About cookies
Most websites you visit will use cookies in order to improve your user experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you, either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’).
Cookies do lots of different jobs, such as letting you navigate between pages efficiently, storing your preferences, and generally improving your experience of a website. Cookies make the interaction between you and the website faster and easier. If a website does not use cookies, it will think you are a new visitor every time you move to a new page on the site – for example, when you enter your login details and move to another page it will not recognise you and it will not be able to keep you logged in.
Some websites will also use cookies to enable them to target their advertising or marketing messages based for example, on your location and/or browsing habits.
Cookies may be set by the website you are visiting (‘first party cookies’) or they may be set by other websites that run content on the page you are viewing (‘third party cookies’). See below for more information on cookie types.
A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers. It allows a website to remember things such as your preferences or the content of your shopping basket.
First party cookies – First party cookies are set by the website you are visiting, and can only be read by it, which in this case is ensign.london.
Third party cookies – Third party cookies are set by a different organisation to the owner of the website you are visiting. For example, the website might use a third party analytics company that will set its own cookie to perform this service. The website you are visiting may also contain content embedded from, say, YouTube and Flickr, and these sites may set their own cookies. The web site you are visiting uses analytics cookies to track the numbers of visitors to their sites.
More significantly, a website might use a third party advertising network to deliver targeted advertising on their website. These may also have the capability to track your browsing across different sites. It is important to note that ensign.london does not set advertising cookies.
Session cookies – Session cookies are stored only temporarily during a browsing session and are deleted from the user’s device when the browser is closed. ensign.london uses session cookies to simplify your use of our site.
Persistent cookies – This type of cookie is saved on your device for a fixed period (usually a year or longer) and is not deleted when the browser is closed. Persistent cookies help to provide continuity between one browsing session and the next – for example, if you set preferences.
What to do if you do not want cookies to be set
Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their computer or mobile device intrusive, particularly when this information is stored and used by a third party without your knowledge,. Although this is generally quite harmless you may not, for example, want to see advertising that has been targeted to your interests. If you prefer, it is possible to block some or all cookies, or even to delete cookies that have already been set; but you need to be aware that you might lose some functions of that website.
Using your browser
If you do not want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.
If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device, then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.
Cookie settings page
You may have noticed that when you first used this site, you were advised that our site uses cookies and you acknowledged this. This acknowledgement will persist indefintely and it is up to you whether you use any of the steps above to disable cookies, or you stop using our site because we use them. We will not remind you of our use of cookies after that first time.
Impact of changing settings
Much of the this site will continue to work without cookies. However, you may find that some features and functions do not work, or that you have to enter data more often than you would expect.