SSE Airtricity: Cookies

To ensure a smooth and reliable expereince while using this, we strongly recommend you use a modern browser, such as Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer (version 9 or higher, ideally version 11+).

What can I do?

  • You may already have Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer installed on your computer. We recommend you use one of the browsers. If you don't have any of these, you can download them for free.
  • Talk to your company's IT department, which may be able to provide you with an alternative browser.

Cookies

This is the cookie policy for www.sseairtricity.com and any associated SSE Airtricity Apps. It applies to information collected and used by SSE Airtricity, which is a trading name of SSE Airtricity Limited, SSE Airtricity Energy Supply (NI) Limited and SSE Airtricity Gas Supply (NI) Limited which are members of the SSE Group. SSE Airtricity Home Energy Services is our dedicated Boiler & Home Services Division. 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 Policy as 'cookies'.

To view and manage cookie settings:

    Go to the Support section in the SSE Airtricity app
    Tap on the ‘Manage cookie preferences’ button at the bottom of the Support section

Please review this Cookie Policy and our Privacy Notice here

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 (for example, cookies placed by SSE Airtricity for www.sseairtricity.com. 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).

Why do we use cookies?  

The cookies used on our website can be broken down into four categories:

    • Strictly necessary
    • Performance
    • Functional
    • Targeting advertising

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

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve site performance. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site.

If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site and will not be able to monitor its performance.

Functional

These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies some or all of these services may not function properly.

Targeting advertising

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 tool.

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.

Cookie list - Mobile app

Strictly Necessary

Optanon / OneTrust

These cookies relate to the OneTrust cookie compliance solution.

Cookie More information Lifespan Cookies used Host
OptanonConsent OptanonConsent 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 user’s 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. 1 year First .sseairtricity.com
OptanonAlertBoxClosed OptanonAlertBoxClosed 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. 1 year First .sseairtricity.com
eupubconsent eupubconsent is used by the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework to store the user's consent to the data collection Purposes. The cookie holds an encrypted consent string that vendors participating in the framework can read and determine the user's consent. 5 months First .sseairtricity.com

Azure Affinity

In order for Azure to distribute users connecting to the Mobile App correctly across web server instances, a special cookie (known as an affinity cookie) is used, which allows the service to choose the right instance that the user was using to serve subsequent requests made by that user in the same session. In this way, it is ensured that once a client establishes a session with a specific server instance, it will keep talking to the same server as long as his session is active.

Cookie More information Lifespan Cookies used Host
ARRAffinity This cookie is set by websites run on the Windows Azure cloud platform. It is used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session. Session First SSE Azure cloud infrastructure

Azure AD B2C

Azure AD B2C is a customer identity access management (CIAM) solution capable of supporting millions of users and billions of authentications per day. It takes care of the scaling and safety of the authentication platform, monitoring, and automatically handling threats like denial-of-service, password spray, or brute force attacks.

Cookie More information Lifespan Cookies used Host
Azure AD B2C This cookie is the authentication cookie associated with the Azure AD B2C framework. This Cookie facilitates the sign-on and access control for web applications. When a user attempts to access a protected resource within the application, the app verifies the presence of an active session. If no session exists or the session has expired, the user will be redirected to the Azure AD B2C sign-in page. Session Third .sseairtricity.com

Global Payments

Global Payments is a payment service company that SSE Airtricity use to facilitate secure credit and debit card transactions on the Mobile App.

Cookie More information Lifespan Cookies used Host
Realex payment gateway This cookie is required to complete online payments via Realex/Global payments. Session First

https://pay.sandbox.realexpayments.com & https://test.portal.gbwebpay.com

Performance Cookies

Google Analytics

These Google Analytics cookies are used to gather information about how customers use our website. They contain no information that can identify the site visitor.

Cookie More information Lifespan Cookies used Host
_ga _ga 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. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners. 2 years First sseairtricity.com
_ga_UA-nnnnnnn-nn ga_UA-nnnnnnn-nn is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites. A minute First sseairtricity.com
_utma _utma is used to calculate new and returning visitor statistics. 2 years First sseairtricity.com

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, yo may contact us by sending a letter:

Republic of Ireland

Data Protection Specialist
SSE Airtricity,
Red Oak South,
South County Business Park,
Leopardstown,
Dublin 18,
D18 W688

Northern Ireland

Data Protection Specialist
SSE Airtricity,
3rd Floor Millennium House,
17-25 Great Victoria Street,
Belfast
BT2 7AQ

or sending an email to irelanddataprotection@sse.com.

If you would like to contact our Data Protection Officer, you may do so using the following details:

  • Email: dpo@legal.sse.com
  • Phone: 0345 070 7378
  • Postal: Data Protection Officer,
    No. 1 Forbury Place,
    43 Forbury Road,
    Reading,
    RG1 3JH