Last updated: 12 February 2025
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or device by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
Like most financial services organisations, we use cookies for a range of tasks. These include allowing you to browse between pages effectively, recording and storing your preferences and generally improving your online experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you. We also use similar technologies such as web beacons (pixel tags) and JavaScript to undertake these jobs.
If you visit our websites, we may deploy these technologies to provide an online service more suited to the device you visit on, as well as to prevent and detect fraud, and so keep you secure. When you visit our website, we collect information about your use of the site, such as information about the device or browser you use to access the site (including device type, operating system, screen resolution and so forth), the way you interact with it, and the IP address your device connects from. You may not be able to initiate or complete some activities within our secure online services unless these cookies or similar technologies are installed.
Some of the cookies we set are 'session cookies', which remain only for the duration of your browser session and are deleted when you exit your web browser. Others are 'persistent cookies', which remain on your device or computer for a period of time after you have exited your web browser.
There are two ways in which cookies are set. First party cookies are those set by, or on behalf of, the web site you are visiting at that moment. Third party cookies are cookies that are set by another domain (that is, one other than the web site you are looking at).
Over the course of your visit to the Investment Discounts On Line Limited digital estate, you may visit different domains (for example, the idol.com and comparecover.com) on which we host different content or applications. These domains are owned by us but may share cookies between them; this means that we use both first and third party cookies to maintain security and ensure we can provide you with the best service across our digital estate. We may also use third party cookies provided by our authorised third parties.
We may work with third party service providers who we authorise to place third party cookies on our sites. These service providers help us to provide you with essential functionality such as being able to buy on our sites. Third party cookies are covered by their privacy policy.
For example:
You can set your browsers to block or alert you about these cookies. It might mean that some parts of our site will not work correctly. You may not be able to access certain features of our websites.
The majority of the data stored in the cookies placed by our web sites record anonymous information - that is, information that cannot be associated with an individual person. There are some occasions, like when we need to record your preferences, when we do need to record information in cookies that relate to you. However, whenever we do this, the cookie information is stored in a way that the data cannot be attributed to you, without linking it to additional information that is separately and securely stored on Investment Discounts On Line Limited systems. This is called pseudonymous data.
In addition to the cookies we use on this website, we also use cookies and similar technologies in some emails and push notifications. These help us to understand whether you have opened the email and how you have engaged with it; knowing which articles are most popular with our customers helps us to improve and optimise our content for the future. Cookies will also be set if you click on any link within the email.
The cookies used by us fall into one of four categories:
'Strictly necessary' cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around our website and use its features safely, such as accessing secure areas of our website. Without these essential cookies, services you have specifically asked for cannot be provided, such as asking for a quote or applying for one of our products. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or retargeting purposes, nor do they remember where you have been on the internet.
This category of cookies cannot be disabled.
Strictly necessary cookies used on our websites are:
Name of cookie |
Duration |
Type |
Description |
|
JSESSIONID |
Session |
1st party |
A general purpose platform session cookie, used by our sites to maintain an anonymous user session by the server between page requests. |
|
SESSION |
Session |
1st party |
A general purpose platform session cookie, used by our sites to maintain an anonymous user session by the server between page requests. |
|
IDOLAFF
|
Persistent 30 days
|
1st party |
Recording information regarding the source of the traffic delivered to our website so we can ensure the user receives the expected content and user experience. |
|
cookie_consent_level
|
Persistent 1 year |
1st party |
To remember the user's acceptance of our cookie policy and preferences on the type of cookies that the user has allowed to be set. |
|
_csrf |
Session |
1st party |
Used to protect the website from cross site scripting attacks. |
|
AWSALB /
|
Session |
1st party |
To allows us to deliver our service seamlessly from multiple services using a load balancer. The cookies simply record which server cluster is serving you. |
|
AWSALBCORS /
|
Session |
1st party |
The AWSALBCORS cookie allows us to deliver our service seamlessly from multiple services using a load balancer. The cookie simply records which server cluster is serving you. |
|
AFFSOURCE |
Persistent 2 days |
1st party |
Records information regarding the source of the traffic delivered to our website so we can ensure the user receives the expected content and user experience. |
|
IDOL_SPLIT_TEST |
Persistent 7 days |
1st party |
To improve user experience, we "split test" our customer journey (different versions of our website) using this cookie to record which version has been presented to you to deliver a consistent experience across multiple visits to our website. |
'Performance cookies' collect information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies do not collect any information that could identify you directly, all the information collected is anonymous or pseudonymous. Performance cookies are not used to target you with online advertising; without these cookies, we can't learn how our websites and applications are performing, and so help us improve your digital browsing experience.
In limited cases for online application issues, these cookies enable us to identify specific issues you may have had.
Performance cookies used on our websites are:
|
Name of vendor |
Duration |
Type |
Description |
|
Google Analytics and Google Universal Analytics |
Persistent 2 years |
3rd party
|
To allow us to analyse user sessions on our website, such as traffic source, session duration, and number of visits. Google Universal Analytics enables us to collect information about how visitors use our website, allowing us to make improvements where necessary. Using cookies, a randomly generated number is assigned on page requests on our website; with these we can analyse both visitor and campaign data. |
|
Microsoft Advertising Universal Event Tracking |
Persistent 13 months |
3rd party
|
Using Microsoft Advertising cookies, we are able to analyse user sessions on our website, such as traffic source, session duration, and number of visits. Microsoft Advertising Analytics enables us to collect information about how visitors use our website, allowing us to make improvements where necessary. Using cookies, a randomly generated number is assigned on page requests on our website; with these we can analyse both visitor and campaign data. |
| SessionCam: sc.UserId |
Persistent: 1 year |
First party |
Used to identify an individual unique visitor. The SessionCam reporting console can re-sort recorded sessions by a unique visitor. This means that multiple visits from the same unique visitor over a selected date/time range can be aggregated. |
| SessionCam: sc.Status |
Session |
First party |
Used to store the recording status through the visitor's session. This cookie is set on the first load of SessionCam. It stores whether SessionCam is to record the session or not. This cookie also stores data for whether ServiceTick web surveys are configured to launch however we do not use this functionality. |
| SessionCam: sc.ASP_NET_SESSIONID |
Session |
First party |
Used to identify the individual user session. This cookie provides the details needed to compile a recording showing multiple pages visited during a visitor's unique visit to a website. |
| SessionCam: sc.ASP_NET_SESSIONID |
Session |
Third party: SessionCam |
This cookie enables the SessionCam reporting console to maintain a view of a visitor's session across multiple domain names. Only used when a visitor goes across multiple domain names belonging to the same client within a single visit. |
| SessionCam: SessionCamTestCookie |
Deleted immediately |
First party |
This cookie is set when SessionCam initialises and is only ever used to ensure we can read and write cookies. Once this cookie has been set it is deleted immediately and if the cookie fails to set, SessionCam will not attempt to record. |
| SessionCam: sc.OptOut |
Persistent: 1 year |
First party |
Used to identify users preference about data capture (set for one year). The SessionCam recording JavaScript can detect this cookie to determine if a user has requested never to be recorded, or to have their information fully masked out. |
| SessionCam: sc.InTg |
Session |
First party |
The cookie is created when a brand new session starts and is simply used to keep sessions recording consistently to the same hostname (endpoint) from start to finish to ensure complete sessions run. |
| Glassbox: _cls_v |
Persistent: up to 5 years |
First party |
This cookie identifies customers who have used the site within the previous 5 years, allowing us to improve customer experience for returning customers. |
| Glassbox: _cls_s |
Session |
First party |
This cookie allows us to identify if you are a returning customer. |
'Functionality' cookies are used to provide other services such as our web chat and certain navigation elements of the website which enhance your browsing experience, for example, directing you back to a promotion that might have attracted your attention on your first visit. They can also enable us to remember setting choices you make to improve your visit.
These cookies may be used to ensure that all our services and communications are relevant to you. The information these cookies collect cannot track your browsing activity on other websites. Without these cookies, our web sites may not be able to remember choices you've previously made or personalise your browsing experience.
Functionality cookies used on our websites are:
Name of vendor |
Duration |
Type |
Description |
| returningCustomer |
Persistent indefinite |
First party |
To allow the site to identify customers who have visited previously. |
| sskey |
Persistent up to 92 days |
First party |
Used to enable cashback tracking across multiple sessions. |
'Targeting' cookies are used to collect information in order to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. These cookies also allow you to 'like' and 'share' our pages via social networking sites such as Facebook.
These cookies and similar technologies gather information about your browsing habits. They remember that you have visited a website and share this information with other organisations, such as advertisers and platforms on which we advertise. Although these cookies and similar technologies can track your visits to other websites, they do not usually know who you are.
Targeting Cookies used on our websites are:
Name of vendor |
Duration |
Type |
Description |
| Google Remarketing |
Persistent |
Third party
|
To facilitate post-visit advertising with those who have visited or interacted with our website to encourage return visits. |
| Facebook Conversion |
Persistent |
Third party
|
Facebook pixels on certain pages of our website for conversion tracking. This lets us optimise our Facebook advertising accordingly to show ads to people to whom it would be of more interest. |
| Microsoft Advertising |
Persistent 1 year |
Third party
|
To facilitate post-visit advertising with those who have visited or interacted with our website to encourage return visits. |
| TikTok Advertising |
Persistent 1 year |
Third party
|
To facilitate post-visit advertising with those who have visited or interacted with our website to encourage return visits. |
The cookie settings on this website are set to 'allow all cookies' to improve the overall performance of our website and give you the best user experience.
If you click on 'OK', you consent to this and you do not need to do anything further. These settings can be changed at any time through our Cookie Policy at the bottom of our website.
To make it easier for you to manage your cookie settings with us, we have provided you with the ability to disable some of the cookies we use.
To do this scroll to the bottom of our website and select the 'Change Cookie Preferences' link to choose which cookies you wish to allow.
If you want to disable all cookies, please be aware this will make browsing our websites much slower and some of the features described above when using strictly necessary, performance and functionality cookies will not be available to you.
However, we understand that this is your decision. You can find more information on how to control your cookies via your browser settings at: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/ and http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/