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Cookie Policy

This is the cookie policy for Tortoise Media (“we”, “our” or “us”). It might not be the most exciting thing you’ll read (or we’ll write) today, but it is important. We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for you to understand how and why we use cookies on www.tortoisemedia.com and on the Tortoise app (the “Digital Services”). 

Please read it carefully so you know what’s what. If you have any questions, get in touch with us on memberdata@tortoisemedia.com. If you have an account, you will be able to change the settings on it if you want to.

According to Reuters Institute, as of July 2018 the average number of cookies in use by UK news websites is 67. Our site uses 6. This is because we only capture information that makes your direct experience of our site better – rather than capturing information that enables us (or anybody else) to benefit from knowing more about what you’re doing online than you’ve explicitly agreed to share.

Whenever you like you can refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may not be able to access all parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you visit our site. By continuing to use our site without activating your browser to block cookies, you are consenting to us using cookies on our site.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file on your computer, phone, or other device that allows us to recognise and remember you when you return to our Site.

All cookies have expiration dates that determine how long they stay in your browser: 

Session cookies – these are temporary cookies that expire (and are automatically erased) whenever you close your browser.

Persistent cookies – these usually have an expiration date and so stay in your browser until they expire, or until you manually delete them. We use persistent cookies to help keep you logged in and to understand usage patterns so that we can improve the Digital Services for our members. 

Why do we use cookies?

Cookies help us make your experience smoother. They help you get in and around the site efficiently, and help us to show you content that we think you’ll like. For example:

  • recognising you when you return to the Site;
  • helping you navigate between pages more efficiently; and
  • storing your preferences so that we can customise what you see on the website and in the app, and what we send you in our marketing communications (if you have asked us to send you these).

What types of cookies does Tortoise Media use and why?

We use three different types of cookies:

  1. Essential – these are cookies that we need to make the website and the app work properly. For example, some essential cookies carry out fraud detection and security checks (along with other similar things) or help give you access to the log-in pages. 
  2. Functional – these cookies remember your preferences. They make using the website and the app simpler for you. For example, it’s a functional cookie that remembers your log-in details securely if you have ticked the “Stay logged-in” box, so you don’t have to log in every time you come back to look at the website.
  3. Analytics – these cookies are used for what we rather grandly call ‘performance measurement’. That is, to measure how many people visit our website(s), how they navigate between the various pages on those sites, and what content is popular. This means we can see what we’re doing well and what we need to improve. 

What other technologies are used on our website(s) and app?

There are some other technologies which seem similar to cookies but are not the same, including pixels and site tags. These can be used to retrieve information such as your device type or operating system, IP address, time of visit, etc. They are sometimes used to create or access the cookies on your browser, but are not cookies themselves. 

Please see our privacy policy for more details on the personal information that may be collected automatically.

Changes to this Policy

From time to time, we may make changes to our cookie policy to take account of changes in the law or changes in our services and practices.

If we do that, we will let you know by revising the date at the top of this policy. If the changes are significant, we may give you extra notice – such as adding a statement to the homepage of the website or sending you an email with the updated version.


11 January 2019