Cookies policy

Find out how we use cookies on our website

Last updated: 23 May 2022

Who are we?

This Cookies Policy explains how the British Red Cross incorporated by Royal Charter 1908; registered as a charity in England and Wales (220949), Scotland (SC037738), Jersey (430) and the Isle of Man (0752); and Britcross Ltd registered as a company in England and Wales (00932598) (collectively "British Red Cross") uses cookies and similar technologies on our websites. Please review this Cookie Policy to learn more about which of our websites use cookies, the types of cookies we use, why we use them and how you can manage the use of cookies.

You should read this Cookies Policy alongside our Privacy Notice and our Terms and Conditions.

If you would like further information on our use of cookies and similar technologies, please contact us at dataprotection@redcross.org.uk.

1. What is a cookie?

Cookies are small text files which save information about you when you use a website. If you agree to them, they are stored on your device. Cookies can make using a website easier because they remember information like what you put in your shopping basket or what you last searched for.

Cookies are used by website owners to provide you with a positive browsing experience, and to help make improvements.

Our site uses cookies to:

  • Make our site work.
  • Collect data on how users navigate our site, which helps us to improve it.
  • Allow you to share our content on social networks.
  • Help us provide relevant advertising to those who may be interested in it.

We do not use cookies to:

  • Collect any personal data.
  • Pass personal data to third parties.

In this Cookies Policy, we use "cookies" as shorthand for any technology that stores information on your device, or gains access to information on your device (for example pixels and Javascript tracking tags).

For more information on cookies, please see the Information Commissioner's Office information on cookies.

2. What cookies do we use and why?

We have split the cookies used on our site into four categories:

  • Strictly necessary cookies
  • Functional cookies
  • Performance cookies
  • Targeting cookies

Each of these categories is explained in section 5 below.

Our websites use both "first-party" and "third-party" cookies.

First-party cookies are set and collected by our websites and are only used by our websites when you visit them.

"Third-party" cookies are set and collected on our websites by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages, e.g. cookies set by embedded Youtube videos or Facebook advertising. The British Red Cross does not control how third parties use these cookies, so we suggest you check their website to see how they're using them or block the cookies. To understand more about these third-party cookies and their privacy policies, please visit their websites directly.

We use some other technologies similar to cookies to store data on a user's device. It is important you know about them so you can make informed choices about whether to allow their use on your device. The most common ones include:

  • Web Storage, also known as Document Object Model (DOM) storage. Our website(s) use the browser's "SessionStorage" and "LocalStorage" to store data. "SessionStorage" is stored temporarily, but the "LocalStorage" is persistent. You may erase them by deleting your browser's history.
  • Web Beacons are small digital image files hosted on some of our website's pages that register when a browser visits the page. This allows us to know when a user has viewed a web page. You can prevent their use by switching off cookies in your browser. There are also browser add-ons and extensions that specifically block web beacons. To avoid web beacons in emails, you can turn off images in your email service.

3. How do I manage my cookie settings?

You can change which cookies we set at any time by visiting the preference centre found via the "Manage Cookies" link in the website footer, adjusting the sliders to "On" or "Off" and clicking "Confirm My Choices".

Some cookies are essential cookies which cannot be turned off using the slider. These cookies are "Strictly necessary". If you choose not to accept our cookies, then we will only store these "Strictly necessary" cookies.

Most internet browsers automatically accept cookies unless you change your browser settings. If you wish to restrict, block or delete the cookies which are set by any websites, you can generally do this through your browser settings. The "Help" menu in the toolbar of most web browsers will tell you how to do this, including how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, and how to disable cookies altogether.

Please find below links describing how to do this on some popular browsers.

Some third parties may allow you to manage their cookies independently, through the platforms that control them e.g. Facebook. Please refer to the list of other third-party cookies in the table below and their respective policy pages for further information.

To delete or review cookies that are on your device, you will need to go into the settings of your browser and review them. For more information about cookies, including how to set your internet browser to reject cookies, please go to http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

4. Changes to this policy

We may update how we use cookies (and this policy) from time to time. So please check regularly to keep up to date with any changes.

5. The cookies we use

There is more information about the individual cookies we use below. This includes the purposes for which we use them and how long they remain on your device. This is a list of all the cookies that may be set.