Cookie Policy

Updated March 2024

Cookie preferences

Acceptance banner

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to enhance user experience and to improve our website.

Upon accessing our website a message will be shown with a link to the cookie policy (this page) and two options:

  • Accept all cookies - permits our website to issue both operational and analytics cookies
  • Set cookie preferences - allows you to choose whether you accept analytics cookies

The terms ‘us’, ‘we’, ‘our’ and other similar terms refers to the QinetiQ Group of companies, including all individual business areas within the group, plus NCSISS in this instance.

The term ‘you’, ‘your’, ‘user’ and other similar terms refers to website visitors.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small files of letters and numbers. These files are either stored in the memory of your computer or other device such as mobile phones or tablet devices (these cookies are generally known as session cookies) or are placed on the hard drive of your device (generally known as persistent cookies).

Cookies are created when you visit a website or other service that uses cookies. Cookies are commonly used to help the user’s browsing experience and provide more information about the user’s experience and interests. This information is generally used to make content, services and advertising more relevant and useful during future visits.

For more details about cookies and details of how to delete and disable cookies you can visit www.aboutcookies.org and also see our section with more information about cookies and how to delete them below.

What cookies are on the NCSISS website?

We use the following cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website.
  • Analytical/performance cookies. These allow us to record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed, and to count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

Cookie/Tracker Category Purpose
__utm_is_did
__utm_is_wdck
x-bni-fpc
x-bni-rncf
x-bni-ja
__utm_is_did
x-bni-ci 		Necessary Site security related.
cookietest Necessary This cookie is used to determine if the visitor has accepted the cookie consent box.
BNIS_x-bni-jas Necessary The cookie is necessary for secure log-in and the detection of any spam or abuse of the website.
CookieConsent Necessary Stores the user's cookie consent state for the current domain.
rc::a
rc::c		 Necessary This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.
1.gif Necessary Used to count the number of sessions to the website, necessary for optimizing CMP product delivery.
_hjClosedSurveyInvites
_hjDonePolls
_hjMinimizedPolls
_hjDoneTestersWidgets
_hjIncludedInSample
_hjShownFeedbackMessage
_hjid		 Analytics These cookies are used by a website analytics service called Hotjar. For more information please refer to the 'About Hotjar' section on the Hotjar support site. A description of all Hotjar cookies can be found by clicking here.
_hjRecordingLastActivity
_hjTLDTest
_hjUserAttributesHash
_hjCachedUserAttributes
_hjLocalStorageTest
_hjptid		 Analytics These cookies are used by a website analytics service called Hotjar. For more information please refer to the 'About Hotjar' section on the Hotjar support site. A description of all Hotjar cookies can be found by clicking here.
_ga_#
_ga
_gcl+#
_gid		 Analytics Used to send data to Google Analytics about the visitor's device and behavior. Tracks the visitor across devices and marketing channels.

Where can I find more information about cookies, and how do I delete cookies?

Find out more about cookies including how to disable/enable and delete them at the following website www.aboutcookies.org. You can block most cookies generally by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies.

Google provide a mechanism for users to opt-out or change their Ads settings:

Users can also opt-out of having their data collected by Google Analytics:

However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our sites, or you may experience reduced functionality when accessing certain services.

If you want to delete cookies from the browser on your mobile phone, you will need to refer to your handset manual.