About cookies
Cookies are small pieces of data that are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website or application.
How we use cookies
We offer a range of websites and services to our members, customers and other web users, and these use cookies in varying ways for example:
- Deliver the services that you have chosen.
- Remember information about you, so you don’t have to give it to us again.
- Keep you signed in.
- Help us understand how people are using our services, so we can make them better.
- To deliver advertising.
- Help us personalise your experience by remembering your preferences and settings.
- To find out if our emails have been read and if you find them useful.
For advertising, marketing and analytical cookies we obtain your consent, but performance and functionality cookies will always be set, by default, as ‘on’ as these support website usage and journeys.
For more information about changing your cookie settings in your browser can be found at the AllAboutCookies website.
Types of cookies
First party cookies
These cookies are set by the website you’re visiting, and only that website can read them.
Third-party cookies
These cookies are set by someone other than the owner of the website you’re visiting. Some of our web pages may also contain content from other sites like YouTube or Flickr, which may set their own cookies. Also, if you share a link, the service you share it on (for example, Facebook) may set a cookie on your browser. We have no control over third-party cookies – you can turn them off, but not through us.
Third-party cookies we use include:
- Our email services, supplied by Adestra, to inform our members and contacts of relevant activities, events, services and products. The levels of response to these emails are tracked, in order to improve the effectiveness of our communications.
- tv, which uses Stream UK to deliver webcasts. These appear mostly on the IET.tv site but are also embedded in some web pages elsewhere.
- The electronic information services provided to members by the IET Library. Some pages, especially in E&T Magazine, include content from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and other services.
- The AddThis social bookmarking and sharing widget which appears on some of our websites such as E&T Magazine.
- Olark and Response Tap for live chat and telephone call personalisation as is used on our Venues websites
Session cookies
These cookies only last as long as your online session and disappear from your computer or device when you close your browser.
Persistent cookies
These cookies stay on your computer or device after your browser has been closed and last for a time specified in the cookie.
We use persistent cookies when we need to know who you are for more than one browsing session. For example, we use them to remember your preferences for the next time you visit.
Performance cookies
These cookies let you use all the different parts of the website. Without them, services that you’ve asked for can’t be provided.
Some examples of how we use these cookies are:
- When you sign into the website
- Remembering security settings that affect access to certain content
- Collecting information on which web pages visitors go to most often so we can improve our online services.
Functional cookies
These help us personalise your experience by remembering your preferences and settings.
Some examples of how we use these cookies are:
- Remembering your choice of favourite content and help you do things like commenting on a blog
- Remembering if you visited the website before so that messages for new visitors are not displayed to you
- Remembering settings on the website like colour, font size and layout
You can view a list of functional cookies we use here.
Analytical cookies
These cookies are used by us or third-party service providers to analyse how our sites are used and how they are performing. For example, we use cookies to know which country you are in when you request a service to help base the contents on your location. We also use some Cookies from Google Analytics and Hotjar to obtain web analytics and intelligence about our site.
These tools use programming code to collect information about your interaction with our site, such as the pages you visit, the links you click on and how long you are on our site. These tools do not store any personal identifiable information.
Advertising cookies
Some of our websites use advertising cookies to show you specially targeted adverts. These cookies may also be able to track your browsing across different sites.
Using cookies for advertising
We may display advertising on our website and apps.
Using your data to personalise the adverts shown
We may collect and analyse data about your device (e.g. your IP address and cookie IDs) and your use of our services (e.g. what articles you read).
In some instances, our digital teams will use technology provided by Hotjar to collect data on user’s behaviour and their devices.
To tailor and deliver advertising to you we may collect data from you across our online services. This data helps us to predict what might interest you and to show you adverts tailored to those interests. This is commonly known as Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) or interest-based advertising. Not all the advertising we show is tailored based on your data and your interests. We may also tailor our adverts based on the content you are viewing, contextual advertising; for example, if you are reading an article then we might show you related ads.
Cross-device tracking
Your browsing activity may be tracked across different websites and different devices or apps. If you are not signed in to a web service, we may attempt to match your browsing activity on one device, such as your laptop, with your browsing activity on another device, such as your smartphone, so that we can improve the relevance of the advertising delivered to you.
Cookies and consent
We will obtain consent from you to use marketing, behavioural and analytical cookies. Consent will be obtained from you when you first enter one of our websites. You can change your preferences at any time.
If you do choose to change your setting you may still see adverts on our websites, but they may be less relevant to you as they will not be tailored to your interests.
Change your browser settings
You can prevent your browsing from being tracked generally by adjusting your browser settings, browsing in ‘private mode’ or using browser add-ons.
You can find out how to do this by visiting the relevant support page for your browser, or by using the help function on your browser:
- Apple Safari
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Internet Explorer & Microsoft Edge
- Mozilla Firefox
- Opera browser
Ad Choices tools for web browsers
You can also opt-out from targeted advertising on this website and more generally across the internet using the opt-out tools of ad industry bodies, including:
- European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA)
- Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA)
- Network Advertising Initiative (NAI)
Ad choices for mobile applications
If you are accessing our services through the web browser on your mobile device, you should follow the instructions above.
However, mobile applications use different technologies to recognise your device.
To opt out of your app usage data being used to target advertising within apps you should follow the instructions below.
- Apple iOS (Please visit the Apple support page for more information)
- Go to Settings > Privacy > Advertising
- Turn on Limit Ad Tracking
- Google Android (Please visit the Google support page for more information)
- Go to Settings
- Select Google in the Accounts section
- Select Ads in the Privacy section
- Tick Opt-out of interest-based ads
Microsoft Windows (Please visit the Microsoft support page for more information)- Go to Settings
- Tap on Privacy
- Tap on Advertising ID, and turn off ‘Let apps use my advertising ID for experiences across apps’
Other tracking technologies
Some sites use things like web beacons, clear GIFs, page tags and web bugs to understand how people are using them and to target advertising to them.
They usually take the form of a small, transparent image that is embedded in a web page or email. They work with cookies and capture data like your IP address, when you viewed the page or email, what device you were using and where you were.
Contact us
Please contact the Data Protection Officer if you would like more information.
