) send you general (non-marketing) commercial communications;
(e) send you email notifications which you have specifically requested;
(f) send to you marketing communications relating to our business which we think may be of interest to you by post or, where you have specifically agreed to this, by email or similar technology (you can inform us at any time if you no longer require marketing communications);
(g) provide third parties with statistical information about our users - but this information will not be used to identify any individual user;
(h) deal with enquiries and complaints made by or about you relating to the website; and
Where you submit personal information for publication on our website, we will publish and otherwise use that information in accordance with the license you grant to us.
We will not without your express consent provide your personal information to any third parties for the purpose of direct marketing.
(4) Disclosures
We may disclose information about you to any of our employees, officers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes as set out in this privacy policy.
In addition, we may disclose information about you:
(a) to the extent that we are required to do so by law;
(b) in connection with any legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings;
(c) in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk); and
(d) to the purchaser (or prospective purchaser) of any business or asset which we are (or are contemplating) selling.
Except as provided in this privacy policy, we will not provide your information to third parties.
(5) International data transfers
Information that we collect may be stored and processed in and transferred between any of the countries in which we operate in order to enable us to use the information in accordance with this privacy policy.
Information which you provide may be transferred to countries which do not have data protection laws equivalent to those in force in the European Economic Areas (EEA).
You expressly agree to such transfers of personal information.
(6) Security of your personal data
We will take reasonable technical and organisational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal information.
Of course, data transmission over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.
You are responsible for keeping your password and user details confidential. We will not ask you for your password.
(7) Policy amendments
We may update this privacy policy from time-to-time by posting a new version on our website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes.
We may also notify you of changes to our privacy policy by email.
(8) Your rights
You may instruct us to provide you with any personal information we hold about you. Provision of such information may be subject to the payment of a fee (currently fixed at £10.00).
You may instruct us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes by email at any time. (In practice, you will usually either expressly agree in advance to our use of your personal data for marketing purposes, or we will provide you with an opportunity to opt-out of the use of your personal data for marketing purposes.)
(9) Third party websites
The website contains links to other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites.
(10) Updating information
Please let us know if the personal information which we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.
(11) Contact
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or our treatment of your personal data, please contact us.