SunLife Cookie Policy
We’d like to explain what cookies are, how we use them and how they can make life easier for you. This website is owned by SunLife, part of the Phoenix Group.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small files that websites place on the device that you're using to browse the site. Cookies are commonly used to record some aspect of your visit to a site, such as choices you've made or preferences you've set during your visit.
How we use cookies
We use cookies to give you the best experience when you visit our website. By using cookies, we can make it easier for you to do many things, such as applying for products and services. For example, if you want to get a number of quotes from our website during your visit, a cookie will remember the details that you first enter, which will mean that you won't have to re-enter your details every time you want a different quote.
Cookies can also allow us to tailor the content of our website so we can show you services or adverts we think you may be interested in.
Keeping your information safe
Our cookies do not store personal information such as your name, address, phone number or email, in a format that can be read. The cookies we use cannot read or search your computer, smartphone or web-enabled device to obtain information about you or your family, or read any material kept on your hard drive.
The information collected by cookies will not personally identify you, but will include information about computer settings, your connection to internet, IP address and interactions with our website. You can find out more about how we use and store your personal data in our Privacy Policy.
The website that places a cookie owns that cookie. This means only that website and other sites that it has agreed to share information with can read the information stored using a cookie.
Links to other websites
If you follow a link from our website to another website, please be aware that the owner of the other website will have their own privacy and cookie policies for their site. We recommend you read their policies as we are not responsible or liable for what happens at their site.
The types of cookies we use on this site
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are essential for our online services and tools to work. They collect or record information that we need to make our site work. Common uses for this type of cookie include storing information needed to receive a quote or apply for a product or service on our website. These cookies only last for a single browsing session - when you leave our site, they are removed.
Performance cookies
These cookies help us to monitor and improve how our website works. Some common uses for this type of cookie include:
- Collecting information about which pages visitors go to most often
- Noting if visitors get any error messages from web pages
- Understanding which links visitors like to follow (including adverts) and which they choose not to
- The information collected using these cookies is anonymous and cannot be used to identify an individual visitor. They just help us make a better website for you
Functionality cookies
These cookies allow us to provide you with enhanced features that remember your preferences and choices, such as your user name, language or region. They also let us monitor how our website is performing so we can keep on improving it.
Common uses for this type of cookie include:
- Remembering how you like to use our site, such as what text size you like or what media software you use
- Remembering what topics you're interested in so we can provide you with related products, services and information
- The information we store in these cookies is encrypted so that only we can read it
Targeting and advertising cookies
These cookies are used so that adverts provided to you are more relevant to you and to limit the number of times you see an advert. They may also be used for market research and to help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.
These cookies work by remembering the sorts of topics you've looked at and using this information to provide our own advertisements or to share the information with other advertisers.
Double Click cookies
We use these cookies, with our online advertising agency, to help place our adverts on other sites and record how users interact with them. Double Click cookies contain no personally identifiable information. You can choose to opt out of seeing personalised ads via your Google settings.
Google Analytics
SunLife uses Google Analytics. This is a web analytics service enabling us to recognise repeat visitors to the site. Using Google Analytics, we're able to record specific browsing information such as how you arrive at the site, pages you view, options you select, and the route you take through the site.
By monitoring this information, we're able to make improvements to our sites. Google also reserve the rights to the data collected.
You can opt out of Google Analytics at any time.
Facebook advertising
Our digital advertising approach includes information provided through Facebook Advertising and Facebook Pixel Re-Marketing programmes. We do this to help understand and deliver ads and make them more relevant to you. In conjunction with cookies, this approach enables us to learn whether someone who saw an ad on Facebook later visited our website.
The ultimate control of information gathered through Facebook Advertising and Facebook Pixel Re-Marketing resides entirely with Facebook. You can opt out of Facebook's use of cookies and Facebook Pixel Re-Marketing by updating the settings on your Facebook Account.
Hotjar
To help us optimize the experience of our customers, we use a technology service called Hotjar. Using this service helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback.
Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices. This includes each device's IP address (captured and stored only in anonymised form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website).
Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymised user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please refer to Hotjar’s privacy policy.
You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar’s storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar’s use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link.
How to manage and switch off cookies
Your web browser provides settings that allow you to manage or switch off cookies. If you do switch off cookies, remember that you may not be able to use all of the services on our websites. You can find out more about managing and switching off cookies at the independent website allaboutcookies.org.
Glossary of key terms
- Cookies
- Small files that websites place on the device that you're using to browse online. They are commonly used to record some aspect of your visit to a site, such as choices you've made or preferences you've set during your visit.
- Pseudonymised
- This is a method that replaces identifiable data with one or more artificial identifiers, called pseudonyms. The data record cannot be attributed to the individual without extra information, helping to protect their privacy and is preserved for analysis.
- IP Address
- The Internet Protocol address (or simply, IP) is a unique address that identifies a device on the Internet or a local network. It allows a system to be recognised by other systems connected to the internet in the form of a recognised digital signature.
- Anonymised
- This is a process of turning data into a format that does not identify individuals in any way, or in the future. The data record is completely changed into random alphanumeric or numeric characters, simply forming part of a wider sample.
SunLife Data Protection Officer
If you would like to contact the Phoenix Data Protection Officer directly in relation to this Cookies Policy, please use the following details:
SunLife Data Protection Officer
1 Wythall Green Way
Wythall
Birmingham
B47 6WG
Email: DataProtection@sunlife.co.uk
Phone: 020 3735 0577
This Cookie Policy was last updated January 2019