A guide to cookies

Cookies are files used by websites to send information to your browser. Typically they're used to do things like maintain your preferences, identify your session, store items in shopping baskets and for storing authentication status.

In most cases cookies are harmless, and you will only diminish your browsing experience by disabling them. In some cases websites will not work if you disable cookies in your web browser.

To find out more about cookies and how to view and delete them, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

Use of cookies by Optimus Education Limited websites

The tables below outline which cookies we use on our websites and why.

Cookie categories

The cookies used are based on the International Chamber of Commerce guide for cookie categories:

• Strictly necessary
• Performance
• Functionality
• Targeting

Strictly necessary

'Strictly necessary' cookies let you move around the website and use essential features like secure areas, shopping baskets and online billing. These cookies don't gather any information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you've been on the internet.

We use these to:

• Remember things like information you've entered on order forms when you navigate to different pages in a single web browser session
• Remember the products you ordered when you get to the checkout page
• Identify you as being logged in 
• Make sure you connect to the right service on our website when we make any changes to the way the website works

We do not use these to:

• Gather information that could be used to advertise products or services to you
• Remember your preferences or username beyond your current visit

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website, so if you prevent these cookies we can't guarantee your security or predict how our website will perform during your visit.

Performance

'Performance' cookies collect information about how you use our website, for example which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies don't collect any information that could identify you – all the information collected is anonymous and is only used to help us improve how our website works, understand what interests our users and measure how effective our advertising is.

We use these to:

• Provide statistics on how our website is used

Functionality

'Functionality' cookies are used to provide services or to remember settings to improve your visit.

We use these to:

• Remember settings you've applied such as layout, text size, preferences and colours
• Remember if we've already asked you if you want to fill in a survey
• Provide proactive live chat sessions to offer you support
• Show you when you're logged in to the website
• Share information with partners to provide a service on our website. The information shared is only to be used to provide the service, product or function and not for any other purpose

We do not use these to:

• Target you with adverts on other websites

Some of these cookies are managed for us by third parties – where this is the case we don't allow the third party to use the cookies for any purpose other than those listed above.

You can control whether or not these cookies are used, but preventing them may mean we can't offer you some services, and will reduce the support we can offer you. It's also possible that preventing these cookie stops us remembering that you didn't want a specific service.

Targeting

'Targeting' cookies are linked to services provided by third parties, such as 'Like' buttons and 'Share' buttons. The third party provides these services in return for recognising that you have visited our website.

We use these to:

• Link to social networks like Facebook, who may subsequently use information about your visit to target advertising to you on other websites
• Provide advertising agencies with information on your visit so that they can present you with adverts that you may be interested in

You can control whether or not these cookies are used, but preventing them may stop us from offering you some services. All of these cookies are managed by third parties, and you may alternatively use the third parties' own tools to prevent these cookies.

Further reading

Information about cookies

Useful information about cookies can be found at:

http://www.allaboutcookies.org

Internet Advertising Bureau

A guide to behavioural advertising and online privacy has been produced by the internet advertising industry which can be found at:

http://www.youronlinechoices.eu

International Chamber of Commerce United Kingdom

Information on the ICC (UK) UK cookie guide can be found on the ICC website section:

http://www.international-chamber.co.uk/our-expertise/digitaleconomy