We use cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it. Cookies used for the essential operation of the site have already been set.
When you visit one of our websites, we may send you a cookie. A cookie is a small file which is placed on your computer or device.
1. Essential Cookies: These cookies are essential for the running of our websites. Without the use of these cookies parts of our websites would not function. For example, The Times paywall uses cookies to help us identify which of our readers have a subscription in order to access paid for content held on the website.
2. Analytical Performance Cookies: We use these types of cookies to monitor our websites performance and how their users may use it. These cookies provide us with information that helps us provide better products to their users and also to identify any areas that may need maintenance. For example, we use performance cookies on The Sun's website to provide the most popular news articles further up the page of the website.
3. Functional Cookies: Functional cookies are used to remember your preferences on our websites. This can be anything from remembering your city in a weather forecast or saving your username.
4. Behavioural Advertising Cookies/Third Party Cookies: We, and our advertisers/sponsors, may use cookies to provide tailored advertising to you which we believe are relevant to you. Online behavioural advertising is a way of providing advertisements on the websites you visit and making them more relevant to your interests. This is done by grouping together shared interests based upon previous web browsing activity. Advertising is then displayed to you when you visit a website which matches these interests.
Behavioural advertising is based upon your web browsing activity over a period of time - so it's different to advertising you may see when you're looking for something online using a search engine (e.g. Google) or on the website you may be visiting at a particular time. As an example, you may be doing research in order to buy a bicycle and read a number of different articles on a number of different websites. If a bicycle manufacturer was part of an advertising network, they may think that you are interested in buying a bicycle and serve you with one of their adverts for one of their bicycles. It is possible that from reading these articles elsewhere, you would see this advert on one of our or someone else's websites. We cannot control nor do we have access to any cookies placed on your computer by third party advertisers and sponsors. We may also track IP addresses.
How to control the use of cookies
You are not obliged to accept cookies and may modify your browser so that it will not accept cookies. The browser you use to surf the web not only allows you to see the cookies that you have got but also allows you to control their use. You can control them by allowing them, deleting them individually or deleting all of them. You can also set your browser to not accept cookies altogether. If this option is selected, you should be aware that many websites will not function properly or at all. It may be possible to set your browser to not accept cookies and ask for your consent before each cookie is set on your device. This gives you control over what is set on your device, however has the drawback of slowing down your browsing experience.
There are different levels of control too. You are able to prevent just third party cookies being deployed, effectively opting out of behavioural advertising, and some even allow you to block specific companies you do not wish to deploy a cookie, instead of selecting all companies.
In order to manage your cookies, please follow the instructions provided by your browser supplier for your PC or device.
How can I prevent Online Behavioural Advertising?
Further to using your browser to controlling the use of cookies, there are also other ways that you can opt out of Online Behavioural Advertising.
The "Your Online Choices" page provided by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), provides an easy way to opt out of behavioural advertising from each (or all) of the networks represented by the IAB.
Useful information about Cookies
Further information about cookies can be found on the following websites:
All About Cookies
Your Online Choices