Cookies and website navigation

This policy outlines what cookies and similar tracking technologies our websites use, how we use them and information on how to opt out of these cookies if you wish to do so. Companies large and small are updating their privacy policies and service terms to comply with upcoming European Union rules governing data and privacy. Only EU users are technically covered by the rules, formally known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

What are cookies?

Cookies and similar tracking technologies, such as tags, scripts and beacons, are small pieces of code (referred to as cookies hereafter) that are stored on a device (computer, mobile phone, tablet, etc) and enable a website can “personalise” itself to users by remembering information about the user’s visit to the website.

Cookies are used to collect information, where available, about your device, your IP address, operating system and browser type and how you have interacted with our websites.

While cookies are used to identify users and devices, they only ever collect non-personal information such as IP addresses, device IDs. If the data cookies collect are ever merged with any other information with which you have provided us, such as email addresses, these are anonymised in such a way that identification to actual people is impossible.

Why do we use them?

Our Websites use cookies to:

Store any preferences you have made and display content to you in a more personalised way
Evaluate our websites’ advertising and promotional effectiveness
Gain insight into the nature of our audience so we can tailor our content accordingly
Provide interest-based advertising on our websites and on other websites which are tailored to your interests and preferences
Provide social media features

We have a legitimate interest to use cookies so that we can show you adverts we believe you might be interested in, to control the number of times you see an advert and to measure the effectiveness of a campaign. We advertise on our site to help keep the content free for our audiences.

We will always make sure our websites contain clear and easy to find information about our cookies.

What types of cookies do we use?

Per-session cookies – We only use these while you are visiting our website and they are deleted when you leave. They remember you as you move between pages. They also help maintain security.
Persistent cookies – These cookies stay on your computer until they expire or are deleted. We set automatic deletion dates so that we don’t keep your information for longer than we need to.
First and third-party cookies – Whether a cookie is ‘first’ or ‘third’ party refers to the website or domain placing the cookie. First party cookies in basic terms are cookies set by a website visited by the user – the website displayed in the URL window. Third party cookies are cookies that are set by a domain other than the one being visited by the user. If a user visits a website and a separate company sets a cookie through that website this would be a third-party cookie.

Opting out of cookies

We provide you with choice over the use of cookies as described in this policy.

Please note that our websites may not work correctly if you change certain preferences, such as disabling all cookies.

Please also note that after applying these settings, you will continue to receive advertising, although it may not be tailored to your likely interests using information collected from cookies and similar technologies on your device.

First Party Cookies. If you’d rather we didn’t use cookies when you visit us, follow the links below for information on how to configure your browser settings to reject cookies. Please note, disabling these types of cookies won’t turn off advertising on our websites and the advertising you see may be less relevant to you.

There is no one standardized way to remove cookies since different browsers clear cookies using different procedures. This pages help you manage cookies by instructing you on how to remove cookies on the Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Internet Explorer browsers. Since the vast majority of Internet users access the Web using these five browsers, we’ll focus on them. For other browsers, please consult your documentation or online help files.

To find out your browser Click “What is my Browser”

Enable and disable cookies in your browser:

For Internet Explorer™ :
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies
For Safari™ :
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
For Chrome™ :
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en&hlrm=en
For Firefox™ :
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences
For Opera™ :
http://help.opera.com/Windows/10.20/en/cookies.html
For Microsoft Edge™ :
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10607/microsoft-edge-view-delete-browser-history

Setting up your smartphone:

For iOS™ : https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201265
For Android™ : https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid

Third Party Cookies

If you would like to opt-out of third-party cookies, here are some options:

Google provides a suite of tools to control its cookies:
- Google Analytics, which is a tool used to track and report website traffic, provides an out-out browser add-on that can be downloaded here:https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Cookie Google AdSense

We also use third party advertisements on Top Retriever to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).

DoubleClick DART cookies

We also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (“interest based targeting”).

The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history. DART uses “non personally identifiable information”. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address or telephone number.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by Google AdSense, click here.

You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.

Oupting out of this cookies you will continue to receive advertising, although it may not be tailored to your likely interests using information collected from cookies and similar technologies on your device. Because our advertisers may use cookies to serve you with advertisements that we believe are relevant to you and your interests. They are used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as to measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign.

These cookies are mainly third-party cookies and depend mainly on advertising agencies.

Their cookies are manageable through the following two platforms:

– http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ (NAI)

– http://www.youronlinechoices.com/ (EDAA)

For this two third-party cookies (not included on the platforms above), you will find below the links:

– Appnexus : http://www.appnexus.com/en/company/platform-privacy-policy

– Pubmatic : https://pubmatic.com/legal/privacy-policy/