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    RS Online and Cookies

    Our websites and mobile sites use cookies to give you the best online experience. By using our desktop and mobile sites and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with these terms.

    What is a cookie and how do our websites use them?

    What is a cookie and how do our websites use them?

    A cookie is a file containing a piece of data (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser, and stored by the browser when you visit a website. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. Cookies do not contain any information that personally identifies you, but personal information may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies. We may use the information we obtain from your use of our cookies for the following purposes:

    To recognise your computer when you visit our website

    • To improve the website’s usability
    • To analyse the use of the website
    • To personalise our website for you (e.g. to show you product recommendations based on your previous purchases)
    • To track you as you navigate our website, and enable the use of certain functionalities (e.g. add/remove products to and from the order basket, completing a purchase within checkout, etc.)
    • To remember you when you return to our website (e.g. if you add products to the order form but decide not to complete a purchase during that visit, we save the order form reference number in a cookie so that we can retrieve it for your next visit)
    • To show you advertisements on our website and third-party websites, based on browsing activity on our website

    If you'd like to block or delete cookies from 'rs-online.com/web/' and/or 'rs-online.com/mobile/' websites, or any other website you visit, you can use your browser to do this. We've provided some information about blocking and deleting cookies at the bottom of this policy.

    Is enabling cookies safe?

    Yes. Cookies are just short pieces of data, and they are unable to perform any operation by themselves. RS strongly encourages you to configure your web browser to accept cookies from our website.

    How do I change my cookies settings?

    To enable cookies, follow the instructions below for the browser version you are using.

    Microsoft Internet Explorer

    • Select "Internet Options" from the Tools menu. • Click on the "Privacy" tab. • Click the "Default" button (or manually slide the bar down to "Medium") under "Settings" • Click "OK".

    Mozilla Firefox

    • Go to the "Tools" menu. • Select "Options". • Select the "Privacy" icon. • Check the box corresponding to "Allow sites to set cookies" • Click "OK" to save changes.

    Google Chrome

    • Select "Preferences" from the Edit menu. • Find the "Cookies" section in the "Advanced" category. • To enable: Select "Accept all cookies" (or "Enable all cookies"). • Click "OK".

    Safari

    • Open Safari if it is not already open. • Choose Safari > Preferences, and then click “Privacy”. • In the “Block cookies” section, specify whether Safari should accept cookies from websites, and when.

    What types of cookies do our websites use? There are two different types of cookies that we use:

    • Cookies required for functionality and navigation

    These cookies are essential for the proper functioning and easy navigation of our website. For example they enable the order basket functionality and for you to stay logged in as you move through our website. If you refuse to accept these cookies, it will impact on the usability of certain features of our website.

    • Cookies for analytics, targeting and advertising purposes

    Analytics cookies gather general information on how users use our website, e.g. which pages users visit most frequently and whether users receive any error messages from the website.

    Targeting and advertising cookies are used to tailor advertisements and recommendations shown on our website and third-party websites to your interests. These cookies may be linked to social networks and your activity on other websites, so that you see customised adverts on third party websites based on your online activity. They also enable advertisers to limit the number of times the same advertisement is shown to you and evaluate the efficiency of an advertising campaign. These cookies are placed by advertising networks with our agreement.

    If you choose to delete or block these cookies, it will not reduce the functionality of our website. Below is a list of the cookies used on the 'rs-online.com/web/' and 'rs-online.com/mobile/' websites, with an explanation of what each one is used for. Please note that the 'rsdelivers.comhttps://www.rs-connectedthinking.com/en and 'rs-online.com/designspark/' websites have seperate cookie policies.

    Our Cookies


    Host

    Name

    Purpose

    Cookie Provider

    rs-online.com

    rs_exp_id

    This cookie assigns you a randomised & anonymous unique identifier, ensuring that you consistently receive a consistent website experience

    RS Components

    rs-online.com

    RSCOMPONENTS_ENSIGHTEN_
    PRIVACY_BANNER_VIEWED

    GDPR cookie compliance

    rs-online.com

    rs-online.com

    RSCOMPONENTS_ENSIGHTEN_
    PRIVACY_MODAL_VIEWED

    GDPR cookie compliance

    rs-online.com

    rs-online.com

    RSCOMPONENTS_ENSIGHTEN_
    PRIVACY_Recommendations_and_Testing

    GDPR cookie compliance

    rs-online.com

    rs-online.com

    RSCOMPONENTS_ENSIGHTEN_
    PRIVACY_Advertising

    GDPR cookie compliance

    rs-online.com

    rs-online.com

    RSCOMPONENTS_ENSIGHTEN_
    PRIVACY_Functionality

    GDPR cookie compliance

    rs-online.com

    rs-online.com

    optimizelyEndUserId, optimizelyRedirectData, optimizelyDomainTestCookie, optimizelyOptOut, AWSELB, optimizelyRumLB

    These cookies are utilised to provide you with new features and ideas that we may be experimenting with across our website using the Optimizely platform.

    Optimizely

    rs-online.com

    rs_RSX_ID

    This cookie assigns you a randomised & anonymous unique identifier, ensuring that you consistently receive the same site variations

    RS Components

    rs-online.com

    CookieConsent

    This is used to control our cookie policy display

    RS Components

    rs-online.com

    mCookieConsent

    This identifies when a customer has accepted the cookie policy within out mobile website journey

    RS Components

    rs-online.com

    JSESSIONID
    RememberMe
    my_account_profile_updated
    access_token
    refresh_tokenrs_*

    These cookies are used for essential website functionality. This includes functionality for logging in, remembering your username, My Account features and website registration. Without these cookies, our website may not function correctly.

    RS Components

    rs-online.com

    db_[number], ajs [number], mf_user, _actmu, _ga, _mkto_trk, ser_app, _actvc, optimizelyEndUserId

    These cookies are used to help us understand the performance of the website for each user e.g. page load times

    AppDynamics

    rs-online.com

    SRCHD, SRCHUID, SRCHUSR, MUID, MUIDB

    These cookies are used for analytics and advertising – to measure and improve the performance and relevancy of adverts

    Bing

    rs-online.com

    fr, wd, sb, c_user, xs

    These cookies are used for analytics and advertising – to measure and improve the performance and relevancy of adverts

    Facebook

    rs-online.com

    _ga, _gid, ENS_AES

    These cookies are used for analytics – to help us improve and understand how people use our website

    Ensighten

    rs-online.com

    cjPixelCookie

    This cookie keeps track of when you have arrived at our website from a recognised third-party affiliate website

    Commission Junction

    turn.com

    uid, clk, fc, optOut

    These cookies are used for targeting and advertising – to allow us to optimise and manage our digital advertising programmes

    Amobee

    ha.iadvize.com

    Number of site visitors + date of last visit - VUID - visitor unique ID - pageview - connectionTime -site_id – sessionID

    We use these cookies to offer our live chat services

    iAdvize

    .doubleclick.net

    DSID, IDE

    These cookies are used for targeting and advertising – to personalise the adverts you see based on what you're browsing, and to let us know if you then made a purchase as a result

    Doubleclick

    youtube.com

    YSC, _ga, SID, PREF, SAPISID, CONSENT, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, LOGIN_INFO, HSID, SSID, APISID 

    These cookies track viewing behaviours of videos on our site, and to personalise your suggested videos on YouTube

    YouTube

    twitter.com

    These cookies are used for analytics and advertising – to help us improve and understand how people use Twitter, and to help us deliver ads and make them more relevant to you

    Twitter

    rs-online.com

    1P_JAR, OGPC, SID, HSID, SSID, APISID, SAPSID, SAPISID, NID, CONSENT, HSID, X-SS-WNB, NID, SID, SIDCC, SSID, APISID, SS-PC_1, AID, DV, UULE, OTZ

    These cookies are used for analytics and advertising – to help us improve and understand how people use Twitter, and to help us deliver ads and make them more relevant to you

    Google

    rs-online.com

    4c, 4c_mc, _fsuid

    These are used for the ForeSee customer survey and feedback functionality. If you opt-in to a survey, we may record part of your visit to help us improve the user experience for our customers e.g. how easy it is to use our search features.

    ForeSee

    rs-online.com

    AMCV_[number] @AdobeOrg, AMCVS, s_cc, s_sq, s_vi, s_fid, demdex, dextp, dst, _dp, mbox, ev_sync_dd, _tmpi, ev_sync_ax, everest_g_v2, ev_tm, MVT_TEST_GROUP.[number], sdsat

    These cookies are used to understand user behaviour on the website, to personalise your experience based on your journey, and for personalising marketing and advertising to your behaviours and interests

    Adobe

    rs-online.com

    Uvc, bku, mus, uid, na_tc, loc, ssc, na_id, cw_id

    These cookies are used for sharing articles on social media networks

    Addthis.com

    electro.demdex.net

    demdex

    These cookies are used for targeting and advertising through Adobe Audience Manager. Cookies include Adobe, Google, DoubleClick, Facebook, Twitter and Amobee

    Adobe

    rs-online.com

    _br_uid_2

    This cookie helps to improve the relevancy of our content and personalises your search and browse experiences

    Bloomreach

    rs-online.com

    BVBRANDID, BVBRANDSID,BVImplmain_site  

    These cookies are used to allow our customers to share their opinions on our products through product reviews

    Bazaarvoice

    Cookies provided by RS Components (see column on the right in the above table) are installed on your devices for maximum 12 months. At the expiry of the 12 months period, users are invited to accept cookies again. However, cookies provided by 3rd parties will have their own expiry date. Please refer to the 3rd party cookie policy on their website for more information on this.

    Cookie preferences

    For more information relating to the use of cookies on websites, including how to block or delete cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. We have also set out some useful guidance below to help you block or delete cookies if you use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. As explained above, however, blocking or deleting all cookies will have a negative impact on the usability of our website.

    Updating cookie consent

    To update your cookie consent, please click here.

    To change your online chat consent, click here

    Blocking cookies

    Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. For example (at the time the policy was drafted): • In Internet Explorer you can refuse all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy”, and selecting “Block all cookies” using the sliding selector. For more information, please click here. • In Mozilla Firefox you can block all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Options”, and un-checking “Accept cookies from sites” in the “Privacy” box. For more information, please click here.

    Deleting cookies

    You can also delete cookies already stored on your computer:

    • In Internet Explorer, you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at

       

      http://support.microsoft.com/kb/27883

    • In Mozilla Firefox, you can delete cookies by, first ensuring that cookies are to be deleted when you “clear private data” (this setting can be changed by clicking “Tools”, “Options” and “Settings” in the “Private Data” box) and then clicking “Clear private data” in the “Tools” menu.

    Last updated: March 2021