What are cookies?
For almost any modern website to work properly, it needs to collect certain
basic information on its users. To do this, a site will create files known as
cookies – which are small text files – on its users’ computers. These cookies
are designed to allow the website to recognise its users on subsequent visits, or
to authorise other designated websites to recognise these users for a
particular purpose.
Cookies do a lot of different jobs which make your experience of the
Internet much smoother and more interactive. For instance, they are used to
remember your preferences on sites you visit often, to remember your user ID
and the contents of your shopping baskets, and to help you navigate between
pages more efficiently. They also help ensure that the advertisements that you
see online are more relevant to you and your interests. Much, though not all,
of the data that they collect is anonymous, though some of it is designed to
detect browsing patterns and approximate geographical location to improve user
experience.
Some of our pages may also contain images called ‘web beacons’ (also known
as ‘clear gifs’), which allow us to count visitors. Web beacons only collect
limited information, including a cookie number, a timestamp, and a record of
the page on which they are placed. We may also carry web beacons placed by third
party advertisers. These beacons do not carry any personally identifiable
information and are only used to track the effectiveness of a particular
campaign.
Information collected by cookies and web beacons is not personally
identifiable.
What types of cookie are there?
Broadly speaking, there are four types of cookie: strictly necessary
cookies, performance cookies, functionality cookies
and targeting or advertising cookies.
- Strictly necessary cookies are
essential to navigate around a website and use its features. Without them, you
wouldn’t be able to use basic services like shopping baskets and e-billing.
- Performance cookies collect
anonymous data on how visitors use a website; they can’t track users, and are
only used to improve how a website works.
- Functionality cookies allow
users to customise how a website looks for them: they can remember usernames,
language preferences and regions, and can be used to provide more personal
services like local weather reports and traffic news.
- Advertising and targeting cookies
are used to deliver advertisements more relevant to you, but can also limit the
number of times you see an advertisement, and be used to chart the
effectiveness of an ad campaign by tracking users’ clicks. They can also
provide security in transactions. They are usually placed by third-party
advertising networks with a website operator’s permission, but can be placed by
the operator themselves. They can remember that you have visited a website, and
this information can be shared with other organisations, including other
advertisers.
Additionally, these cookies break down into two further sub-types.
- Persistent cookies remain
on a user’s device for a set period of time specified in the cookie. They are
activated each time that the user visits the website that created that
particular cookie.
- Session cookies are temporary.
They allow website operators to link the actions of a user during a browser
session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and
finishes when they close the browser window. Once you close the browser, all
session cookies are deleted.
How does IDNM use cookies?
IDNM collects a number of cookies from its users for various reasons, not
least to track our own performance – but also to let us serve you content
tailored to your own specifications, hopefully improving your overall
experience of the site. Amongst other things, the cookies we use allow users to
register to make comments, allow us to calculate how many visitors we have -
anonymously, of course - and how long they stay on our site.
We do our utmost to respect users’ privacy. We use cookies to monitor and
improve our services, but they do also allow us to sell advertising space,
which helps keeps us free to our readers. We sometimes include links on our
site to goods and services offered by third parties and we may be paid some
commission if you subsequently decide to make a purchase. Cookies may be used
to track your visits to third party sites to help ensure that we are paid the
correct amounts. Please note that these commercial arrangements do not
influence our editorial content in any way.
We believe that your experience of the site would be adversely affected if
you opted out of the cookies we use.
How do I turn cookies off?
Most browsers accept cookies automatically, but you can alter the settings
of your browser to erase cookies or prevent automatic acceptance if you prefer.
Generally you have the option to accept all cookies, to be notified when a
cookie is issued or reject all cookies. Visit the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’
menu on your browser to change settings, and check the following links for more
browser-specific information.
Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Firefox
Cookie settings in Chrome
Cookie settings in Safari
To switch off third-party advertising cookies, you can turn these off by
visiting the Internet Advertising Bureau’s consumer advice site here.
For more information on cookies, click here
User agreement
By continuing to use our site, you agree to the placement of cookies on your
device. If you choose not to receive our cookies, we cannot guarantee that your
experience will be as fulfilling as it would otherwise be. For instance, the
site won’t be able to recognise your commenter ID, meaning that you won’t be
able to leave comments.