8.1 Monitoring our advertising effectiveness
We use several advertising companies for our online advertising. This often involves displaying a banner advertisement on a third party website.
When you visit a third party website which displays one of our banner advertisements or use a link on our website to visit a website operated by a third party, the third party website may use cookies or spotlight tags (or both) to collect information such as:
- The server your computer is logged onto
- Your browser type
- The date and time of your visit.
And we may receive a copy of that information or access to it as part of our arrangements with the third party. (Third party websites are not subject to our privacy standards so you should review the privacy policy and any other relevant notice that appears on a third party website.)
Also, when you visit our website after following a link from one of our advertisements on a third party website, information is collected on how you use our website. This might include which pages you view, and whether you start and complete an online application.
In each case, the information is collected principally so that the effectiveness of the advertising can be measured.
We may also share with other third parties cookie information, information about your preferences or other information you have given the third party. We do not ordinarily share any personal information which could identify you, without your consent.
8.2 Tracking
We also use tracking companies – such as Google Analytics – to collect information about how you use our websites. These companies also use cookies to collect information similar to that which is collected by advertising companies.
The tracking companies aggregate all the information and use it to study internet user behaviour patterns. They do not include personal information in their studies and use the information mainly to measure advertising effectiveness and relative consumer interest in the various areas of our websites. As a general rule, no personal information is collected during the tracking process. However, if any personal information is collected by these automated processes, our arrangements with the tracking companies require them to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of that information.