Cookie Policy
What is a cookie?
Cookies are small blocks of data created by our web servers when you browse a website and placed on your computer or device by your web browser, they can help us remember and and build a view of your interaction during your initial and subsequent visits to our websites. Cookies are placed on your device used to access a website, and more than one cookie may be placed on your device during a session.
How do we use cookies?
We use cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience on our site, including:
- Understanding how you use our site
- Showing you content that is relevant to you
- Showing you products and services that are relevant to you
- Working with partners to deliver to you relevant advertising
In the next section, we explain in more detail how we use cookies and similar technology on our sites for a number of purposes.
Other organisations also collect user information on our sites through cookies, tags and pixels. Tags and pixels, also known as web beacons, are similar to cookies but are collected through embedded images.
Using cookies and other technology allows other organisations to help us to analyse how our site is being used, measure the number of visitors to the site, and display advertising. To accomplish these goals, The Big Issue utilises cookies, tags, pixels, and other web beacons to communicate information about you to others.
Cookies that are used by The Big Issue are referred to as “first-party cookies” and those that are used by our partners are “third-party cookies”. Because of how cookies work, our website cannot access third-party cookies; nor can other organisations access the data in the cookies we use on our website. Third party websites have their own privacy and cookie policies which The Big Issue cannot control. Please check the third-party websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them
There are more details about both types of cookies in the following sections.
What types of cookies do we use?
We use four types of cookies:
- Necessary – cookies that are essential to provide you with services you have requested. They help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
- Performance and Statistics– cookies which measure how often you visit our sites and how you use them. We use this information to get a better sense of how our users engage with our content and to improve our sites, so that users have a better experience. For example, we collect information about which of our pages are most frequently visited, and by which types of users. We also use third-party cookies to help with performance. For example, the Google Analytics cookie gives us information such as your journey between pages and whether you have downloaded anything (details of how to opt out of it are below).
- Preferences – cookies that are used to recognise you and remember your preferences or settings when you return to our site, so that we can provide you with a more personalised experience. For example, your preferred language settings.
- Marketing – cookies that are used to collect information about your visit to our site, including the content you have viewed, the links you have followed and information about your browser, device and your IP address. We have set out more details on this below.
How do we use cookies for advertising?
Cookies are a key part of how we deliver advertising on our sites. Among other uses, they allow us to show more relevant advertising to people who visit The Big Issue by showing you adverts that are based on your browsing patterns and the way you have interacted with our sites and apps. We can then show you adverts which we believe may interest you.
As you browse our site, some of the cookies and similar technology we place on your device are for advertising, so we can understand what sorts of pages you read and are interested in. We can then display advertising on your browser based on these interests. For instance, if you have been reading a lot of food and drink articles, you may be shown more adverts for food and drink from others.
The advertising techniques we use do not collect personal data such as your name, email address, postal address or phone number. We sometimes use information such as your IP address and browser type and also sometimes share some limited aspects of this with others for advertising purposes.
We may also share and receive online data collected through cookies and similar technology with our advertising partners. This means that when you are on another website, you may be shown advertising based on your browsing patterns on our sites. We may also show you advertising on our sites based on your browsing patterns on other sites that we have obtained from our advertising partners.
Online retargeting is another form of online advertising that allows us and some of our advertising partners to show you advertising based on your browsing patterns and interactions with other sites. The use of cookies may mean that when you are on another site, you may be shown advertising based on what you have looked at on our sites. For example, if you have visited the website of an online clothes shop, you may start seeing adverts from that same shopping site displaying special offers or showing you the products you were browsing. This allows companies to advertise to you if you leave their website without making a purchase.
How to manage cookies
You can manage the use of cookies on our sites, including advertising cookies, and disable the sharing of data with partners for advertising purposes by using the steps set out here.
You can find information about how to opt out of the cookies provided by our key partners below:
You can switch some cookies off through the Your Online Choices site. You may need to do this again each time you use a different IP address, device, or virtual private network. You can also adjust the global privacy setting or plug-in which should be communicated to use via your browser.
It is also possible to stop your browser from accepting cookies altogether by changing your browser’s cookie settings. You can usually find these settings in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser. The following links may be helpful, or you can use the “Help” option in your browser.
- Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
- Cookie settings in Firefox
- Cookie settings in Chrome
- Cookie settings in Safari web and iOS
- Change your cookie preferences
Useful links
If you would like to find out more about privacy, cookies and their use on the internet, you may find the following links useful:
If you would like to contact us about cookies please email dataprotection@bigissue.com.
Changes to this cookie policy
If we decide to change our cookie policy we will post the changes here. If required by law, we will get your permission or give you the opportunity to opt out of any new uses of your data.
Changes to this cookie policy to date
The most recent changes to this cookie policy were made on:
- 13 September 2021
A list of all previous changes are available upon request.