Cookie Policy

Use of our Cookies

We use cookies and other similar tracking technologies such as web beacons, action tags, single-pixel gifs on this website to:

      1. Recognise you whenever you visit this website (this speeds up your access to the website as you do not have to log in each time);
      2. Obtain information about your preferences and use of our website;
      3. Keep track of the items stored in your shopping basket and take you through the checkout process;
      4. Carry out research and statistical analysis to help improve our content, products and services and to help us better understand our users’ requirements
      5. Target our marketing and advertising campaigns and those of our partners more effectively by providing interest-based advertisements that are personalised to your interests
      6. Make your online experience more efficient and enjoyable

For further information on cookies generally visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Types of Cookies

The Cookies we place on your device fall into the following categories:

    1. Session cookies—these allow our website to link your actions during a particular browser session. These expire each time you close your browser and do not remain on your device afterwards
    2. Persistent cookies—these are stored on your device in between browser sessions. These allow your preferences or actions across our website to be remembered. These will remain on your device until they expire, or you delete them from your cache
    3. Strictly necessary cookies—these cookies are essential for you to be able to navigate our website and use its features. Without these cookies, the services you have asked for could not be provided
    4. Performance cookies—these cookies collect information about how you use our website, eg which pages you go to most often. These cookies do not collect personally identifiable information about you. All information collected by these cookies is aggregated and anonymous, and is only used to improve how our website works
    5. Functionality cookies—these cookies allow our website to remember the choices you make (such as your user name, language, last action and search preferences) and provide enhanced, more personal features. The information collected by these cookies is anonymous and cannot track your browsing activity on other websites
    6. Targeting cookies—also known as advertising cookies, these cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement on our website and help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers

The Cookies we use

The following provides more information about the cookies we use and why:

    1. Google Analytics - This is a web analytics service provided by Google Inc which uses cookies to show us how visitors found and explored our site, and how we can enhance their experience. It provides us with information about the behaviour of our visitors (eg how long they stayed on the site, the average number of pages viewed) and also tells us how many visitors we have had.
    2. PHPSESSID - The PHPSESSID cookie stores serialised data and allows our website to keep track of data in relation to our basket, checkout and secure login areas. The PHPSESSID cookie disappears once the website and session is closed. Expiry – When the user's browser is closed.
    3. authchallenge - To store the logged in user's username and a 128bit encrypted key. This information is required to allow a user to stay logged in to a web site without needing to submit their username and password for each page visited. Without this cookie, a user is unable to proceed to areas of the web site that require authenticated access. Expiry – When the user's browser is closed.
    4. acceptcookies - This cookie is simply used to allow a user to suppress the displaying of the cookie information notice on each page of the web site. Expiry – 30 days from set/update.
    5. __cfduid - Cloudflare. The __cfduid cookie is used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. Expiry – When the user's browser is closed.
    6. _gat - Google analytics. Used to throttle request rate. Expiry - 1 minute https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage
    7. _ga - Google analytics. Used to distinguish users. Expiry - 2 years https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage
    8. _gid - Google analytics. Used to distinguish users. Expiry - 24 hours. https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage

Consent to Cookies

We will ask for your permission (consent) to place cookies or other similar technologies on your device, except where these are essential for us to provide you with a service that you have requested (eg to enable you to put items in your shopping basket and use our check-out process). There is a notice on our home page which describes how we use cookies and requests your consent to place cookies on your device.

How to turn off Cookies

If you do not want to accept cookies, you can change your browser settings so that cookies are not accepted. If you do this, please be aware that you may lose some of the functionality of this website. For further information about cookies and how to disable them please go to the Information Commissioner’s webpage on cookies: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/.

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions about this cookie policy or the information we hold about you. If you wish to contact us please send an email to info@bowak.co.uk or call us on 0118 941 5511.

Changes to this Policy

This policy was published on 02/07/2020 and last updated on 26/10/2021.