What are 'cookies'?
A cookie is a small text file stored via your browser onto your computer or mobile device. Each cookie is unique to your browser and can be used by a website to improve the user experience, such as your user preferences or the contents of your basket.
Some websites use cookies to allow adverts or marketing messages to be shown based on your location or your browsing habits.
Cookies stored by the website you are visiting (‘first party cookies’) can only be read by that website. Cookies may also be set by other websites that show content on the page you are viewing (‘third-party cookies’).
There are different types of cookie:
Session cookies: These are temporary and only last for the duration of your browsing session. When you close your browser these are deleted.
Persistent cookies: These are saved on your computer for a fixed period (usually a year or longer) and are not deleted when closing your browser.
Flash cookies: Adobe Flash Player uses its own cookies which are not manageable through your browser settings.
How do we use cookies?
When visiting the Essence website we may generate the following cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are required to make the website work and without it would be difficult to view or navigate the site.
Functionality cookies
These cookies allow the website to provide enhanced, more personal features, such as remembering a preference selection or enabling you to leave comments.
Social networking and sharing tools
Our website is integrated with a number of popular social networking websites. These may set cookies to identify you when you are also logged in to their services.
Analytics cookies
These cookies help us understand how visitors navigate to and through our website, how long they spend viewing our content and how often they return. We can then use this information to improve our website.
Tracking cookies
These cookies show us where you have seen our content so that we can understand how effective our efforts to share this content have been.
Detailed cookie information
| Name | Set by | Used for | Category |
| __unam | ShareThis | Used by ShareThis service for analytics | Social/Share |
| __stid | ShareThis | Used by ShareThis service for analytics | Social/Share |
| __uset | ShareThis | Used by ShareThis service for analytics | Social/Share |
| __utma | To identify unique visitors for analytics purposes | Analytics | |
| __utmb | Used for determining visitor session | Analytics | |
| __utmc | Used for determining visitor session | Analytics | |
| __utmz | Used for determining visitor session | Analytics | |
| gs_p_GSN-088828-N | GoSquared | Used to keep track of a user within a browsing session | Analytics |
| gs_u | GoSquared | User identifier cookie, which stores a unique user id, page/visit counts, and last visit time | Analytics |
| PHPSESSID | Essence | Session preferences | Functional |
| ess_ses | Essence | Used for tracking | Tracking |
| ess_uid | Essence | Used for tracking | Tracking |
| geo-office | Essence | Used to store your preferred Essence office | Functional |
| __jid | Discus | Used for Comments | Functional |
| _accelerator_session_id | rpxnow | Used for Single Sign-on | Functional |
| datr | A Facebook cookie that monitors your Facebook account for suspicious behaviour such as failed login attempts or attempts to create spam accounts | Social/Share | |
| fr | Social/Share | ||
| locale | A Facebook cookie that identifies user’s language and country | Social/Share | |
| lu | Allows Facebook to pre-populate your e-mail address on their login screen if you have not explicitly logged out | Social/Share | |
| x-src | Facebook session cookie | Social/Share | |
| lsd | Set when a Facebook user logs out in order to prevent cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks. | Social/Share | |
| reg_ext_ref | Contains the external referrer URL from when the browser first visited Facebook | Social/Share | |
| reg_fb_gate | Contains the first Facebook page that the web browser visited | Social/Share | |
| reg_fb_ref | Contains the last Facebook page that the web browser visited | Social/Share |
How can I control cookies?
The following links may be helpful to understand how you can change your browser settings to restrict the websites that can set cookies, or to stop your browser accepting cookies. The ‘Help’ option in your browser may also have further details.
Cookie settings in Chrome
Cookie settings in Firefox
Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Safari web
Cookie settings in iOS
Useful links
The following links may be helpful to find out more about cookies and how they are used:
All About Cookies
The Information Commissioner's Office