Cookies and other similar technologies policy

This Cookie policy explains the different types of Cookies and other technologies that we use in our services, why we use them, and your choices for managing data collected through our Cookies.

We want your experience on comparethemarket.com to be quick, simple and easy. To ensure that you can make full use of comparethemarket.com's comparison service, your computer, tablet or mobile device will need to enable Cookies and other similar technologies (including web beacons and pixels). If these aren't enabled on your device, it may limit your experience on our website and will mean that you will not be able to save and retrieve your quotes. In some instances, it may mean that you cannot access some of our services at all.

A Cookie is deployed on your browser and is used by the website you are viewing to identify you as a user, which then enables information to be stored on the hard drive of your device. Cookies allow a device to be identified as corresponding to one that has accessed another website or visited a website previously. This allows us to recognise you as a unique customer and provides us with information about how you use our website. Cookies are commonly used on the Internet and do not harm your device system.

What are pixels and web beacons?

Pixels and tags are invisible images or scripts that are included on our website and app. When you interact with certain features on our website or app, or when reading our email communications, the pixels and tags make calls to web servers that transfer information about your interactions with the website, the app, or the email. They are often used in combination with Cookies and other technologies.

Further information can be found at https://www.allaboutcookies.org/faqs/beacons.html or at http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/.

What about the app?

Mobile apps use similar technologies, often referred to as “HTTP Cookies” or “app Cookies.” These fulfil similar roles as Cookies use on the web, enabling the App to store and retrieve data and IDs that identify your mobile device (Mobile IDs) for the purposes described in this Cookie and other similar technologies Policy.

How we use Cookies

We use five categories of cookie on our websites. We also use Cookies to help administer our Rewards.

  • Strictly Necessary

  • Performance

  • Functionality

  • Marketing

  • Your Rewards

Some of these are 'Session Cookies', these only exist for the duration of your visit to our website and are deleted when you leave the website. Others are 'Persistent Cookies', these stay on your device until they expire or are deleted.

Some of the Cookies and technologies we use will be deployed without your consent, this is because the law permits this, e.g. they are required to provide you with the service you have request, or they help keep our website, App, and the information you provide to us secure.

The majority of Cookies are managed and controlled by comparethemarket.com, these are first party Cookies, however, Cookies may also be placed by our approved business partners, these are known as 'third party Cookies'. Third party Cookies are typically placed when the website involves elements from other sites, such as images, social media activity or advertising.

We may also manage some cookies and tracking tools through our own systems in a more privacy-friendly way. This means that, instead of your browser sending information directly to third-party companies, the information first goes through our systems. We then check and send only the information needed for approved purposes, such as analytics or advertising. This helps us keep more control over how cookies are used, reduce the amount of data shared with third parties, and make sure only necessary and authorised cookies are used.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookies are required for the operation of our website.

These Cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to use our websites.

Our use of Strictly Necessary Cookies include:

  • providing quotes and account information

  • authenticating and verifying web requests

  • ensuring the information entered on our website is secure and not subject to access from third parties

  • ensuring use of cookies and similar technologies align with a users preference.

Performance Cookies

These Cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance, which pages visitors go to most often, recording anonymous sessions, and if they get error messages from web pages.

These Cookies do not collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these Cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works. Some Performance Cookies are managed for us by third parties, further information on these third parties is provided within this policy.

Our use of Performance Cookies includes:

  • collating anonymous aggregated information that is used to manage and plan enhancements to our services

  • how you use our website and to assist us in tailoring the website to customer needs

  • measuring advertising effectiveness.

Functionality Cookies

These Cookies are used to provide services (such as videos) or allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your username, language or the region you are in) to provide enhanced, more personal features.

Our use of Functionality Cookies includes:

  • remembering preferences you have chosen to customise your experience

  • providing live chat functionality.

We do not use Functionality Cookies to target you with adverts on other websites.

Marketing Cookies

Marketing Cookies record your visit to our website, including the web pages you have visited, the links and adverts you have engaged with, when you visited the website and in some circumstances your IP address and identifiers relating to your device. We use carefully selected and approved advertising and marketing providers to help us to serve our advertising to users. These providers will set targeting Cookies on our websites and will use them to make sure that our advertising that they serve to you is relevant to your interests and needs. These Cookies collect information about your web browsing activity and enable our providers to track you when you visit different websites, so that they can serve our advertisements to you on those websites. For example, if you visit our homepage but didn't obtain a quote, the cookie will collect this information and serve you an advertisement on a different website to encourage you to come back and get a quote. Our providers control these Cookies and are responsible for how the Cookies, and any information collected by the Cookies, are used. None of the information collected by the Cookies is shared with us, however, we may receive information from these providers as to how the advertising and marketing services they provide us have performed.

Although these Cookies do not collect information that you enter into forms on our website (such as your name and email address), we sometimes share your email address, IP address and information about whether or not you have purchased a policy or claimed a reward with our providers. Information is shared in a pseudonymised format (personally identifiable information fields are replaced by one or more artificial identifiers), our providers can then combine this information with the data that their Cookies collect to serve our advertisements to audiences that we select. We may also pass on this information to third-party partners in order to improve ad engagement as well as our ability to measure the success of this advertising.

We and our providers also use targeting Cookies to:

  • improve our website, for example by enabling us to understand how our customers interact with our website;

  • evaluate the effectiveness of our advertising and promotions on third party websites, for example, by tracking whether these advertisements are clicked on by customers and how many times; and

  • inform the content of marketing emails that we send to you and trigger those emails, where we have your consent to send you these emails. For example, if you have looked at pet insurance quotes but not taken out a policy, these Cookies may trigger an email to you to remind you of your quotes and encourage you to come back and take out a policy.

Your Rewards

These Cookies enable us to administer our Rewards more efficiently. Our use of Rewards Cookies assists with speeding the approval of your purchase of a Qualifying Product. More information on our Rewards T&Cs can be found here.

How to stop or modify Cookies and similar technologies

You can modify your preferences at any time using the link below:

Modify cookie preferences

You can also stop and delete Cookies and similar technologies by configuring your browser not to accept them or opt-out. For more information on how to do these on popular browsers please use the links below:

Partners

The preferences you select will apply to your use of the comparethemarket.com website including where possible web pages relating to comparethemarket.com comparison services that are provided by our carefully selected partners. Your preferences will be shared with these partners for this purpose. You can find details of our partners in our privacy policy. Where it is not possible for your preferences to be applied to the web pages operated by our partners, our partners will provide you with separate options. For more information on how these technologies are used by our Partners please see more information in their cookie policies below.

Key 3rd Party Providers

Google Analytics

Our websites use Google Analytics, which is a web analytics service provided by Google.

For more information please see:

https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/

Search Ads

Online advertising supplier, these are used to serve our internet advertisements on other sites. Some of our webpages may contain electronic images that help us see how customers interact on these pages. They may also provide Search Ads with information about the interaction.

For more information please see:

https://support.google.com/dfp_premium/answer/2839090?hl=en&ref_topic=7395141

Yahoo

Our website uses Yahoo Code, a pixel provided by Yahoo, for the purposes of creating a more personalised experience. For more information please see:

http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/

FullStory

Our website uses FullStory, a session recording tool, to help us understand how customers use our site. The recordings are configured to exclude personal data and are anonymous. This helps us identify usability issues and improve the overall customer experience.

For more information, please see:

https://www.fullstory.com/legal/privacy-policy

Microsoft

Microsoft collects and receives information used for marketing purposes, as well as assisting us with tracking the performance of advertising we do via Microsoft’s services (Bing etc.).

For more information on how Microsoft use this information, including how it is used for personalised advertising, please follow these links:

https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-gb/privacystatement

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/accounts-billing/security/personalized-ads-and-your-privacy

Meta

If you have permitted us to do so we will share information about the actions that you take on your websites and Apps such as visits to our website, installations of our App, and your use of our products and services. This information is shared with Meta so that they can provide measurement services about how our advertising has performed, and target and deliver our advertising to you on their social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Information about how to stop or modify Cookies and similar technologies is provided above.

You can also manage and control your privacy on Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta Products here.

Amazon

Our website uses Amazon Code, a pixel provided by Amazon, for the purposes of creating a more personalised experience.

For more information please see:

https://youronlinechoices.eu/