About cookies

Cookies are files created by websites you visit. They make your online experience easier by saving browsing information. With cookies, sites can keep you signed in, remember your site preferences, and give you locally relevant content.

Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

There are two types of cookies:

  • First-party cookies are created by the site you visit. The site is shown in the address bar.
  • Third-party cookies are created by other sites. These sites own some of the content, like ads or images, that you see on the webpage you visit.

Cookies that we use

We use cookies for the following purposes:

We use cookies to store your preferences in relation to the use of cookies more generally. We use cookies to identify you when you visit and navigate our website. We use cookie to help us to determine if you are logged into our website. We use cookie to help us to analyze the use and performance of our website and services.

Here is a list of cookies that our site sends to your web browser:

Necessary (Category 1)

Cookie

Function

wf_imagmanager_dir

Set by our content management system to maintain a snapshot of a particular configuration and expires at end of session.

Preference (Category 2)

Cookie

Function

NID

Google uses cookies like NID to help customize ads on Google properties, like Google Search. For example, we use such cookies to remember your most recent searches, your previous interactions with an advertiser’s ads or search results, and your visits to an advertiser’s website. This helps us to show you customized ads on Google.

SID

Google uses cookies like SID to help customize ads on Google properties, like Google Search. For example, we use such cookies to remember your most recent searches, your previous interactions with an advertiser’s ads or search results, and your visits to an advertiser’s website. This helps us to show you customized ads on Google.

HSID

Google uses cookies called ‘HSID’ which contain digitally signed and encrypted records of a user’s Google account ID and most recent sign-in time. The combination of these two cookies allows us to block many types of attack, such as attempts to steal the content of forms that you complete on web pages.

lbcs

Google uses a cookie called ‘lbcs’ which makes it possible for Google Docs to open many Docs in one browser. Blocking this cookie would prevent Google Docs from operating correctly.

Statistics (Category3)

Cookie

Function

_ga

Google Analytics is Google’s analytics tool that helps website and app owners to understand how their visitors engage with their properties. It may use a set of cookies to collect information and report site usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. The main cookie used by Google Analytics is the ‘_ga’ cookie.

_gid

This cookie is part of Google Analytics and it's used to group the user behavior together for each user. Structure of its value is very similar to _ga cookie. It expires after 24 hours of inactivity. _The gid cookie is responsible for tracking user behavior.

Cookies used by our service providers

Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.

We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google's privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Managing cookies

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:

  1. https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);
  2. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);
  3. http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/ (Opera);
  4. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);
  5. https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari); and
  6. https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).

Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.