Cookies Policy

Introduction

European Union Directive 2009/136/EC (and consequently all EU member states' law) requires companies operating from member states to detail to site visitors the use of cookies on their websites.

If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings,
you consent to the use of the cookies detailed below.

If you do not wish to consent to the use of cookies,
we advise that you refer to the advice below on how to block cookies.

About Cookies

Cookies are small text files which are stored on your device and contain plain text. In all cases, cookies themselves do not have access to your device and can not 'run' like normal programs on your device.

Why do you use cookies?

We use cookies to store your preferences (e.g. locale and language preferences) as you navigate through the site; for analytics purposes (i.e. to see how users browse around our website), which helps us to identify popular content; for interaction with social media; and, where applicable, to allow users to log in to our site.

Websites are 'stateless'; each page exists in isolation, and so information can only be passed through URL parameters (the bits of text you sometimes see after a website address which start with a question mark), form parameters, or cookies. Cookies are the 'cleanest' and least intrusive (from a user's point of view) and easiest to manage (from a website developer's point of view) method for maintaining 'state' throughout your visit to a website.

Without the use of a cookie, you would be asked for the information stored in the cookie or to log in on every single page of the website!

Session Cookies

Session cookies are temporary cookies, which exist for the duration your browser is running. When your browser is closed, the session cookies are lost. These are typically used to identify users when they log in. As the user browses the site, the web application knows which user is logged in and can tailor the experience accordingly and provide user-specific information, as appropriate.

Permanent Cookies

Permanent cookies are permanent insofar as they remain on your device even after you close your browser. This makes them unsuitable for security purposes (such as session cookies), but perfect for storing personal preferences, such as your country and language preference (for formatting dates, times, etc.). Without these kind of cookies, you would have to set such preferences on each visit to the website.

Third Party Cookies

Third party cookies are cookies (session or permanent) which are created not by our web applications, but by external agencies or companies. We use such cookies for tracking how visitors use our site, which enables us to improve our site content by seeing which pages are popular and how visitors navigate through the site. Such cookies are not created by our Web applications, but by the third parties. As such, the names of these may vary from time to time. Third party cookies do not personally identify you, but merely allow the third parties (and us in the case of analytics services) to keep a record of how you use the site.

Blocking and Removing Cookies

Any cookies can be blocked or removed from your browser at any time by following the relevant procedure specific to your browser. You retain full control of which cookies exist on your computer. You may also block the creation of cookies from all or individual sites.

You may block cookies on this site, but the site may not function as designed and you will be unable to log in where appropriate or retain any user preferences, so information may appear in the wrong locale or be unavailable.

Which cookies do you use?

Cookie Type Name Purpose
Session Cookies MyPlanitCookie This cookie is used only by users with a MyPlanit account and is created when they log in. It contains minimum user details in an encrypted format.
PageProtect Certain pages on this site may be password protected and require that a password is entered before they may be viewed. This cookie is created when the password has been entered successfully and allows users to view the one or more pages protected by the password, without needing to log in on each visit to the page(s) within one session.
Permanent Cookies UserSettings This cookie is used to store your country, language, time zone, and currency preferences. It means we can tailor content so that you only see content relevant to your country and in a format (e.g. date and time) which is familiar to you.
Notification This cookie is used to indicate that a message has been displayed to site visitors, and, where appropriate, that consent has been given by the visitor. For example, if you consent to our use of cookies, we amend this cookie to indicate that you have done so, so that you are no longer bothered by the cookie banner.
CFID/CFToken These cookies are created automatically by our web application server to identify a visiting device uniquely. They do not track or record any of your activity.
Third Party Cookies Google Analytics We use Google Analytics for analysis of traffic to this website. Google create several cookies in connection with this service (__utma, utmb, __utmc, and __utmz). For more information about the cookies created, please see http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/analytics/privacyoverview.html.
AddThis* AddThis is a social bookmarking service. It allows us to provide user-tailored facilities for sharing useful content across a variety of services, such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. For more information about the cookies created, please see http://www.addthis.com/privacy.
YouTube YouTube videos may be used in various places across this website. For more information about the cookies created, please see http://www.addthis.com/privacy.
Twitter We may make use of Twitter's integration code throughout our site, which allows visitors to identify useful information to others. For more information about the cookies created, please see http://twitter.com/privacy.
Facebook We may make use of Facebook's integration code throughout our site, which allows visitors to identify useful information to others. For more information about the cookies created, please see http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

*These cookies require explicit opt-in consent from visitors. Functionality incorporating these will not be available until you consent.

More Information

For further information and advice, including on how to manage and block cookies, see http://www.allaboutcookies.org.