Cookie Policy
1. The Information we collect on our website
We use technology which collects information from your computer, tablet, or smartphone when you are using our websites. The Society uses this information to personalise your experience, to make decisions on how we develop our digital services, and to see how our marketing activities are performing.
There are different ways this information is collected. This includes cookies, tags and pixels. For this policy, we’ll call them ‘cookies’.
We only collect, process and store personally identifiable information in accordance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 and used expressly for the purposes of responding to enquiries on the basis of recorded communication, preferences or indicated requests for marketing information.
You can find out more about how we use your personal information in our Privacy Policy.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to track activity on visitors to the website. It provides us with statistics about how users interact with the website including the geographical location of visitors, average time on site, traffic, and other important metrics. This helps to influence the decisions we make which can increase web traffic and to monitor any difficulties users might be experiencing in discovering relevant content.
Google Analytics also has marketing tools like remarketing advertising capabilities.
Cookies are used by Google Analytics to provide these services. It’s the only way Google can gather information, identify unique users, identify special sessions, and store information.
Our Google Analytics account has an opt-out setting active to which Google allows to track website metrics.
We use Facebook Pixel Cookies to deliver ads to our visitors on Facebook and Instagram based on their interaction with the Society website and other websites across the internet. You can opt out of Pixel cookies by visiting the Facebook website here: Facebook Pixel Implementation GDPR.
YouTube
Similarly, we use a cookie to deliver ads to our visitors on YouTube based on their interaction with the Society website and other websites from across the internet. You can opt out of Google cookies by visiting the Google website here https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Hotjar
We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies (listed later in this policy) and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices (in particular device’s IP address (captured and stored only in anonymized form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website).
Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please see Hotjar’s privacy policy.
You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link.
3. How we use your information
- To contact you, following your enquiry, reply to any questions, suggestions, issues or complaints you have contacted us about;
- Make available our products and services to you;
- Process your transactions on our online service for savings and mortgages;
- Personalise your experience, for example we may provide you with details of products that match a product you purchased or enquired about previously, or we might serve you an article which is related to a topic you have shown an interest in;
- For statistical analysis and to get feedback from you about our products, websites, apps, and other services and activities. For example, occasionally we may invite you to review a product or service you’ve bought or used from us. If we do, it’s possible that we’ll use independent research and feedback providers to act on our behalf;
- To power our security measures and services so you can safely access our website and services;
- Help us understand more about you as a customer, the products and services you consume, so we can serve you better;
- Contact you about products and services from us;
- Provide you with online advertising and promotions; and
- Help answer your questions and solve any issues you have.
8. Your data and Social Networks
When using this website, you may be able to share information through social networks like Facebook and X. For example, when you ‘like’, ‘share’ or review our Services. When doing this, your personal information may be visible to the providers of those social networks and/or their other users. Please remember it is your responsibility to set appropriate privacy settings on your social network accounts so you are comfortable with how your information is used and shared on them.
10. Cookies used by this website
What are Cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data, stored in text files, that are stored on your computer or other device when a website is loaded within your chosen browser. They are widely used to ‘remember’ you and your preferences, either for a single visit (through a ’session cookie’) or for multiple repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’). They ensure a consistent and efficient experience for visitors, and perform essential functions such as allowing users to register and remain logged in. Cookies may be set by the site that you are visiting (known as ‘first party cookies’), or by other websites who serve up content on that site (‘third party cookies’).
What is Cookie Hub?
You may notice that our website uses a third party Cookie preference tool called ‘Cookie Hub’. We use Cookie Hub for controlling user consent and the use of cookies on this website application.
When you consent to one of the optional cookie categories, Cookie Hub will place a cookie to remember that decision. The name of the cookie will be the name of the category specified within the Cookie Control widget itself. That cookie will be removed when you revoke consent to that category.
What are ‘Strictly Necessary Cookies’?
These are the cookies that are essential for this website to perform its basic functions. These include those required to allow registered users to authenticate and perform account related functions. This category also includes the cookies required for Cookie Hub to function.
Strictly Necessary Cookies are highlighted with a double asterisk (**) in the tables below:
Cookies set by Google Analytics
| Cookie Name | Description | Duration |
| _ga* | Used to distinguish users. It assigns a randomly generated number as an identifier. It is used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the site’s analytics report. | 400 days |
| _gid | Used to distinguish users. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews. | 24 hours |
| _gat | This is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites. | 1 minute |
| AMP_TOKEN | Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. | 30 seconds to 1 year |
| _gac_<property-id> | Contains campaign related information for the user. If you have linked your Google Analytics and AdWords accounts, AdWords website conversion tags will read this cookie unless you opt-out. Learn more. | 90 days |
| _gaexp | Used to determine a user’s inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in | 90 days |
Cookes set by CloudFare
| Cookie Name | Description | Duration |
| __cfduid ** | The __cfduid cookie is used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. | 1 years |
Cookies set by Hotjar
| Cookie Name | Description | Duration |
| _hjSessionUser_ | Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set when a user first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. | 365 days |
| _hjSession_ | Hotjar cookie. A cookie that holds the current session data. This ensures that subsequent requests within the session window will be attributed to the same Hotjar session | 1 hour |
| _hjClosedSurveyInvites | Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor interacts with a Survey invitation modal popup. It is used to ensure that the same invite does not reappear if it has already been shown. | 365 days |
| _hjDonePolls | Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor completes a poll using the Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the same poll does not reappear if it has already been filled in. | 365 days |
| _hjMinimizedPolls | Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimizes when the visitor navigates through your site. | 365 days |
| _hjDoneTestersWidgets | Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor submits their information in the Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the same form does not re-appear if it has already been filled in. | 365 days |
| _hjMinimizedTestersWidgets | Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimizes when the visitor navigates through your site. | 365 days |
| _hjIncludedInSample | Hotjar cookie. This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels. | 365 days |
| _hjShownFeedbackMessage | This cookie is set when a visitor minimises or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if they navigate to another page where it is set to show. | 365 days |
| _hjid | Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. | 365 days |
Marketing Cookies
| Cookie Name | Description | Duration |
| _fbp | Meta Cookie. Used to store and track visits across websites in order to serve ads on Meta social media platforms. | 90 days |
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | A YouTube cookie. Used to provide delivery of ads or retargeting, store and track a visitor’s identity, Store and track interaction. | 180 days |
| VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA | A YouTube cookie. Stores the user’s cookie consent state for the current domain. | 180 days |
| YSC | A YouTube cookie. Registers a unique ID to keep statistics of what videos from YouTube the user has seen. | Duration of session |
Miscellaneous Cookies
| Cookie Name | Description | Duration |
| cookiehub** | This is the cookie our cookie consent platform uses to register your consent. | 365 days |
| site_banner_closed | This is used if you close the notification popup used by the Society. It prevents the notification from showing for another 30days. | 30 days |
How to change your Cookie preferences
The most popular web browsers typically provide additional tools to users for controlling or restricting cookies on their device. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, you can visit www.aboutcookies.org.
Find out how to manage cookies on popular browsers:
To find information relating to other browsers, visit the browser developer’s website.
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
11. How to contact us
Our Data Protection Officer, Nigel Nicholls can be contacted at any time including if you have queries about this Cookies Policy or wish to exercise any of the rights set out in our Privacy Policy. You can contact us in writing at Freehold House, 6-8 The Havens, Ransomes Europark, Ipswich, IP3 9SJ or via email at [email protected].
This Policy was last updated on 15 July 2024.