Cookie policy

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are essential in order to enable a user to move around our Websites and Apps and use their features, such as accessing secure areas of our Websites and Apps. Without these cookies, a user could not perform basic functions or services they have asked for. These cookies may be set automatically when pages load, or as a result of a user request that cannot be fulfilled without the use of the cookie.

Examples:

• User input cookies: these first party user input session cookies are typically used to keep track of the user’s inputs when completing online forms over several pages of a website, such as adding items to a shopping cart to keep track of the items the user has selected (e.g. “Select Basic, Regular or Premium cover”).
• Authentication cookies: these are used to keep a user logged in during a browser session (e.g. on MyAviva).
• User centric security cookies: these cookies are used to increase the security of the service that has been explicitly requested by the user. For example, cookies used to detect repeated failed login attempts on a website, or other similar mechanisms designed to protect the login system from abuse.
• Load balancing session cookies: these cookies enable distribution of the processing of web server requests over a pool of machines instead of just one. The information in the cookie has the sole purpose of identifying one of the communication endpoints (one of the servers in the pool) and is thus necessary to carry out the communication over the network.
• Multimedia player cookies: these cookies are used to store technical data needed to play back video or audio content, such as image quality, network link speed and buffering parameters.
• User interface customization cookies: these cookies are used to store a user’s preference regarding a service across web pages and are not linked to other persistent identifiers such as a username. They are only set if the user has explicitly requested the service to remember a certain piece of information, e.g. the user selects a language preference on a multilingual website by clicking on a button.

Performance cookies

Also called ‘analytics’ cookies, these cookies collect information about how users in general use a website, for instance which pages users go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies may provide website owners with statistical information about the website which can be used for performance measurement and improvement.

This includes activities like counting page visits, dwell time, bounce rates, technologies used to access the site, and page load speeds.

Functionality cookies

Functionality Cookies are used to provide services (such as videos) or to remember choices you make so we can personalise our content for you (for example, by remembering your user name, choice of language or region).

Our use of Functionality Cookies includes:

• remembering preferences you have chosen to customise your experience of our Website; or
• providing live chat functionality to you across our Websites.

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

You can block these cookies using your browser settings, but this may mean that we cannot offer you certain services and may prevent us from remembering that you have chosen not to receive a certain service.

Targeting cookies

These cookies are set by digital advertising businesses for the purposes of managing the performance of adverts, displaying adverts, and/or building user profiles to determine the display of adverts elsewhere. They may be used to limit the number of times a user sees an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. 

These cookies may also be used to tailor direct communications with you, for example, to send you automated emails relevant to your interests, unless you have opted out of receiving marketing materials from us.

Use of cookies by third parties:

Please note that the following third parties may also use cookies. These named third parties may include, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services. These third party cookies are likely to be performance cookies or advertising cookies:

AddThis

Adobe

Drawbridge

Facebook

Google

LinkedIn

Microsoft

Qualtrics

X

YouTube

We are not responsible for third parties' use of cookies.

Except for essential cookies, the cookies we use on our Websites and Apps expire as follows:

• Session cookies: these are created temporarily in your browser's subfolder while you are visiting a website and are automatically deleted when you leave the website.
• Persistent cookies: in contrast to session cookies, persistent cookies are re-activated when you return to the same website, and remain in your browser's subfolder until they expire (usually after 12 months).

Cookies do lots of jobs on our Websites and Apps.  However, most browsers and, in some cases, the settings on your mobile device, allow you to disable them if you would like to. 

You can also update your cookie preferences at any time via our Cookie Preference Centre by clicking on the Manage Cookies link in the footer.  If you switch off cookies that you've previously accepted, then for technical reasons those cookies will not be deleted.  To delete cookies from your browser, we recommend that you clear your browser data.

If you disable cookies, you may find that you have a less personalised experience on our Websites and Apps and that certain parts of our Websites and Apps do not work at all or do not work correctly.

Each browser is configured differently. To disable cookies via your browser settings, you should follow the instructions given by the publisher of your browser. As of the date of this Cookie Policy, these instructions are available for commonly used browsers through the following links (note that clicking the links will open in a new window, and we are not responsible for the content of external websites):

If you use Microsoft Edge:

https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy

If you use Internet Explorer:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Block-or-allow-cookies

If you use Safari:

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph21447?locale=en_US

If you use Firefox:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences

If you use Chrome:

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en&hlrm=en

If you use different devices, make sure you configure the settings of the corresponding browser according to your preferences.

Your mobile device may provide settings that allow you to express the choice not to have information about your use of mobile ads used for interest-based advertising purposes.  On your iOS device, this is called “Limit Ad Tracking,” and on your Android device, it is called “Opt out of Ads Personalisation” or “Opt out of interest-based ads.”