A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) 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 device such as the device’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.
Cookies record information about your online preferences and help us
to tailor our websites to your interests. Information provided by
cookies can help us to analyse your use of our sites and help us to
provide you with a better user experience.
Cookies are either ‘session’ or ‘persistent’ cookies, depending on how long they are stored for:
- Session cookies are only stored for the duration of your visit to a website and are deleted from your device when you close your browser;
- Persistent cookies are saved on your device for a fixed period of time after the browser has closed and are activated each time you visit the website where the cookie was generated.
In addition to cookies, Future’s websites also use web beacons. 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.
What are the different types of cookies?
1. Essential or ‘Strictly Necessary’ Cookies
These are cookies which are essential for the running of our
websites. Without these cookies, parts of our websites would not
function. These cookies do not track where you have been on the
internet and do not gather information about you that could be used for
marketing purposes.
2. Functional Cookies
Functional cookies are used to remember your preferences on our
websites and to provide enhanced, more personal features. The
information collected by these cookies is usually anonymised, so we
cannot identify you personally. Functional cookies do not track your
internet usage or gather information which could be used for selling
advertising, but they do help with serving advertising.
3. Analytical Performance Cookies
Analytical performance cookies are used to monitor the performance of
our websites, for example, to determine the number of page views and
the number of unique users a website has. Web analytics services may be
designed and operated by third parties. The information provided by
these cookies allows us to analyse patterns of user behaviour and we use
that information to enhance user experience or identify areas of the
website which may require maintenance. The information is anonymous
(i.e. it cannot be used to identify you and does not contain personal
information such as your name and email address) and it is only used for
statistical purposes
4. Behavioural Advertising Cookies
Behavioural advertising cookies, which may be placed on your device
by us or our trusted third party service providers, remember that you
have visited a website and use that information to provide you with
advertising which is tailored to your interests. This is often called
online behavioural advertising (OBA) and is done by grouping together
shared interests based upon web browsing history. Your web browsing
history can be used to infer things about you (e.g. your age, gender
etc.), and this information may also be used to make advertising on
websites more relevant to you. Although behavioural advertising cookies
can track your activity around the internet they cannot identify you
personally, even if you are signed in to our website. Without these
cookies, online advertisements you encounter will be less relevant to
you and your interests. If you would like more information about OBA,
including how to opt-out of these cookies, please visit www.youronlinechoices.com.
How does Future use cookies?
We, together with our trusted partners, use cookies for the following purposes:
1. Essential and Functional Cookies
We use these cookies 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 and www.themakingspot.com.
If you would prefer to disable essential and functional cookies, please click here.
2. Analytical Performance Cookies
We use these cookies to measure users’ behaviour to better develop
our websites. By using web analytics services provided by Google
Analytics and comScore Digital Analytix we can analyse which pages are
viewed and how long for and which links are followed, and we can use
this information to provide more content which is of interest. We also
use this analysis to report on our performance and to sell advertising.
If you would prefer to opt out of analytical performance cookies, please click here.
3. Behavioural Advertising Cookies
We use these cookies 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.
- 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.
- to create profiles that trusted third parties can buy to allow them to better target their advertising with more relevant content.
If you would prefer to opt out of behavioural advertising cookies please click here.
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 device but, by communicating with our cookies on
your device, they can tell us when you have opened our email.
If you object to the use of web beacons please click here.
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.
We cannot control nor do we have access to any cookies placed on your computer by third party advertisers and sponsors.
4. Other Third Party Cookies
You may notice on some pages of our websites that cookies have been
set that are not related to Future. When you visit a page with content
embedded from, for example, YouTube or Facebook, these third party
service providers may set their own cookies on your device. Future does
not control the use of these third party cookies and cannot access them
due to the way that cookies work, as cookies can only be accessed by the
party who originally set them. Please check the third party websites
for more information about these cookies.
Some of our websites use Adobe Flash Player to deliver video and game
content to users. Adobe utilise their own cookies, which are not
manageable through your browser settings but are used by the Flash
Player for similar purposes, such as storing preferences or tracking
users. Flash Cookies work in a different way to web browser cookies;
rather than having individual cookies for particular jobs, a website is
restricted to storing all data in one cookie. You can control how much
data, if any, may be stored in that cookie but you cannot choose what
type of information is allowed to be stored. You can manage which
websites can store information in Flash cookies on your device via the website storage settings panel on the Adobe website.
How does Future keep track of the cookies on its websites?
On a quarterly basis, we conduct an audit of all cookies being used
across our website portfolio. This policy will be reviewed to ensure it
is up to date following each audit.
How can I manage or opt out of cookies?
Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their
device a little intrusive, in particular when the information is stored
and used by a third party. For example, you may object to being served
advertising which is targeted to your interests based on your browsing
history. If you would prefer to opt out of cookies, it is possible to
control cookies by following the steps below, however you should be
aware that you might lose some features and functionality of the website
if you do so
Cookies, including those which have already been set, 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.
Opting out of Analytical Performance Cookies:
If you would like to opt out of Analytics cookies, please do so by clicking on the links below:
Comscore Digital Analytix – http://sitestat.com/privacy/
Google Analytics: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Opting out of Behavioural Advertising Cookies:
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:
You can find out how to decline other online behavioural advertising by visiting:
Web Beacons
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 device or other access device; but we will not identify you as an
individual.
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