Cookie Notice
This is the cookie notice for SSE and Me Customer Services, which is a trading name of SSE Enterprise which are members of the SSE Group. When we refer to ‘SSE’, ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘our’, we mean any of those SSE entities, as appropriate. This information is collected through instruments known as cookies and various other technologies, collectively referred to in this Cookie Notice as ‘cookies’.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files transferred and stored by your web browser to your computer or mobile device when you visit or use a website. Cookies allow websites to recognise your device and store some information about your preferences or past actions.
Cookies can be considered as ‘first party’ or ‘third party’ cookies depending on the domain that places them. First party cookies are cookies set by a website visited by the user. Third party cookies are set by a domain other than that of the website visited by the user, so if a user visits a website and a third-party organisation sets a cookie through that website, this would be a third-party cookie.
Cookies can also be considered as ‘persistent’ or ‘session’ cookies depending on their duration. Persistent cookies remain on a user’s device for the time specified in those cookies. They are activated every time that user visits the website that created the cookies, until the cookies expire or are disabled by the user. Session cookies allow the actions of a user to be linked during a single browsing session. A session starts when a user opens a browser window and ends when the browser window is closed, following which all session cookies are deleted.
Why do we use cookies?
We use cookies and other similar technologies to collect information about your browsing activity and about the device you have used to access our website (including the make, model and operating system, IP address, browser type and mobile device identifiers) so we can provide essential features and functionality on our website:
- Make our website as easy and intuitive as possible for you to use
- Monitor and analyse website usage and performance so we can measure the effectiveness of our website and improve it (including security)
- Remember choices you make when visiting our website and recognise you when you return so you don’t have to remind us
- Remember certain information about your browsing activity on our website, such as the web pages you have viewed and your preferences. This information can then be used to personalise and improve the way you interact with our website (for example, displaying content we think might be relevant to you based on your previous activity) and inform you of special offers and promotions tailored to your interests (where you have consented to receiving marketing communications from us).
The cookies used on our website can be broken down into one category:
- Strictly Necessary
- Performance
- Targeting
Strictly Necessary
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you that amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms.
You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but then some parts of the site will not work.
Performance
This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics – which is a significant update to Google’s more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.
Targeting
These Cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites.
These Cookies are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these Cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Targeted advertising or remarketing is a type of targeted advertising that displays our adverts on third party websites across the internet to users who have previously visited this website. Remarketing involves collecting Cookies to inform, optimise and serve adverts based on someone’s past visits to this website. To opt out of this type of advertising you can use this free Google: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Cookie List
Strictly Necessary
OptanonAlertBoxClosed
- Hosted by sseandme-customerservices.co.uk
- This cookie is set by websites using certain versions of the cookie law compliance solution from OneTrust. It is set after visitors have seen a cookie information notice and in some cases only when they actively close the notice down. It enables the website not to show the message more than once to a user.
- Duration – A few seconds
OptanonConsent
- Hosted by sseandme-customerservices.co.uk
- This cookie is set by the cookie compliance solution from OneTrust. It stores information about the categories of cookies the site uses and whether visitors have given or withdrawn consent for the use of each category. This enables site owners to prevent cookies in each category from being set in the users browser, when consent is not given. The cookie has a normal lifespan of one year, so that returning visitors to the site will have their preferences remembered. It contains no information that can identify the site visitor.
- Duration – A few seconds
Performance
_ga
- Hosted by sseandme-customerservices.co.uk
- This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics – which is a significant update to Google’s more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.
- Duration – 30 days
_gid
- Hosted by sseandme-customerservices.co.uk
- This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics. This appears to be a new cookie and as of Spring 2017 no information is available from Google. It appears to store and update a unique value for each page visited
- Duration – A few seconds
Targeting
_gat_gtag_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Hosted by sseandme-customerservices.co.uk
- Google Analytics
- Duration – A few seconds
Managing cookies
When you visit our websites, you will be presented with a Cookie banner. It gives you the choice to accept the use of Cookies on the site or not. It will also present you with a link to our Cookie manager. Through the Cookie manager, you can choose to opt-in or opt-out of the types of Cookies active on our sites. You can also find out a bit more about what we use them for. Our Cookie manager will only remember your preferences for our site for the specific browser that you’re using at that time.
You can also manage your Cookie preferences at any time via this link:
If you wish to change your Cookie settings generally, you can delete Cookies stored on your computer or change your privacy settings at any time via your browser settings.
Microsoft Edge Chrome Firefox Safari Opera
Who should I contact with a question or a complaint?
If you would like to contact us in relation to your rights or if you are unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, you may contact us by sending a letter:
SSE Enterprise Data Protection Specialist c/o SSE Enterprise Assurance Corporate Suite Inveralmond House 200 Dunkeld Road Perth PH1 3AQ
or sending an email to EnterpriseDataProtection@sse.com
If you would like to contact our Data Protection Officer, you may do so using the following details:
Email: GroupDPO@sse.com
This notice was last updated in January 2021.