Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.
We use the following cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation and security of our website.
- Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for more easily and that our website is not overburdened with requests.
- Functionality cookies. These are used to recognize you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalize our content for you and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
- Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
Cookie Lifespan
A cookie is either a session cookie or a persistent cookie. Session cookies are erased when you close your browser and do not collect information from your computer. They typically store information in the form of a session identification that does not personally identify you. Persistent cookies, on the other hand, are stored on your computer until they expire (i.e. the are based on a set expiration date) or until you delete them. These cookies are used to collect identifying information about you, such as your web surfing behavior or user preferences.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|
| svSession | Identifies unique visitors and tracks a visitor’s sessions on a site | Persistent |
| hs | Security | Session |
| XSRF-TOKEN | Security | Persistent |
| smSession | Identifies logged in site members | Persistent (Two weeks) |
| TSxxxxxxxx (where x is replaced with a random series of numbers and letters) | Security | Persistent |
| TSxxxxxxxx_d (where x is replaced with a random series of numbers and letters) | Security | Persistent |
| _ga | Used to distinguish users | Persistent (2 years) |
| _gid | Used to distinguish users | Persistent (24 hours) |
| [_gat] | Used to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_. | Persistent (1 minute) |
| AMP_TOKEN | Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. | Persistent (30 seconds to 1 year) |
| _gac_ | Contains campaign related information for the user. If we have linked our Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, Google Ads website conversion tags will read this cookie unless we opt-out. | Persistent (90 days) |
| __utma | Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | Persistent (2 years from set/update) |
| __utmt | Used to throttle request rate. | Persistent (10 minutes) |
| __utmb | Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | Persistent (30 mins from set/update) |
| __utmc | Not used in ga.js. Set for interoperability with urchin.js. Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user was in a new session/visit. | Session |
| __utmz | Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached our site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | Persistent (6 months from set/update) |
| __utmv | Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | Persistent (2 years from set/update) |
| __utmx | Used to determine a user’s inclusion in an experiment. | Persistent (18 months) |
| __utmxx | Used to determine the expiry of experiments a user has been included in. | Persistent (18 months) |
| _gaexp | Used to determine a user’s inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in. | Persistent (depends on the length of the experiment, but typically 90 days) |
Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, including the cookies listed above, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies
You block cookies 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.
