Cookie Policy
We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers/partners. This is statistical data about our users' browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
For the same reason, each of us may obtain information about your general internet usage by using a cookie file which is typically stored on the hard drive of your computer (as with most websites). Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
They help us to improve our websites and to deliver a better and more personalised service. They enable us:
- to estimate our audience size and usage pattern;
- to store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our websites according to your individual interests;
- to speed up your searches; and
- to recognise you when you return to any of our websites.
You can refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our websites. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our websites.
For more information on how you can avoid all Analytics and their relevant cookies, click here http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
If you want to find out how to tell your internet browser not to accept cookies, click here for instructions - http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=1#gchromex
More Information
More detail on how businesses use cookies is available at www.allaboutcookies.org.
Analytics
Google Analytics supports two JavaScript libraries (tags) for measuring website usage: analytics.js and ga.js. The following sections describe how each use cookies.
The analytics.js JavaScript library is part of Universal Analytics and uses first-party cookies to:
- Distinguish unique users
- Throttle the request rate
| Cookie Name | Expiration Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
_ga |
2 years | Used to distinguish users. |
_gat |
10 minutes | Used to throttle re |
The ga.js JavaScript library uses first-party cookies to:
- Determine which domain to measure
- Distinguish unique users
- Throttle the request rate
- Remember the number and time of previous visits
- Remember traffic source information
- Determine the start and end of a session
- Remember the value of visitor-level custom variables
By default, this library sets cookies on the domain specified in the document.host browser property and sets the cookie path to the root level (/).
This library sets the following cookies:
| Cookie Name | Default Expiration Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
__utma |
2 years from set/update | Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
__utmt |
10 minutes | Used to throttle request rate. |
__utmb |
30 mins from set/update | Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
__utmc |
End of browser session | Not used in ga.js. Set for interoperability with urchin.js. Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user was in a new session/visit. |
__utmz |
6 months from set/update | Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
__utmv |
2 years from set/update | Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. This cookie is created when a developer uses the _setCustomVar method with a visitor level custom variable. This cookie was also used for the deprecated _setVar method. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
Cookies set by your social networks
Google+
| Cookie name | Expires after | Description of cookie |
| NID | 6 months | A unique identifier used by Google applications to store user preference information. |
| HSID | 10 years | A unique identifier used by Google applications to store user preference information. |
| SSID | 10 years | A unique identifier used by Google applications to store user preference information. |
| APISID | 10 years | A unique identifier used by Google applications to store user preference information. |
| SAPISID | 10 years | A unique identifier used by Google applications to store user preference information. |
| SID | 10 years | A unique identifier used by Google applications to store user preference information. |
| BEAT | 1 day | A persistent cookie that is used to track Google+ (+1) status |
| ULS | End of session | A session cookie used to track Google+ (+1) status |
| _utma | 12 months | This keeps track of the number of times a visitor has been to Google+, when their first visit was, and when their last visit occurred |
| _utmb | 30 minutes | A timestamp of the exact moment in time when a visitor enters the site |
| _utmc | End of session | A timestamp of the exact moment in time when a visitor leaves the site - having waited 30 minutes for another pageview to happen, and if it doesn’t, it expires |
| _utmz | 6 months | This keeps track of where the visitor came from, what search engine was used, what link was clicked on, what keywords used, and where in the world Google+ was accessed from |
| Cookie name | Expires after | Description of cookie |
| k | 1 week | Twitter image server cookie |
| guest_id | 24 months | Identifies whether the visitor is a user or guest of Twitter |
| original_referer | . | This cookie is used to supply the feed on this site. |
| _utma | 12 months | This keeps track of the number of times a visitor has been to Twitter, when their first visit was, and when their last visit occurred |
| _utmb | 30 minutes | A timestamp of the exact moment in time when a visitor enters the site |
| _utmc | End of session | A timestamp of the exact moment in time when a visitor leaves the site - having waited 30 minutes for another pageview to happen, and if it doesn’t, it expires |
| _utmz | 6 months | This keeps track of where the visitor came from, what search engine was used, what link was clicked on, what keywords used, and where in the world Twitter was accessed from |
| _utmv | 2 years | Used for user-defined reports in Google Analytics classifying the visitor |
| _twitter sess | End of session | Defines a unique ID associated with the current user linked to Twitter |
| auth_token | End of session | On login |
| auh_token_session | End of session | On login |
| secure_session | End of session | On login |
| twll | 10 years | On login |
| lang | End of session | On login |
| pid | 24 months | Used by Twitter (from the share buttons that are embedded in some of our pages) |
| Cookie name | Expires after | Description of cookie |
| datr | 24 months | This identifies the web browser being used to connect to Facebook independent of the logged in visitor. This cookie plays a key role in Facebook’s security and site integrity features |
| reg_fb_gate | End of session | This contains the first Facebook page visited |
| reg_fb_ref | End of session | This contains the last Facebook page visited |
| wd | End of session | This identifies the browser window dimensions |
| lsd | End of session | This contains a random value that is set when a Facebook user logs out in order to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks |
| c_user | Set by visitor | This contains the user ID of the currently logged in visitor. The lifetime of this cookie is dependent on the status of the "keep me logged in" checkbox. If the checkbox is set, the cookie expires after 30 days of inactivity, otherwise the cookie is a session cookie and will therefore be cleared when the browser exits |
| csm | End of session | This cookie is used to integrate the user's Facebook's Like status with the London 2012 site |
| lu | 2 years | This is used to manage how the login page is presented to the visitor. The lifetime is the same as c_user |
| s | End of session | |
| locale | 1 week | This contains the display locale of the last logged in visitor on this browser. This is set after the visitor logs out |
| sct | Set by visitor | This contains a timestamp representing the time at which the visitor logged in. This cookie is used to distinguish between multiple sessions created at different times. The lifetime is the same as c_user |
| xs | Set by visitor | This contains the session number, a session secret and an optional "secure" flag (if visitor has enabled secure browsing feature). The lifetime is the same as c_user |
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