Our cookie policy
How Which? uses cookies and other tracking technologies and what they are.
What is a cookie?
Cookies are little data files which are sent to your browser from a website that you visit. They are stored on your computer's hard drive.
How do we use them?
On this website we use a variety of cookies as they perform different functions, from remembering that you are logged in during visits to what your screen name is. They also help us to identify what parts of our content are the most popular and what type of journey a visitor has through our site. If you visit a webpage where we have an advert, a cookie will also be placed on your browser so that when you arrive at our website we can recognise that you've seen an advert of ours elsewhere.
Cookies help us arrange the content and layout of our site and recognise those computers that have been to our site before or have seen one of our adverts elsewhere. They therefore play an important role in helping us to enhance the usability and performance of our site.
A list of all the cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use can be found in our cookies list.
What is a Flash cookie?
This is a type of cookie which is collected via Adobe Flash media player (also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software which you probably have on your computer to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts. Currently, Which? does not use this type of cookie.
Have a look at Adobe's website if you want to control Flash cookies on your computer. If you've got a Firefox, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer browser you can also get an add-on to detect and delete Flash cookies.
Can I opt out of cookies?
Yes. There are a number of options available. You can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to only allow "trusted" sites to set them, or to accept only those cookies from those websites which you are currently on.
However, please note - if you do delete all your cookies, some features of our website, such as remembering your login details, will not function as a result.
We like the website www.aboutcookies.org which is run by the law firm Pinsent Masons. Not only does it have the recipe for 'the world's finest cookies', it also gives you detailed step by step guidance on how to control and delete cookies depending on your browser type. You can then adjust your browser settings to your preferred level of protection.
What is a web beacon?
Web beacons are usually 1 pixel size transparent images that help website owners track the activity of users on certain website pages. They can also send the tracking server (ie. us, or our technology partners) information in cookies - such as whether an HTML email with a web beacon in it has been opened. We don't use web beacons in this way yet - but if we will in the future we'll let you know. However, we do use beacons together with cookies to help us understand how you interact with our website, to help us improve your experience and to better manage site content.
Our main technology partners
We work with the following companies in maintaining and improving our website. A brief description of what they do is found below. We ensure that any company which works with us and collects personal data satisfies the data protection requirements. If you have any more questions, please do contact us and we'll be happy to help.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides us with our web analytics data - this means detailed information on the performance of our site, such as how many visits have been made to each page. Any data passed to Google Analytics is anonymised statistical data.
Yahoo Analytics
Yahoo Analytics provides us with our web analytics data - this means detailed information on the performance of our site, such as how many visits have been made to each page. Any data passed to Yahoo Analytics is anonymised statistical data.
Latitude Digital Media
Latitude Digital Media provides 'Pay Per Click' advertising, mostly via Google Adwords management. This means they help us manage our adverts at the top and on on the right-hand-side of Google search results pages. If a user then clicks on a Google advertising link, a cookie will help us recognise that they came from Google when they arrive to our site. We then have to pay Latitude a fee, who in turn pay Google.
the OTHER media Limited
The OTHER media provide build and hosting services to Which? and help us to maintain the software that runs our website. They provide us with reporting statistics where required, and will serve cookies on our behalf to enable any site personalisation and log in functionality.