What are cookies?
Most websites you visit will use cookies to improve your user experience by enabling the website to ‘remember’ your preferences and actions, either for the duration of your visit (session cookie) or for repeat visits (persistent cookie).
Cookies do a number of jobs, such as letting you navigate between pages efficiently, storing your preferences and generally improving your experience of a website. Cookies make the interaction between you and the website faster, easier and sometimes possible. If a website doesn’t use cookies, it will think you are a new visitor every time you move to a new page on the site.
Many websites will also use cookies to enable them to analyse traffic (tracking cookie) through the website, by looking at visitor actions and location, in order to improve the user experience in the long term.
What exactly are cookies?
A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie or browser cookie, is a simple text file that is sent from a website’s server to a user’s device while a user is browsing a website. It is stored on a user’s device for a specific period, which is dependent on the type of cookie. Only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie and each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers. The website can then read the information on that cookie, allowing it to remember things like your preferences or what’s in your shopping basket.
For more information on cookies and cookie legislation, please visit the following sites:
- www.allaboutcookies.org
- www.youronlinechoices.eu
- www.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie
- www.aboutcookies.org
- www.ico.gov.uk
What does PhonesOnline use cookies for?
PhonesOnline uses cookies to improve functionality, performance and facilitate social media interaction for users, while on the PhonesOnline website. Below is more information on the types of cookies PhonesOnline uses and why we use them.
Functionality cookies
These cookies allow users to customise how a website looks for them: they can remember usernames, language preferences and regions and can be used to provide more personal services like local language.
Performance cookies
This type of cookie collects information in aggregate about how visitors use our site, which allows us to improve its performance over time. Performance cookies only collect anonymous information, and allow us to:
- Monitor the performance of our site
- Collect information about how people use the site so we can improve it
- Trial new features on a small sample of users
Social media cookies
These cookies allow you to connect with social media, so you can share and promote your PhonesOnline activity within LinkedIn.
What cookies does PhonesOnline use?
Below is a list of the cookies that PhonesOnline uses, the information they hold, and their purpose.
| Cookie name | Expiry | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Google Analytics: |
|
We use Google Analytics to monitor traffic levels, search queries and visits to this website. Google Analytics stores IP address anonymously on its servers in the US, and neither PhonesOnline nor Google associate your IP address with any personally identifiable information. These cookies enable Google to determine whether you are a return visitor to the site, and to track the pages that you visit during your session. |
exp_last_activity |
One year |
These cookies are used to track a user’s session, when they last visited or did something on the site. No personal information is stored in these cookies, only timestamps related to that browser session. |
NID |
6 months |
A unique identifier used by Google applications to store user preference information on PhonesOnline.ie |
PREF |
2 years |
Google cookie to remember our users’ basic preferences, such as the fact that a user wants search results in English. |
| COOKIE name | COOKIE Description |
|---|---|
| CART | The association with your shopping cart. |
| CATEGORY_INFO | Stores the category info on the page, that allows to display pages more quickly. |
| COMPARE | The items that you have in the Compare Products list. |
| CURRENCY | Your preferred currency |
| CUSTOMER | An encrypted version of your customer id with the store. |
| CUSTOMER_AUTH | An indicator if you are currently logged into the store. |
| CUSTOMER_INFO | An encrypted version of the customer group you belong to. |
| CUSTOMER_SEGMENT_IDS | Stores the Customer Segment ID |
| EXTERNAL_NO_CACHE | A flag, which indicates whether caching is disabled or not. |
| FRONTEND | You sesssion ID on the server. |
| GUEST-VIEW | Allows guests to edit their orders. |
| LAST_CATEGORY | The last category you visited. |
| LAST_PRODUCT | The most recent product you have viewed. |
| NEWMESSAGE | Indicates whether a new message has been received. |
| NO_CACHE | Indicates whether it is allowed to use cache. |
| PERSISTENT_SHOPPING_CART | A link to information about your cart and viewing history if you have asked the site. |
| POLL | The ID of any polls you have recently voted in. |
| POLLN | Information on what polls you have voted on. |
| RECENTLYCOMPARED | The items that you have recently compared. |
| STF | Information on products you have emailed to friends. |
| STORE | The store view or language you have selected. |
| USER_ALLOWED_SAVE_COOKIE | Indicates whether a customer allowed to use cookies. |
| VIEWED_PRODUCT_IDS | The products that you have recently viewed. |
| WISHLIST | An encrypted list of products added to your Wishlist. |
| WISHLIST_CNT | The number of items in your Wishlist. |
How to manage your cookies
If you don't want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set. If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.