The Equinox Underwriting (Equinox) website uses cookies. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on a device by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. For example, cookies are used to remember users’ preferences; to help navigate between pages efficiently and can help determine if a user is a returning visitor, or whether the current user is logged in to the website that they are visiting.
In general there are two types of cookies; persistent cookies and session cookies.
A persistent cookie consists of a text file sent by a web server to a web browser, which will be stored by the browser and will remain valid until its expiry date (unless deleted by the user before the expiry date). A session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
The list below explains the cookies we use and why:
SESSION
‘PHPSESSID’: This is a session cookie stored in the computer’s memory only during a user’s browsing session and is automatically deleted from the user’s computer when the browser is closed.
This cookie stores a session ID that is not personally identifiable to users, allowing the user to move from page to page without having to log-in repeatedly.
Session cookies are never written on the hard drive and they do not collect any information from the user’s computer. Session cookies expire at the end of the user’s browser session and can also become no longer accessible after the session has been inactive for a specified length of time, usually 20 minutes.
PERSISTENT
‘_utma; _utmb; _utmc; _utmz’: These four cookies are used by Google Analytics to collect anonymous traffic data about your use of this website.
This information is stored by Google and subject to its privacy policy. Google Analytics collects information such as pages you visit on this site, the browser and operating system you use and time spent viewing pages. The purpose of this information is to help us measure a users’ level of engagement and to also help improve the site for future visitors.
Many websites use Google Analytics to collect traffic data and Google itself has produced a browser plug-in, which allows you to disable the collecting of information for all the websites you visit.
How to control and delete cookies
If you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by Equinox, or indeed any other website, 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.allaboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your computer as well as more general information about cookies. For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile device you will need to refer to your device manual.
Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of websites.
