HOW WE USE COOKIES ON OUR WEBSITE

We use cookies and similar tools across our websites to improve their performance and enhance your user experience. This policy explains how we do that.

WHAT ARE COOKIES?

Cookies are small text files which a website may put on your computer or mobile device when you first visit a site or page. The cookie will help the website, or another website, to recognise your device the next time you visit. Web beacons or other similar files can also do the same thing. We use the term “cookies” in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way.

There are many functions cookies serve. For example, they can help us to remember your username and preferences, analyse how well our website is performing, or even allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you.

Certain cookies contain personal information – for example, this website uses a cookie that stores your Member ID to avoid asking for login info each time you visit. Most cookies won’t collect information that identifies you, and will instead collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our websites, or a user’s general location.

WHAT COOKIES DO WE USE?

Generally, our cookies perform one of three different functions:

1. ESSENTIAL COOKIES

Some cookies are essential for the operation of our website. For example, some cookies allow us to identify customers and ensure they can access any customer only pages. If a subscriber opts to disable these cookies, the user will not be able to access all of the content that they are entitled to.

2. PERFORMANCE COOKIES

We utilise other cookies to analyse how our visitors use our websites and to monitor website performance. This allows us to provide a high quality experience by customising our offering and quickly identifying and fixing any issues that arise. For example, we might use performance cookies to keep track of which pages are most popular, which method of linking between pages is most effective, and to determine why some pages are receiving error messages. We might also use these cookies to highlight articles or site services that we think will be of interest to you based on your usage of the website.

3. FUNCTIONALITY COOKIES

We use functionality cookies to allow us to remember your preferences. For example, cookies save you the trouble of typing in your username every time you access the site, and recall your customisation preferences, such as which regional edition of the website you want to see when you log in.

We also use functionality cookies to provide you with enhanced services such as allowing you to watch a video online or comment on a blog.

We use or allow third parties to serve cookies that fall into the categories above. For example, like many companies, we use outside vendors (e.g. Google Analytics, WebTrends) to help us monitor our website traffic. We may also use third party cookies to help us with market research, revenue tracking, improving site functionality and monitoring compliance with our terms and conditions and copyright policy.

CAN A WEBSITE USER BLOCK COOKIES?

As we’ve explained above, cookies help you to get the most out of our websites.

The first time you accessed our website after 1st June 2012, you may have seen an overlay which explained that by continuing to access our site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.

If you do wish to block our cookies then please follow the instructions below to disable them at browser level. 

Please remember that if you do choose to block cookies, you may find that most sections of our website or others simply do not work.

HOW TO ENABLE AND DISABLE COOKIES USING YOUR BROWSER

GOOGLE CHROME

    1. Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar
    2. Select Settings
    3. Click ‘Show advanced settings’
    4. In the “Privacy” section, click the ‘Content settings’ button
    5. To enable cookies in the “Cookies” section, pick ‘Allow cookies by default’
    6. To disable cookies, in the “Cookies” section, pick ‘Block cookies by default’
    7. Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Chrome.
    8. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Chrome, refer to the following page from Google: HTTP://SUPPORT.GOOGLE.COM/CHROME/BIN/ANSWER.PY?HL=EN&ANSWER=95647

MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER

    1. Click on ‘Tools’ at the top of your browser window and select ‘Internet Options’
    2. In the options window navigate to the ‘Privacy’ tab
    3. To enable cookies: Set the slider to ‘Medium’ or below
    4. To disable cookies: Move the slider to the top to block all cookies
    5. Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Explorer.
    6. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Internet Explorer, refer to the following page from Microsoft: HTTP://WINDOWS.MICROSOFT.COM/EN-GB/WINDOWS-VISTA/BLOCK-OR-ALLOW-COOKIES

MOZILLA FIREFOX

    1. Click on ‘Tools’ at the browser menu and select ‘Options’
    2. Select the Privacy panel
    3. To enable cookies: Check ‘Accept cookies for sites’
    4. To disable cookies: Uncheck at ‘Accept cookies for sites’ 
    5. Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Firefox.
    6. For more information, refer to the following page from Mozilla: HTTP://SUPPORT.MOZILLA.ORG/EN-US/KB/ENABLING%20AND%20DISABLING%20COOKIES

OPERA

    1. Click on ‘Setting’ at the browser menu and select ‘Settings’
    2. Select ‘Quick Preferences’
    3. To enable cookies: check “Enable Cookies”
    4. To disable cookies: uncheck “Enable Cookies”
    5. Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Opera.
    6. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Opera, refer to the following page from Opera Software: HTTP://WWW.OPERA.COM/BROWSER/TUTORIALS/SECURITY/PRIVACY/

SAFARI ON OSX

    1. Click on ‘Safari’  at the menu bar and select the ‘Preferences’ option
    2. Click on ‘Security’
    3. To enable cookies: In the ‘Accept cookies’ section select ‘Only from site you navigate to’
    4. To disable cookies: In the ‘Accept cookies’ section select ‘Never’
    5. Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Safari.
    6. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Safari, refer to the following page from Apple: HTTPS://SUPPORT.APPLE.COM/EN-GB/GUIDE/SAFARI/SFRI11471/MAC

ALL OTHER BROWSERS

Please look for a “help” function in the browser or contact the browser provider.

MORE INFORMATION

More detail on how businesses use cookies is available at WWW.ALLABOUTCOOKIES.ORG.

If you have any queries regarding this Cookie Policy please contact our Privacy Officer by email at privacy@freedomsat.com

This document was last updated on 4th February 2015

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