This page contains information on what 'cookies' are, the cookies used by Softcat's website, how to switch cookies off in your browser, how to specifically switch off advertising cookies, and some useful links for further reading on the subject. If it does not provide the information you are looking for, or you have any further cookie-related questions regarding their use on the Softcat website, please get in touch below.
We use cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file that is entered into the memory of your web browser on your computer, laptop, mobile etc., by a website, allowing the website to store information on your machine and later retrieve it. It is used to differentiate you from other users accessing our site. All cookie information is encrypted.
What do we use cookies for?
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website, for website statistics, to help us improve the user experience, and we may use them for remarketing.
What type of cookies do we use?
The types of cookies that the Softcat website may generate are:
Advertising cookies
These cookies give us an insight into an advert - whether you’ve seen a particular advert, a type of advert, and how long it has been since you’ve seen it.
We may also set anonymous cookies on certain other sites that we advertise on. If you receive one of those cookies, we may then use it to identify you as having visited that site if you later visit the Softcat website. We may then use this information to target our advertising.
User experience cookies
We use the following software to enhance your user experience:
- Google Tag Manager
Site Analytics cookies
Every time someone visits our website, software provided by another organisation generates an 'anonymous analytics cookie'.
These cookies can tell us whether you have visited the site before. Your browser will tell us if you have these cookies and, if you don't, we generate new ones.
This allows us to track how many individual users we have, and how often they visit the site. We use them to gather statistics; for example, the number of visits to a page. If you are logged in, we will also know the details you provided for this, such as your username and email address.
We use the following software to set Site Analytics cookies:
- Google Analytics & Tag Manager
- Google Analytics Audiences
Other third party Cookies
On some pages of our website, other organisations may also set their own anonymous cookies. They do this to track the success of their application, or to customise the application for you.
Because of how cookies work, our website cannot access these cookies, nor can the other organisation access the data in cookies we use on our website.
For example, when you share an article using a social-media sharing button, respond to a job advertisement or register for an event on Softcat’s website, the platform that has created the tool may record that you have done this.
What kind of information do we collect with cookies?
When you visit our website and cookies are switched on, we may collect information, including but not limited to: your internet protocol (IP) address, your login information, time zone settings, operating system and platform, information about your visits, including the URL you came from, your country/region, the search terms you used on our website, pages you viewed or searched, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouseovers), and the methods used to browse away from the page.
How do I turn cookies off?
It is usually possible to stop your browser accepting cookies, or to stop it accepting cookies from a website. However, this may affect your experience and lower the quality of it if you turn these off.
All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. You can usually find these settings in the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ menu of your browser. To understand these settings, the following links may be helpful, or you can use the ‘Help’ option in your browser for more details.
Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Firefox
Cookie settings in Chrome
Cookie settings in Safari web and iOS.
If you are primarily concerned about third party cookies generated by advertisers, you can turn these off by going to the Your Online Choices site.
You can also visit the trade body representing these advertising platforms for more information: Network Advertising Initative.
They have provided a site where you can control all third-party online advertising. Please note that there are many more networks listed on this site than those that we use at Softcat.
Useful links
Here are some general guides on all things cookies and how they’re used on the internet:
The IAB has provided the following website to give information specifically about privacy issues around Internet advertising: Your Online Choices site.
For legal information that’s focused on privacy issues, you may find this links useful: The Information Commissioner’s Office.