What are cookies?
As is common practice with almost all professional websites, this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored, however this may downgrade or ‘break’ certain elements of the sites functionality.
For more general information on cookies see the Wikipedia article on HTTP Cookies.
How we use cookies
We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.
Disabling cookies
You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of this site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.
The cookies we set
When you submit data through a form such as those found on contact pages or comment forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence. In order to provide you with a better experience on this site we provide the functionality to set your preferences for how this site runs when you use it. In order to remember your preferences we need to set cookies so that this information can be called whenever you interact with a page that is affected by your preferences.
Third party cookies
Third party cookies are set by an organisation that does not own the site that the user is visiting. These are normally cookies set by specialist marketing or analytics organisations.
Which third party cookies do we use?
We may use the following third party cookies:
We may use various products and features provided by Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; “Google”).
Google Analytics
This website uses the analytics service Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.
On behalf of the website provider Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website provider. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
Further information concerning the terms and conditions of use and data privacy can be found at http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/gb.html.
Google Dynamic Remarketing
We may use Google Dynamic Remarketing to advertise across the Internet, in particular on the Google Display Network. Dynamic remarketing will display ads to you based on what parts of our websites you have viewed by placing a cookie on your web browser. This cookie does not in any way identify you or give access to your computer or mobile device. The cookie is used to indicate to other websites that “This user visited a particular page, so show them ads relating to that page.” Google Dynamic Remarketing allows us to tailor our marketing to better suit your needs and only display ads that are relevant to you.
If you do not wish to see targeted ads, you can opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting Google’s Ads Settings. For further information visit Google’s privacy policy.
DoubleClick by Google
DoubleClick uses cookies to enable interest-based advertisements. The cookies identify which ad has been shown in the browser and whether you have accessed a website through an ad. The cookies do not collect personal information. If you do not wish to see interest-based ads, you can opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting Google’s Ads Settings. For further information visit Google’s privacy policy.
We may also use retargeting tags and Custom Audience provided by the company Facebook Inc. (1601 S. California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA, “Facebook”).
Facebook Custom Audiences
In the context of interest-based online advertising, we may use the product Facebook Custom Audiences. For this purpose, a non-reversible and non-personal checksum (hash value) is generated from your usage data. That hash value can be transmitted to Facebook for analysis and marketing purposes. The collected information contain your activities on the website (e.g. browsing behaviour, visited subpages, etc.). Your IP address is transmitted as well and used for geographical controlling of advertising. The data collected is only transmitted encrypted to Facebook and is anonymous to us, which means the personal data of individual users are not visible to us.
For more information about the privacy policy of Facebook and Custom Audience, please check https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ or https://www.facebook.com/business/a/online-sales/custom-audiences-website.
Facebook Exchange FBX
When you visit our websites with the help of remarketing tags, a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server is established. Facebook gets the information that you have visited our website with your IP address. This allows Facebook to assign your visit to our website to your user account. The information thus obtained we can use for the display of Facebook Ads. We point out that we as provider of the website have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data and the use of it by Facebook.
Facebook Conversion Tracking Pixel
This tool allows us to follow the actions of users after they are redirected to a provider’s website by clicking on a Facebook advertisement. We are thus able to record the efficacy of Facebook advertisements for statistical and market research purposes. The collected data remain anonymous. This means that we cannot see the personal data of any individual user. However, the collected data are saved and processed by Facebook. We are informing you on this matter according to our information at this time. Facebook is able to connect the data with your Facebook account and use the data for their own advertising purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s privacy policy found under: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/. Facebook Conversion Tracking also allows Facebook and its partners to show you advertisements on and outside Facebook. In addition, a cookie will be saved onto your computer for these purposes.
By using the website you agree to the data processing associated with the integration of Facebook Pixel.
Other social media
We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work the following social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Reddit will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or to contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.