What is a cookie?

Cookies are like little notes that websites leave on your computer or phone when you visit them. When you come back to those websites later, or visit other sites that use the same notes, the websites recognise them and know it’s you again.

These notes do a bunch of helpful things. They make it easier for you to move around websites, remember your preferences, and make your browsing experience smoother. They also make sure the ads you see online are more about stuff you’re interested in.

Navigating our cookies

The type of cookies used on this website can be put into one of four categories based on the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) guide for cookie categories: Strictly Necessary, Performance, Functionality and Targeting

Strictly Necessary Cookies 
These cookies are really important because they help you move around our websites and access secure stuff, like online banking. Without them, we can’t give you the services you asked for.
But don’t worry, they don’t collect any info about you for marketing or profiling. You can’t turn them off because they’re necessary for the website to work properly.

Performance Cookies 
These cookies gather anonymous data about how people use our websites. They track things like which pages are visited most and if there are any errors.
They don’t collect personal info; it’s all anonymous. We use this info to make our websites work better. They’re not used for showing you ads online. Without them, we can’t see how well our website is doing and make it better for you.

Functionality and Profile Cookies
These cookies help our websites remember your preferences, like your username, language, or location. They make the website better by providing special features and content just for you. They also remember any changes you’ve made, like text size or font. Plus, they help with stuff like watching videos or leaving comments. 
Don’t worry, they don’t track you on other websites, and the info they collect is anonymous. Without them, the website can’t remember your choices or personalise your experience.

Targeting Cookies 
These cookies keep tabs on what websites you visit and share that info with other companies, like advertisers. They use this to show you ads that match your interests. They usually don’t know your identity, though. Turning off these cookies won’t stop ads from popping up online, but the ads you see might not be as relevant to you. 

Cookies in emails

In our emails and push notifications, we also use cookies and similar technologies. These help us see if you’ve opened our emails and how you’ve interacted with them. If you have images enabled, cookies might be placed on your device. Clicking on any links in the email can also trigger cookies.

The term “cookie” here refers to various technologies with similar purposes. This page explains more about the types of cookies we use in emails and gives you choices about accepting or rejecting them.

These cookies in our emails help us understand how you engage with our emails, so we can make them better in the future.

If your computer automatically shows images in emails, or if you’ve added us to your email contacts or list of safe senders, or if your security settings are low, cookies might be set when you open our emails. If you’d rather this didn’t happen, you can disable automatic image display, remove us from your contacts, or strengthen your security settings.
This list of cookie usage may change over time, so it’s a good idea to check back regularly for updates.

The cookies we use

Web beacons
A web beacon is a super small, hidden image tucked inside an email. It lets us know if you’ve opened the email, how many times you’ve opened it, and details like how long you spent reading it, what email software and web browser you used, what device you used, and your IP address. 
We also use web beacons to make sure our emails look great on whatever device you’re using.

Link tracking
In our emails, there are several links, each with a special tag. When you click on one of these links, you’ll be taken to our mailing company’s server first, which keeps track of your click.
Then you’ll be redirected to the right page on our website. 
This helps us know who clicked from the email to our site. With this info, we can customise our future messages to you.

Cookies
Our process for delivering emails may cause cookies to be set, when you download images or when you click on a link.

Making choices about cookies

If you don’t want to accept cookies from our emails, just close the email before opening any images or clicking on links. You can also adjust your browser settings to limit or reject cookies altogether. These settings will affect all cookies, whether they’re from websites or emails.
Sometimes, cookies in emails might be automatically accepted, depending on your email or browser settings. For example, if you’ve added an email address to your contacts or safe senders list. Check your email browser or device instructions for more details on this.