Our Cookie Policy

Our customers’ security is our highest priority. That’s why we are clear on our use of cookies.

Guardhog (“us”, “we”, or “our”) uses cookies on Guardhog.com (the “Service”). By using the Service, you consent to the use of cookies. Our Cookies Policy explains what cookies are, how we use cookies, how third parties we may partner with may use cookies on the Service, your choices regarding cookies and further information about cookies.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small files of data which can be transferred onto your computer from a web server when you visit a website. This enables the web server to read the cookie file when you return to the website and thereby recognise your computer. It is only possible for the web servicer which initially transferred the cookies to your computer, to read it when you return to the website.

Cookies are commonly used on the internet and do not harm your computer or computer files. The reason cookies are used includes but is not limited to providing you with a more personalised experience, arranging website content to match your interest and reducing the need for you have to re-enter data.

How do we use cookies on the website?

Guardhog uses cookies on the website to help us analyse and improve the online service which we provide to you, such as help us to understand how you navigate through the website.

We also use information from cookies to understand if the website is performing and operating at the right levels; personalise the service experience we offer you on the website; establish the areas of the website which seem to be of most relevance to you and perform statistical analysis of how the website it used to manage and improve our service to you.

We also use cookie technology to ensure that, where you have registered for any of our online services, we maintain your confidentiality and security as you move through secure, or password protected areas of the website.

In addition, to evaluate the effectiveness of our advertisements and promotions on selected third party websites, we may (together with the third-party agents who help manage our online advertising) use cookies to measure response rates to our advertisements and promotions.

We may share the information we collect from cookies with our third-party advertisers and analytics teams i.e. Google, Facebook and Bing, as well as where it may be combined with other information you’ve given to our website.

We may collate the statistical data compiled in respect of use of the Website with statistical data similarly compiled in respect of other websites operated by Guardhog in order to facilitate company-wide evaluation and improvements.

What kind of cookies do we use on the website?

We may use some or all of the following types of cookies:

• Necessary – Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.
• Functional – Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.
• Analytics – Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
• Performance – Performance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
• Advertisement – Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyse the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

What kind of information do we collect using cookies?

When you visit the website, our server will record your IP address, the date, time and duration of your visit and which areas of the website you visit. Your IP address is an assigned number allocated to your browser when you log on to the internet which acts as the “address” of your computer whilst you are online and enables web servers to locate and deliver content to you.

A cookie’s lifetime varies depending on the purpose for which it has been created. Some cookies disappear as soon as the browser is shut down (temporary or session cookies) while others can live on for several months (permanent cookies). You can view the lifetimes of the cookies we set in the tables below.

Permanent cookies with a specified lifetime will have a new expiration date set each time the site to which the cookie is related is revisited.

HTML5 Web Storage objects can be split into two lifetimes, ‘Session’ or ‘Local’. Objects in the session storage will be removed by the web browser when a user closes the tab or window that the object was created in. Objects in the local storage are persistent and not automatically removed by browsers as default. These objects however can be removed by website functions.

Cookie-derived information is anonymous and represents a computer rather than a person. You cannot be personally identified from it, and we use it solely on an anonymous, aggregated basis.

What are web beacons?

Some of our web pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons (sometimes known as clear gif’s) that allow us to count users who have visited these pages. Web beacons collect only limited information, which includes a cookie number, time and date of a page viewed and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. We may also carry web beacons placed by third party advertisers. These beacons do not carry use any personally identifiable information and are only used to track the effectiveness of a particular campaign.

How do I avoid cookies?

You can adjust your cookie settings when visiting our website. Alternatively, you can select a browser and set it to block some or all cookies, delete existing cookies from your computer’s hard disk drive or in some cases issue a warning before any new cookie is downloaded. Please consult your chosen web browser’s Help function for instructions on how to do this.

You can always force immediate deletion of the cookies on your computer either during, or at the end of, a browser session. Please consult your chosen web browser’s Help function for instructions on how to do this.

For further detailed information you may wish to visit https://ico.org.uk/for-the- public/online/cookies/ which contains comprehensive sources of information on cookies and how to control them using a wide variety of browsers.