Use of cookies on our sites

Information about the use of cookies on the IET websites.

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 the IET uses cookies

The IET offers a range of websites and services to its 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.

You can change your cookie setting at any time. Details on how to do this 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 IET 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:

The IET uses email services from Adestra to inform its 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 IET communications.
IET.tv, which uses Stream UK to deliver webcasts. These appear mostly in the IET.tv site but 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 IET websites such as E&T Magazine.
Olark and Response Tap for live chat and telephone call personalisation as is used in IET 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 in to 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.

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

The IET may display advertising on its 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 advertising teams will use technology provided by Hotjar to collect data on users behaviour and their devices.

To tailor and deliver advertising to you 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 of the advertising we show is tailored based on your data and your interests. We 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.

How can I opt-out?

If at any time you do not want information about your browsing behaviour to be used for the purposes of delivering advertising to you on our websites, you can "opt-out". If you do choose to opt-out you will continue to see adverts 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:

Ad Choices tools for web browsers

You can 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 IET 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)
1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Advertising
2. Turn on Limit Ad Tracking

Google Android (Please visit the Google support page for more information)
1. Go to Settings
2. Select Google in the Accounts section
3. Select Ads in the Privacy section
4. Tick Opt out of interest-based ads
Microsoft Windows (Please visit the Microsoft support page for more information)
1. Go to Settings
2. Tap on Privacy
3. 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: compliance@theiet.org if you would like more information