Cookie Policy
Updated December 2022
Cookie Policy
We use cookies to improve your experience on the Website and to recommend content that may be of interest to you. You can find out more below about what cookies are, the cookies we use and how to switch them off.
You can decide which cookies to accept in accordance with this policy by adjusting the options on the banner that appears on the Website.
What are cookies?
A cookie is a text file containing small amounts of information which is downloaded to your device when you access a website. The text file is then sent back to our server each time your browser requests a page from the server. This enables us to operate the site more effectively and load the site so that it reflects your personal preferences, based on your previous browsing on the Website as well as keywords we may be able to gather from URLs of other webpages from which you accessed the Website. Cookies can also allow us to do various other things, as explained below.
What cookies do we use?
When you visit the Website, the following types of cookies may be downloaded to your device:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These are cookies that are required for the administration and operation of our site. Some cookies that we use are necessary for the Website to function properly and to enable you to move around the Website and use its features.
Functional Cookies
We may use functional cookies that allow us to remember choices you have made on the Website so as to provide you with a more enhanced user experience.
Analytical and Performance Cookies
We may use analytics service providers for website traffic analysis and reporting. Analytics service providers generate statistical and other information about the use of the Website by using cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how often visitors return to the Website, how long they stay and how visitors move around the Website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way the Website works, for example, it helps users to find what they are looking for easily. The information generated relating to the website may be used to create reports about the use of the Website and the analytics service provider will store this information.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:
Google Analytics Cookies (Analytical and Performance Cookies) - used for serving and recording clicks for certain links on the website. https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage https://policies.google.com/technologies/
_ga _gid | 2 years 24 hours | Used for visitor identification |
_gac_UA-XXXXXXX | 90 days | Used to hold campaign information |
_gat | 1 minute | Used for the throttling of data to Google Analytics |
DV HSID SID SIDCC | 2 years 2 years 2 years 2 years | Used to ensure security and privacy |
NID SSID | 90 days 2 years | Used to store visitor preferences |
UULE | At end of session | Used to store visitor geolocation Information |
YouTube Cookies (Functional Cookies) - used for embedding social posts onto the website https://policies.google.com/privacy#infocollect
YSC VISITOR_INFO1 use_hitbox LOGIN_INFO | At end of session 6 months At end of session | Used to gather information about visitors and video usage and allow the embedding of videos on the site. |
PREF | 10 years | Used to store visitor preferences |
Virgin Unite Cookies
has_js (Strictly Necessary Cookie) | At end of session | Used to store whether the user has JavaScript enabled |
cookie_pref (Strictly Necessary Cookie) |
| Stores preferences regarding cookie usage |
Third Party Cookies
Because Virgin Unite and Richard Branson have a strong presence on various social networks, we try to make it as easy as possible to share content and to see what content is popular on those networks. We add buttons to allow people to easily share to those networks. When we include these social 'plugins', it gives those sites the flexibility to use their own cookies. They can't read any cookies we set from the Website, and we can't read any cookies they set, but it lets them do the same kind of traffic measuring that we do on the rest of the Website (and it also lets them know whether you're logged into their site).
Other sites and services (including, for example, advertising networks, providers of external services like web traffic analysis services and content recommendation engines) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical and performance cookies or advertising and targeting cookies and we use these to improve your experience on Virgin.com.
The following third parties may use cookies:
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Google
How do I turn cookies off?
If you do not wish us to download cookies or you don’t agree with how we use these cookies, you can change the settings by adjusting the options on the banner that appears on the Website, then clicking ‘Save and Exit’. You can also change the settings on your internet browser to reject cookies. For more information, please consult the ‘Help’ section of your browser or visit www.aboutcookies.org, www.allaboutcookies.org, or http://optout.aboutads.info/. Please note that if you do set your browser to reject all cookies (including strictly necessary cookies), you may not be able to use all of the features on our site.