Cookie Policy

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on a computer or mobile device by a website’s server; only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Each cookie is unique to a web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers. It allows a website to remember things like user preferences.

Why do we use cookies?

Cookies help us secure your information, provide an online booking service and enhance user experience. For example, we use ‘analytics’ cookies to understand what users like and don’t like about our website so that we can improve content across the site.

Types of cookies used

The Turner Sims website uses a variety of cookies, which are detailed below.

Throughout our website, we link to external websites that will have their own cookie policies. We encourage you to read their policies. Turner Sims and the University of Southampton are not responsible or liable for their privacy practises.

Necessary Cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security and required services. Our box office system provider, Spektrix, uses necessary cookies to allow the system to function correctly on our website. These temporary session cookies enable you to access your online account and purchase tickets and memberships. They are removed once you have logged out. All of Spektrix’s web traffic runs through Cloudflare to protect your information. It is not possible to purchase anything on the Turner Sims website without accepting the following cookies.

Necessary Spektrix Cookies

• QueueNumber – records the customer’s place in a queue for tickets and expires when the user ends their browser session
• SessionId – stores a unique session ID value used to remember what has been added to the basket and expires when the user ends their browser session
• CookieDetection – used to identify whether cookies can be set and expires when the user ends their browser session
• ReturningCustomerCookie – used to recognise return users and expires when the user ends their browser session
• SpektrixClientName – used to distinguish Spektrix client systems (e.g. Turner Sims) and expires after 1 year. Client name does not refer to the user’s name or identity
• .ASPXAUTH – contains a user’s authentication information, meaning the user does not have to re-enter their login details for every request to the website, and expires 10 minutes since last interaction with the Spektrix Customer Interface of Spektrix API

Necessary Cloudflare Cookies

• cf_clearance – Clearance Cookie stores the proof of challenge passed. It is used to no longer issue a challenge if present. It is required to reach an origin server and expires after 1 year
• __cf_bm – This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to distinguish between humans and bots. It expires after 30 minutes

Analytics Cookies

Analytics Cookies help us understand how people use our website and identify what works and doesn’t work. Most web pages contain a Google Analytics tracking code to record anonymous information about the date and time of your visit, the type of browser used, approximate geographic location and the URL of any page that led to Turner Sims’ website. The information is aggregated and used by us to identify usage trends on our site and to make decisions about which content or presentation styles are most effective.

This tracking is used by our box office system, Spektrix, to support various business and software functions, including informing about queue management and activity levels.

Google Analytics Cookies

• _gid – used to ditinguish users in Universal Analytics and expires after 24 hours
• _gat – used to limit the amount of user requests and expires after 1 minute
• _ga – used to distinguish individual users on our domain and expires after 2 years
• _ga_F7V05TJ56H – used to persist session state and expires after 2 years

Find information about opting out of browsing behaviour being shared with Google Analytics by visiting Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on

Marketing Cookies

Third-party cookies may be used to track which websites you’ve visited. This information is collected in order to show you relevant online ads. Without these cookies, online advertisements you see may be less relevant to you.

Facebook Pixel/Meta Pixel

Facebook cookies and pixels are used to understand and deliver relevant advertising. We may also use a cookie to learn about whether visits to the Turner Sims website were as a result of someone seeing our advert on Facebook or Instagram.

Facebook users can view their Facebook ads settings and update their preferences at any time via their Facebook account. For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/help/109378269482053/

Third-party Cookies for embedded media

We sometimes embed media from third party sites such as YouTube and Spotify to allow you to listen to an artist’s music before booking tickets for a live event at Turner Sims. As a result, when you visit one of our pages containing such content, you may be presented with cookies from these sites. We don’t control the dissemination of these third party cookies and you should check the relevant third party’s website for more information.

How do I restrict or delete cookies?

Most website browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. The website www.aboutcookies.org contains comprehensive information on how to remove cookies on a wide variety of desktop browsers.

For Google Analytics cookies, Google provide a Google Analytics opt-out tool which allows you to specify that you don’t want to accept their cookies, not just for our site, but for all sites which use Google Analytics.

To find out more information and opt out of third party cookies, please visit the relevant privacy and cookie policy pages on third party web sites.

When was our Cookie Policy last updated?

This policy was last updated: October 2024