Whenever you use our website information may be collected through the use of cookies and similar technologies. By using website you agree to our use of cookies as described in this Cookie Policy.
What are ‘cookies'?
Cookies are small bits of information which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Your web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome) then sends these cookies back to the website on each subsequent visit so that they can recognise you and remember things like personalised details or user preferences. Cookies are limited to a maximum of 4096 characters and how they are stored is dependent on which web browser you are using.
Cookies are very useful and do lots of different jobs which help to make your experience on websites as smooth as possible. For example, they let you move between web pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving your experience (see below for more examples).
They are referred to as either session or persistent cookies, depending on how long they are used:
Session cookies only last for your online session and disappear from your computer or device when you close your browser.
Persistent cookies stay on your computer or device after the browser has been closed and last for the period of time specified in the cookie. These persistent cookies are activated each time you visit the site where the cookie was generated.
What cookies does Central Sports use?
When you use our website, the following 4 categories of cookies may be set on your device:
1. Session cookie
This cookie tracks your current visit to our website and is used to determine your login status and what is in your shopping basket. This cookie is removed when you close your browser. Note that you need to close the whole browser and not just the window - this is important if you are using a public access computer (for example, one in a public library) otherwise another user may continue to use your session.
2. Functional cookies
These cookies provide additional features like remembering your login details between visits and saving your contact and address details for future orders. They can be deleted at any time from within your browser and your experience of the website will be reset to the default. If you are using a public access computer then you should use the options provided to decline these cookies as they may contain sensitive information like your telephone number or address.
3. Analytics cookies
In order to keep the Central Sports website, easy to use and up-to-date, we use web analytics services to help us understand how people use it. For example, we can see which parts of the website are most popular, identify which products have been viewed, identify when errors occur, and test different versions of a page or feature to see which one works best.
These web analytics services may be designed and operated by other companies on our behalf. They do this using small invisible images known as "web beacons" or "tracking pixels" that may be included in the website. These are used to count the number of times something has been seen. These web beacons are anonymous and do not contain or collect any information that identifies you.
The web analytics services may also use cookies and similar technologies to make the information collected by the web beacons more useful. When you are viewing a website, a cookie is transferred to your browser by the web server and is stored on your computer. It can only be read by the server that gave it to you.
Cookies allow web analytics services to recognise your browser or device and, for example, identify whether you have visited our website before, what you have previously viewed or clicked on, and how you found us. The information is anonymous and only used for statistical purposes. It allows us to track information, such as how many individual users we have and how often they visit our websites. It also helps us to analyse patterns of user activity and to develop a better user experience.
Web analytics data and cookies cannot be used to identify you as they never contain personal information such as your name or email address.
4. Third party cookies
Please note that on some pages of our website you may notice that cookies have been set that are not related to Central Sports. When you visit a page with content embedded from, for example, YouTube or Facebook, these service providers may set their own cookies on your web browser. These anonymous cookies may be set by that third party to track the success of their application or to customise their application to you. Central Sports does not control the use of these cookies and cannot access them due to the way that cookies work, as cookies can only be accessed by the party who originally set them. You should check the third party websites for more information about these cookies.
How to control your cookies
Please remember that Central Sports does not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you although, as explained above, we may combine information from your registration with the data we get from the web analytics services we use and their cookies (or similar technologies) to analyse how you and other people use our website in detail. These cookies are set to improve your experience and to enable you to benefit from specific features and to set preferences.
However, there are various ways that you can control and manage your cookies which are discussed in a bit more detail below. Please remember that any settings you change will not just affect Central Sports cookies. These changes will apply to all websites that you visit (unless you choose to block cookies from particular sites).
Managing cookies in your browser
Most modern browsers will allow you to:
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See what cookies you've got and delete them on an individual basis.
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Block third party cookies.
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Block cookies from particular sites.
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Block all cookies from being set.
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Delete all cookies when you close your browser.
You should be aware that any preferences will be lost if you delete cookies. Ironically, this includes where you have opted out from cookies, as this requires an opt-out cookie to be set. Also, if you block cookies completely many websites will not work properly and some functionality on these websites will not work at all. We do not recommend turning cookies off when using our Digital Products and Services for these reasons.
If you are primarily concerned about third party cookies generated by advertisers, you can turn these off separately. This is discussed in more detail below.
The links below take you to the ‘Help' sections for each of the major browsers so that you can find out more about how to manage your cookies.
Internet Explorer http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196955
Firefox http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Cookies
Google Chrome http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647
Opera http://www.opera.com/browser/tutorials/security/privacy/
Safari http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/5.0/en/9277.html
Safari iOS http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1677
Android http://support.google.com/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=169022
Windows Phone http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/howto/wp7/web/changing-privacy-and-other-browser-settings.aspx
Managing analytics cookies
It is possible to opt out of having your anonymised browsing activity within websites recorded by analytics cookies. Central Sports uses the following analytics providers and you can opt out of their cookies by clicking on the following links. Please note that this will take you to the relevant third party's website and generate a ‘no thanks' cookie, which will stop any further cookies being set by those third parties.
Don't forget that by not allowing analytics cookies, this stops us from being able to learn what people like or don't like about our website so that we can make them better.
Google Analytics http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout