Cookies Policy

(Updated Sept 2021)

This Cookies Policy explains how Phone Debate use cookies and similar technologies. Whenever you use Phone Debate, information may be collected through the use of cookies and similar technologies. Phone Debate is committed to protecting the personal information collected when you use our Services.

This Cookies Policy provides the following information for users:
What are cookies and similar technologies?
What are the different types of cookies?
What are cookies used for?
How does Phone Debate use cookies?
How can users manage or opt out of cookies?
Contact details and where to find further information

What are cookies and similar technologies?

A cookie is a small data file, often including a unique identifier, which is sent to your computer, mobile phone or tablet device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so the website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the website. The cookie will collect information relating to your use of our Services, information about your device, e.g. the device’s IP address and browser type, broad location and, if you arrived at our site via a link from third party site, the URL of the linking page. If you have registered for any Services or you are a subscriber, it may also collect your name and email address, which may be transferred to data processors for registered user or subscriber verification purposes.

Similar technologies known as “local storage” may also be used in our Services as an alternative to cookies. This is technology which is similar to cookies and performs very similar functions, such as caching data to enable us to improve our Services, allowing you to register for our Services, tracking activity to enable us and our advertisers to advertise to you in accordance with this policy and counting the number of people who view adverts on our Services. Where we refer to “cookies” in this policy, we mean cookies or similar technologies.

Cookies record information about your online preferences and help us to tailor our Services to your interests. Information provided by cookies can help us to analyse your use of our Services and help us to provide you with a better user experience.

In addition to cookies, our Services may also use web beacons, clear GIFs, page tags and web bugs. These are all types of technology implemented by websites or third party ad servers to allow them to analyse your website use and help improve your experience of the Services.

What are the different types of cookies?

• Session cookies are only stored for the duration of your visit to a website and are deleted from your device when you close your browser;
• Persistent cookies are saved on your device for a set period of time after the browser has closed and are used where we (or a third party) need to identify you for a later browsing session.
• First party cookies are set by the website you are visiting; and
• Third party cookies are cookies used within our Services which are set by other organisations. These include cookies from external analytics services which help us to understand the use of our sites, or by advertisers so that they can track the effectiveness of their advertisements. Also from selected social media companies to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks, which may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit.

What are cookies used for?

1. Functional Cookies
Functional cookies are essential to the running of our Services. They are used to remember your preferences on our websites and to provide enhanced, more personal features. The information collected by these cookies is usually anonymised, so we cannot identify you personally. Functional cookies do not track your internet usage or gather information which could be used for selling advertising, but they do help with serving advertising. These cookies are usually session cookies which will expire when you close your browsing session.

2. Essential or ‘Strictly Necessary’ Cookies
These cookies are essential for the running of our Services. Without these cookies, parts of our websites would not function. These cookies do not track where you have been on the internet and do remember preferences beyond your current visit and do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing purposes. These cookies are usually session cookies which will expire when you close your browsing session.

3. Analytical Performance and Measurement Cookies
Analytical performance cookies are used to monitor the performance of our Services, for example, to determine the number of pageviews and the number of unique users a website has. Web analytics services may be designed and operated by third parties. The information provided by these cookies allows us to analyse patterns of user behaviour and we use that information to enhance user experience or identify areas of the website which may require maintenance. The information is anonymous (i.e. it cannot be used to identify you and does not contain personal information such as your name and email address) and it is only used for statistical purposes

4. Targeting or ‘Behavioural Advertising’ Cookies
These cookies, which may be placed on your device by us or our trusted third party service providers, remember that you have visited a website and use that information to provide you with content or advertising which is tailored to your interests. This is often called online behavioural advertising (OBA) and is done by grouping together shared interests based upon web browsing history. Your web browsing history can be used to infer things about you (e.g. your age, gender etc.), and this information may also be used to make advertising on websites more relevant to you. Without these cookies, content and advertisements you encounter may be less relevant to you and your interests. If you would like more information about OBA, including how to opt-out of these cookies, please visit: http://www.youronlinechoices.com/

How does Phone Debate use cookies?

Phone Debate, together with our trusted partners, uses cookies in combination with other information we maintain for a number of purposes, including the following:

1. Essential and Functional Cookies
We use these cookies to enable certain online functionality including:

• access your information so we can provide you with customised content and experiences, or remember the last page you visited on the Services;
• identify returning users, registrants and subscribers and allow them to be presented with a personalised version of the site;
• eliminating the need for returning users to re-enter their login details;
• commenting on our sites;
• maintain your settings and authenticate your identity while you are logged in to the Services;
• to support security measures and to assist in identifying possible fraudulent or abusive activities.

2. Analytical Performance and Measurement Cookies

We use these cookies to measure users’ behaviour to better develop our Services. By using analytics services provided by third parties such as Google Analytics, we can analyse and measure which pages are viewed and how long for and which links are followed, and we can use this information to provide more content which is of interest. We also use this analysis to report on our performance and to sell advertising.

If you object to the use of analytical performance and measurement cookies please see here: How can users manage or opt out of cookies?

3. Targeting and Behavioural Advertising Cookies

We use these cookies to:

• manage online advertising and revenue share arrangements. Our approved advertising partners, primarily Google (Doubleclick and AdSense) and Viads use cookies together with web beacons to provide advertising to you and to enable us to manage our relationship with those advertisers by, for example, tracking how many unique users have seen a particular advertisement or followed a link in an advertisement;
• manage eCommerce activities via affiliate links and associated revenue share arrangements;
• measure general user behaviour across our sites and third party sites to build a profile based on users browsing patterns so that we and third parties can target advertising to users that will be more relevant to users’ interests. This means that if, for example, users visit a page with a review about a particular game then the cookie will collect this information and we may target adverts for that camera to those users and, if users visit third party sites that are part of the same advertising network, those third parties may target adverts for that camera to those users;
• to create profiles that trusted third parties can buy to allow them to better target their advertising with more relevant content; and
• keep track of the number of users who saw a particular ad or visited a particular page of one of our websites, analyse the effectiveness of our ads, and provide auditing, research and reporting for advertisers.

The trusted partners we work with in relation to targeting and behavioural advertising include third-party ad servers, ad agencies, technology vendors, providers of advertisement content, research firms and other companies that help us provide more effective advertising and offer you a more personalised experience. As your browser, app or device communicates with the third party’s servers, these companies can collect information, including your IP address, page header information, browser or device information, just as if you had requested their web page or used their apps directly.
We cannot control nor do we have access to any cookies placed on your computer by third party advertisers and sponsors.

If you object to the use of targeting and behavioural advertising cookies please scroll down to: How can users manage or opt out of cookies?

4. Other Third Party Cookies

You may notice on some pages of our websites that cookies have been set that are not related to Phone Debate. When you visit a page with content embedded from, for example, YouTube or Facebook, these third party service providers may set their own cookies on your device. Phone Debate does not control the use of these third party 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. Please check the third party websites for more information about these cookies.

How can users manage or opt out of cookies?

Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their device a little intrusive, in particular when the information is stored and used by a third party. For example, you may object to being served advertising which is targeted to your interests based on your browsing history. If you would prefer to opt out of cookies, it is possible to control cookies by following the steps below, however you should be aware that you might lose some features and functionality of the website if you do so.

Cookies, including those which have already been set, can be deleted from your hard drive. You can also change the preferences/settings in your web browser to control cookies. Some internet browsers have a ‘Do Not Track or ‘DNT’ setting; this sends a signal to websites asking them not to track your browsing. The following links may be helpful:

Cookie setting in Firefox

Cookie setting in Safari

Cookie setting in Internet Explorer

Cookie setting in Chrome

In some cases, you can choose to accept cookies from the primary site, but block them from third parties. In others, you can block cookies from specific advertisers, or clear out all cookies. Deleting or blocking cookies may reduce functionality of the site. To learn more about how to reject cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ or go to the help menu within your internet browser. If you experience any problems having deleted cookies, you should contact the supplier of your web browser.

For more information about third party cookies generated by advertisers please visit www.youronlinechoices.com.

Please be aware that these are third party websites and Phone Debate does not accept any liability for the instructions given on these sites.

You can find out how to decline targeting and behavioural advertising cookies by visiting:
http://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1#!/
http://www.aboutads.info
http://www.youronlinechoices.eu

Further information and contact details:

Please contact Phone Debate’s Data Protection Officer if you would like more information on the cookies that we use and their purposes:

By email: [email protected]

By post: Phone-Debate, Attn: Data Protection Officer, 14 King Square, Bristol, BS2 8JH

For more information about cookies please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

General information about data protection may be found at:

Information Commissioner’s website: https://ico.org.uk/

Direct Marketing Association: https://dma.org.uk/