Cookies, Web beacons and similar technology
- What are they?
A cookie is a small piece of information which is sent to your computer’s hard drive by the web server so that the website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the website. The cookie will collect information relating to your use of our sites, information about your computer such as the computer’s IP address and browser type, demographic data and, if you arrived at our site via a link from third party site, the URL of the linking page. If you are a registered user or subscriber it may also collect your name and email address, which may be transferred to data processors for registered user or subscriber verification purposes.
A web beacon is a line of code which is used by a website or less frequently a third party ad server to measure a user’s activity, such as interaction with an advert or purchase of a product. A web beacon is often invisible because it is only 1 x 1 pixel in size with no colour. A web beacon can also be known as a web bug, 1 by 1 GIF, invisible GIF and tracker GIF.
- How does Future Publishing Limited use them?
We, together with our trusted partners, use cookies for the following purposes:
(i) to enable certain online functionality including:
- identify returning users, registrants and subscribers and to allow them to be presented with a personalised version of the site;
- eliminating the need for returning users to re-enter their login details;
- commenting on our sites;
- operating a shopping trolley on various of our websites including www.myfavouritemagazines.com, www.weheartcraft.co.uk, www.themakingspot.com, www.bikeradardailydeals.com, www.techradardeals.com, www.weheartdeals.com and www.futuremediastore.com
(ii) to measure users behaviour to better develop our websites. By using web analytics services provided by Google Analytics and Comscore Digital Analytics we can analyse which pages are viewed and how long for and which links are followed, we can provide more content which is of interest. We also use this analysis to report on our performance and to sell advertising.
(iii) to manage online advertising and revenue share arrangements. Our approved, advertising partners, primarily Doubleclick, Audience Science and AdMeld, use cookies together with web beacons to provide advertising to you and to enable us to manage our relationship with those advertisers by, for example, tracking how many unique users have seen a particular advertisement or followed a link in an advertisement.
(iv) to measure general user behaviour across our sites and third party sites to build a profile based on users browsing patterns so that we and third parties can target advertising to users that will be more relevant to users’ interests. This means that if, for example, users visit a page with a review about a particular camera then the cookie will collect this information and we may target adverts for that camera to those users and, if users visit third party sites that are part of the same advertising network, those third parties may target adverts for that camera to those users.
(v) to create profiles that trusted third parties can buy to allow them to better target their advertising with more relevant content.
We also include web beacons (also known as clear GIFs or web bugs) in our emails to track the success of our marketing campaigns. This means that if you open an email from us we can see which of the pages of our Website you have visited. Our web beacons do not store additional information on your computer but, by communicating with our cookies on your computer, they can tell us when you have opened our email.
The information generated by the cookie about your use of our sites (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored on servers in the United States and/or United Kingdom. They may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on their behalf. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by those service providers in the manner and for the purposes set out above.
- How do you control how cookies/web beacons are used?
Cookies can be deleted from your hard drive. You can also change the preferences/settings in your web browser to control cookies. In some cases, you can choose to accept cookies from the primary site, but block them from third parties. In others, you can block cookies from specific advertisers, or clear out all cookies. Deleting or blocking cookies may reduce functionality of the site. To learn more about how to reject cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org or go to the help menu within your internet browser. If you experience any problems having deleted cookies, you should contact the supplier of your web browser.
If you would like to disable “third party” cookies generated by advertisers or providers of targeted advertising services, you can turn them off by going to the third party’s website and getting them to generate a one-time “no thanks” cookie that will stop any further cookies being written to your machine. Here are links to the main third party advertising platforms we use, each of which have instructions on how to do this:
http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html
http://www.audiencescience.com/consumers
You can find out how to decline other online behavioural advertising by visiting:
http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp
If you object to web beacons in emails, we recommend that you follow the instructions for deleting existing cookies and disabling future cookies above. We will still know how many of our emails are opened and we will automatically receive your IP address, a unique identifier of your computer or other access device; but we will not identify you as an individual.
- How to find out more information:
For more information about cookies please visit www.allaboutcookies.org and for more information about behavioural advertising in particular please visit www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/.
