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Why Experian uses cookies

At Experian (“we”, “us”, “our”), we use "cookies" and other automated technologies to collect certain information about visitors, such as how many users visit our site and the most viewed webpages.

This technology does not track or store any information which could be used to identify you as an individual, rather it records your Web site visit anonymously. By collecting this information, we can better understand what areas of our website interest our visitors, and learn how to best tailor our site and our advertising to them.

Other ways we make our online service easier to use, include using cookies that:

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a text file, that's stored on your computer, tablet or phone when you visit a website. Cookies are very useful and do lots of different jobs which help to make your experience on websites as smooth as possible. When you visit our website, your web browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, etc ) sends these cookies back to the website or application so that on each subsequent visit they can recognise you and remember things like personalised details or user preferences.

Cookies also let you move between web pages efficiently, remembering your preferences and generally improving your experience (see below for more examples). They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

What information is kept by the cookie?
A cookie will typically hold the following information:

How long do cookies stay on my computer?
They are referred to as session or persistent cookies, depending on how long they are used:

Session cookies only last for your online session and disappear from your computer or device when you close your browser. They are usually used to track the pages that you visit so that information can be customised for you for that visit.

Persistent cookies stay on your computer or device after the browser has been closed and last for the period of time specified in the cookie. These persistent cookies are activated each time you visit the site where the cookie was generated. These may, for example, be used to remember your preferences when you use the site.

How do cookies affect my privacy?
You can visit our website without revealing any personal information. The security and safety of your personal information is very important to us. Where personal information is supplied, we will take appropriate actions to protect your personal information. We may ask you for personal information so we can contact you about the Experian solutions and services that you might be interested in, for security reasons or so you can use our services.

Get full details of how we collect, use, store and remove information in our Privacy Policy

Which cookies does Experian use?

When you use the digital products and services within https://manage.alchemysocial.com (Alchemy), https://www.segmentationportal.com (Segmentation Portal), https://www.segmentationportal.com/DASAudience/ (DAS Audience), https://www.locationanalyst.com/Home/cookiepolicy (Location Analyst)

The following 6 types of cookies may be set on your device:

Analytics

These cookies help us to improve this website over time, by giving us insights into how the various sections of the website are used and how users interact with the website. The information collected is anonymous and used for statistical reasons, these cookies will never contain any personal information such as your name or email address.

These cookies enable Experian to track information and metric measurements to allow for products and platforms to be optimised and made to stay relevant, easy to use and up-to-date. Using web analytics services help Experian to understand user activity and how to develop a better user experience. For example, we can see which parts of the digital products and services are most popular, identify which blogs have been read, identify when errors occur, and test different versions of a page or features to see which one works best.

When you are viewing a website, a cookie is transferred to your browser by the web server and is stored on your computer. It can only be read by the server that gave it to you. Cookies allow web analytics services to recognise your browser or device and identify whether you have visited the website before, what you have previously viewed or clicked on, and how you found us.

You can view a list of the Analytics cookies used by Experian below.

Session

These are cookies that are designed to ensure that your visit to the website is as smooth as possible. Their main uses are:

You can view a list of the Session cookies used by Experian below.

Affiliate Lead Tracking

We use a range of third parties to promote this website. We use these cookies so that, when you reach this website because of one of those third parties, we can identify the third party and therefore meet our contractual commitments to that third party.

You can view a list of the Affiliate Lead Tracking cookies used by Experian below.

Optimisation

Some of our cookies are used for the purpose of optimisation on AB testing. This is otherwise known as bucket testing or split testing and is used as a method of comparing two versions of a webpage or app against each other to determine which one performs better. AB Testing is used where two or more variants of a page are shown to users at random and statistical analysis is used to determine which variation performs better for a given conversion goal.

These optimisation tests allow for more focused questions about changes to sites/applications. These allow Experian to monitor the impact of changes therefore better understanding if they are positively impacting the user (optimising the user experience).

You can view a list of the Optimization cookies used by Experian below.

Marketing

Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers.

You can view a list of the Marketing cookies used by Experian below.

Persistent cookies

Persistent cookies stay on your computer or device after the browser has been closed and last for the time period specified in the cookie. These persistent cookies are activated each time you visit the site where the cookie was generated. These may, for example, be used to remember your preferences when you use the site

You can view a list of the persistent cookies used by Experian below.

Third-party cookies

Why does Experian allow cookies from other companies on its website? We work with several companies and websites that help make sure our adverts, promotions and marketing messages are displayed to people who might be interested. These companies and partners may use cookies to collect anonymous data such as how many people have viewed a particular page each day. Some third-party cookies help us to:

We use some cookies to track where you have come from, for example if you were referred to us by another website a cookie, containing anonymous data, would be passed through to us. This lets us reward some external websites for referring customers to us.

Other third-party cookies

Please note that on some pages of our websites you may notice that cookies have been set that are not related to Experian or our authorised service providers. When you visit a page with content embedded from, for example, YouTube or Facebook, these service providers may set their own cookies on your web browser. These anonymous cookies may be set by that third party to track the success of their application or to customise their application to you. Experian does not control the use of these cookies and cannot access them due to the way that cookies work, as cookies can only be accessed by the party who originally set them. You should check the third party websites for more information about these cookies.

You'll sometimes see our advertising or special offers on other websites. Cookies provided by the other website or advertising network can tell us how effective this is. For example, if you click on one of our advertisements, the website owner might use a cookie to tell us that you came from their site.

Cookies by themselves can't be used to find out the identity of any user. The information is completely anonymous and doesn't contain any of your personal data. Unless you choose to tell them, the third-party sites will never know who you are even if they assign your browser a cookie.

Finally, please be aware that advertisers and other third parties may use their own cookies tags when you click on an advertisement or link on our website. These third parties are responsible for setting out their own cookie and privacy policies.

If you'd like to learn more about cookies in general and how to manage them, visit aboutcookies.org

You can find out more about cookies from advertisers in this advice from the Internet Advertising Bureau. We are not responsible for the content of external websites.

Cookies on Experian websites

We use cookies on our main websites at https://manage.alchemysocial.com(Alchemy), https://www.segmentationportal.com (Segmentation Portal), https://www.segmentationportal.com/DASAudience/ (DAS Audience), https://www.locationanalyst.com/Home/cookiepolicy (Location Analyst) & https://www.experian.co.uk/marketing-services/products/audience-insights.html (Audience Insight), this page explains what each cookie does and why we use it.

These cookies are essential to making our online services work properly. If you do want to disable these cookies, you can do this in your browser settings but you might not be able to use some of our online services.

Cookie Type Cookie Name What do we use it for?
Analytics Cookies
Analytics Cookies

Adobe SiteCatalyst

s_cc, s_sq and s_vi

We use Adobe (formerly Omniture) SiteCatalyst to give us insights into how many people visit our website, and how you interact with it.

Cookies are used to help us to better estimate the number of individual anonymous visitors to our website. There are two types of cookies that may be used: session and persistent. Session cookies exist only during your online session. They disappear from your computer when you close the browser software. Persistent cookies remain on your computer after the browser has been closed. When examining your cookies you may notice a cookie that is set by one of the following domains - 2o7.net or omtrdc.net. The 2o7.net and omtrdc.net domains are the primary domains used by the tool to measure visitor behaviour on our website.

The SiteCatalyst cookies are s_cc (session), s_sq (session) and s_vi (persistent). More information can be found at http://www.omniture.com/en/privacy.

Opt out of Adobe SiteCatalyst cookie tracking.

Analytics Cookies Forisimo

Formisimo is a web analytics tool that helps us understand how our visitors interact with our website forms.

Analytics Cookies

Google Analytics with Display Advertising and Remarketing and Google DoubleClick

Cookies with names beginning _ut

We and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the Google DoubleClick cookie) together to inform, optimise and displays ads based on your past visits to our website; report how many people have seen adverts (impressions), other uses of ad services and interactions with these ad impressions and ad services are related to visits to our site. If you do not wish to allow the use of Google Analytics for advertising, you can opt out using the Google Ad Settings. If you do not wish to allow the use of Google Analytics cookies at all. Google provides an opt-out plug-in for most common website browsers. To find out about DoubleClick cookies and how to control those cookies visit http://www.google.co.uk/policies/privacy/ads.

Analytics Cookies Hotjar

On our website, we use Hotjar to view how you are interacting with our web pages. Hotjar uses cookies to collect non-personal information including standard, internet log information and details of visitor behavioural patterns upon, visiting the site. This is done to enable us to provide our web visitors with a better experience, identify preferences, diagnose technical problems, analyse trends and generally to help improve our website. Hotjar may also use cookies to record login details on your device or computer. This helps to determine whether a particular device previously visited the website so that the login details would not have to be re-entered each time you visit the website.

See Hotjar’s cookie policy

See Hotjar’s privacy policy

Analytics Cookies RTD – Real-time Decisioning

The RTD cookie is used to inform content decisions based on how you interact with the Experian site and what we know about you as a user, without collecting any personally identifiable information. Enabling Experian to show you the most relevant information.

Session
Session Smarter Click

When purchasing through our website we like to ensure you're kept up to date with offers and your progress by using a third party to track.

To find out more, go to https://www.smarterclick.com/about/

Session AppNexus

We may conduct targeted advertising campaigns using AppNexus. Cookies are used to exclude you from receiving adverts for our service if you are already a member of that service.

To find out more about cookies and their use, go to AppNexus's privacy policy.

Session BoldChat

In some areas of our site we offer a live chat function BoldChat. It allows you to get in touch with our experts to help solve any queries you may have, be that further information on our products and services or advice on your current situation and how we can help.

We use a mixture of temporary and persistent cookies to make sure live chat will work on your computer and to recognise any returning visitors so we can have a clear understanding of previous conversations and help with enquiries that much quicker.

For further details on Bold Chat cookies please see their information page here.

Session SessionCam

We use SessionCam to watch recordings of visitors to identify usability issues for our users. As part of this we record mouse movements, clicks, mobile gestures, form input, scrolling.

To find out more about how they uses cookies, view SessionCam's privacy policy.

Session AlchemySid

This cookie is used to store the Session Id.

Affiliate Lead Tracking
Affiliate Lead Tracking Unbounce

We like to test different webpages to see which one has the best customer experience, Unbounce is used to track which webpage variant you have seen. This Cookie also allows us to ensure that you see the same webpage variant if you return to the same website URL.

Affiliate Lead Tracking AWIN

We use a range of third parties to promote this website. We use AWIN analytics so that, when you reach this website because of one of those third parties, we can identify the third party and therefore meet our contractual commitments to that third party.

To find out more, go to https://www.awin.com/gb/about-us

Affiliate Lead Tracking

Dotmailer

AWSELB

XSRF-TOKEN

record_id

trackedweb_session

We use Dotmailer to help us understand how many people visit our website and how you interact with it.

This is done using Javascript code to help us see things like how popular certain pages are, the journeys that users take through our content and it allows us to send you communications that are relevant to the things you have looked at.

More information can be found at http://www.dotmailer.com/terms/privacy-policy/.

Affiliate Lead Tracking

Eloqua

ELQSTATUS – This cookie gets dropped automatically

The purpose of the collected data : Your information may be used to improve the site, service, product, or market. Your information may be used to personalize the content or design of the site.

Data Recipients: Your information may be used internally or by third parties acting on our behalf.

Type of Data Collected:

'Real world' contact information such as your telephone number or address.

Internet contact information such as your email.

A unique ID issued for purposes of identifying or recognizing you as an individual Information about your computer such as the IP address, domain name, browser type or operating system.

Browsing data such as visited webpages, and how long you stayed on each page.

The text contained in the body of a communication -- such as the text of email, bulletin board postings, or chat room communications.

Session and user data may be stored to remember stateful information (e.g. http cookies).

Affiliate Lead Tracking Linkedin

Remarketing tags. Get details about LinkedIn terms and cookie policy.

Affiliate Lead Tracking Lotame

We sometimes conduct advertising campaigns using Lotame.

To find out more about how they use cookies, go to Lotame's privacy policy.

Optimisation
Optimisation

AddThis

uid / uit, uvc, & psc

Some parts of our site use AddThis to provide sharing features. For example, AddThis allows you to tweet links to some pages of our site.

For information about AddThis cookies and how to reject or delete them go to http://www.addthis.com/privacy.

Optimisation

Adobe Test&Target

Cookies beginning with mbox_

We use Adobe (formerly Omniture) Test&Target to optimise and personalise certain pages on the website.

Test&Target does not collect personally identifiable information. Test&Target collects at a minimum, visitors, clicks and conversions for all tests. All data captured by Test&Target is linked to a visitor ID, but there is no personal data related to that visitor ID. At an aggregate level, Test&Target tracks the success metrics defined in a campaign. This data is not available at an individual visitor level.

Experian’s implementation of Test&Target does not allow any user’s activity to be tracked beyond Experian’s own websites.

Test&Target cookies are identified by their “mbox_” prefix.

Opt out of the Adobe Test&Target cookie for Experian (UK)

Optimisation Bidswitch

Programmatic advertising

In order to work across multiple adexchanges, it is necessary to be able to find and/or exclude users based on the data we collect. e.g. if we are excluding users who have visited the Experian site, we need to ensure we can identify and exclude those users across the different exchanges. However each exchange uses it’s own unique cookie with its own unique cookie ID per user so a way of mapping the cookie IDs we collect via our pixels and the cookie IDs they collect via their pixels is required to achieve this. This is what cookie/pixel syncing is and it is actioned by calling each adexchange pixel and passing it our cookie ID or vice versa.

Note that only the cookie ID is passed. Cookie sync pixels are different to standard pixels in that they have no unique identifier that allows them to gain any more information about where they are called and as they are called from our pixels, they cannot use any other processes to work out which page they are on or what advertiser may be calling them. They cannot even tell if they are being called on an advertiser site at all (many are called on publisher sites and when adverts are served). Hence there is no opportunity for data leakage to occur.

Optimisation Rubicon

Ad exchange

In order to work across multiple adexchanges, it is necessary to be able to find and/or exclude users based on the data we collect. e.g. if we are excluding users who have visited the Experian site, we need to ensure we can identify and exclude those users across the different exchanges. However each exchange uses it’s own unique cookie with its own unique cookie ID per user so a way of mapping the cookie IDs we collect via our pixels and the cookie IDs they collect via their pixels is required to achieve this. This is what cookie/pixel syncing is and it is actioned by calling each adexchange pixel and passing it our cookie ID or vice versa.

Note that only the cookie ID is passed. Cookie sync pixels are different to standard pixels in that they have no unique identifier that allows them to gain any more information about where they are called and as they are called from our pixels, they cannot use any other processes to work out which page they are on or what advertiser may be calling them. They cannot even tell if they are being called on an advertiser site at all (many are called on publisher sites and when adverts are served). Hence there is no opportunity for data leakage to occur.

Marketing
Marketing Twitter

Remarketing tags. You can review Twitter's cookie policy here

Marketing DoubleClick

DoubleClick uses cookies to improve advertising. Some common applications are to target advertising based on what's relevant to a user, to improve reporting on campaign performance, and to avoid showing ads the user has already seen. Cookies themselves contain no personally identifiable information.

https://support.google.com/dfp_premium/answer/2839090?hl=en

Marketing Impression Desk Technologies

Demand side buying platform that enable Experian to buy advertising space programmatically across the digital ecosystem.

To find out more about cookies and their use, go to Infectious Media's privacy policy.

Marketing Yahoo Ad Exchange

We advertise on the Yahoo! network. Cookies are used so that you do not receive adverts for our service if you are already a member of that service.

To find out more about how they uses cookies, view Yahoo's privacy policy. See Yahoo’s privacy policy

Marketing Amazon Advertising>

Amazon Advertising is used to run programmatic marketing activity. We use Amazon Advertising cookies for our activity through Amazon Advertising Platform. This tool enables us to remarket and exclude users that we serve ads to on this platform.

Marketing Twitter

Remarketing tags. You can review Twitter's cookie policy here.

Marketing Bing Ads

We may advertise on Bings network, we'll use Cookies to help us identify which advertising channel you came from to make sure our advertising is targeting the right customers.

To find out more about cookies and their use, go to Bings privacy policy.

Marketing Facebook

Remarketing tags Facebook's cookie policy here.

Marketing> Jellyfish

We use a range of third parties to promote this website. We use Jellyfish analytics so that, when you reach this website because of one of those third parties, we can identify the third party and therefore meet our contractual commitments to that third party.

To find out more, go to Jellyfish's privacy policy.

Persistent
Persistent metric

This cookie is used to remember the metrics to be displayed in the table in the campaigns page of the Alchemy Social Ads Manager products.

Session AlchemySid

This cookie is used to store the Session Id.

How to control your cookie settings

Please remember that Experian does not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you, as explained above, we may combine the information you provide from filling in forms, with the data we get from the web analytics services we use and their cookies (or similar technologies) to analyse how you and other people use the digital products and services on our products sites in detail. These cookies are set to improve your experience on our websites and to enable you to benefit from specific features and to set preferences.

However, there are various ways that you can control and manage your cookies which are discussed in a bit more detail below. Please remember that any settings you change will not just affect Experian cookies. These changes will apply to all websites that you visit (unless you choose to block cookies from particular sites).

Managing cookies in your browser

How to manage cookies in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in most versions of Internet Explorer can be found by clicking the tools option and then the privacy tab.

How to manage cookies in Chrome
Click on the spanner icon on the toolbar, select settings, click the under the bonnet tab, click on content settings in the privacy section.

How to manage cookies in Firefox
Cookie settings in Firefox are managed in the Options window's Privacy panel. See Options window - Privacy Panel for information on these settings.

How to manage cookies in Opera
You can manage cookies in Opera if you Click on settings, then Preferences, then Advanced and finally Cookies

How to manage cookies in Safari
Choose Safari, then preferences and then click security. You should then be able to specify if and when Safari should accept cookies.

To manage cookies on your mobile phone please consult your manual or handbook. Get more help about how cookies work with specific browsers: http://www.aboutcookies.org

Managing analytics cookies

It is possible to opt out of having your anonymised browsing activity within websites recorded by analytics cookies. Experian uses Google Analytics, and you can opt out of their cookies by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Please note that this will take you to the relevant third party's website and generate a ‘no thanks' cookie, which will stop any further cookies being set by those third parties.

Don't forget that by not allowing analytics cookies, this stops us from being able to learn what people like or don't like about Experian Products so that we can make them better.

Managing advertising cookies

Please note that if you want to opt out from receiving targeted advertising, this does not mean that you will receive less advertising when you use the digital products and services on Edq.com/uk. This just means that the advertising you see will not be as relevant or customised to you.

However, if you still want to opt out of these third-party advertising cookies, you can do this by visiting the Interactive Advertising Bureau's website www.youronlinechoices.com/uk which lists all ad serving cookies that are currently set on your device and tells you how to opt-out from each of them. Please note that this website lists many more networks than those used at Experian. Please remember that if you choose to opt out of targeted advertising from a specific company or via www.youronlinechoices.com, it only applies to the web browser on the device you are using. You will therefore need to follow the same process on every device you use or different web browser that you use to exercise the same choice.

How to Contact Us

To learn more about Experian Data Quality’s privacy practices, please view our Privacy Policy. In case you have any further questions regarding our use of cookies, please Contact Us.

Policy Changes

Experian reserves the right to change this privacy policy at any time. Therefore, we encourage you to review this privacy policy from time to time to review any changes.