Cookie policy

This is our initial cookie policy towards achieving privacy compliance for all visitors to our site. Our aim is to address the legal compliance aspects, but also be open about our conduct.

Aside from the additional information provided by this update, the operation of the Hargreaves Lansdown website has not been modified. The detail contained within this page is provided to ensure you are fully aware of the 'cookies' we have in use, allowing you to make an informed choice about your continued acceptance of them.

We are currently examining all elements of our web operations and working on a multiple stage approach to meet the EU guidelines relating to protecting your privacy online - we want you to be confident in using our site, and for you to be more than satisfied that your privacy is of the utmost importance to us.

About cookies on the HL website

'Cookies' are used on almost every website. They are small text files that are saved on your computer to help the site perform a number of functions. We use cookies for several reasons. For example, they allow us to keep you secure when you log in to your online account, provide online account application forms, monitor the number of people using our site and help us understand more about the way in which people use our website.

Cookies used by the Hargreaves Lansdown website

Do not contain any personally identifiable information about you or information such as passwords.
Do not (and cannot) allow us to access other information stored on your computer.
Do not (and cannot) give us information about other websites you visit or your activities on other websites.
Do not store any information about you that others could read and understand, or in any way compromise your security.
Do allow us to provide a service whereby people can access their account, place a deal or open a new account, securely.
Do allow us to monitor the number of people using our website and collectively monitor their activities. We cannot identify what you, as an individual, do on our site
Do allow us to see how people arrive at our site (e.g. search for ‘Hargreaves Lansdown’ on a search engine, or click on an email we have sent).
Do allow us to collectively gather a little technical information about people using our site, such as their geographic location (to city level) and the type of web browsers they are using. We cannot identify where you, as an individual, are located or the software or services you are using.
Do allow us to display adverts on other websites, to people who have previously accessed the Hargreaves Lansdown website. We cannot identify individuals to whom adverts may be displayed.
Do allow the website to recall certain settings and preferences to make using the Hargreaves Lansdown site easier. We cannot identify what your individual preferences or settings are.

Types of cookie used on the Hargreaves Lansdown website

Session cookies are stored on your computer and remain available for the duration of your visit to our website. When you close your browser, any session cookies that have been set will be automatically removed from your computer’s memory.

Persistent cookies are stored on your computer and remain there until they reach their expiration date or you choose to delete them. At this point, the browser will delete the cookie from your computer’s hard drive. Whilst the persistent cookie is present, the website that created it will have access to that cookie each time you return to that particular site.

We make use of both types of cookie in order to maximise the security of our services and to ensure you always get an optimal service from our site. We do not use cookies to track your use of the internet after leaving our website, nor do we store any information about you in cookies that others could read and understand.

First and third party cookies - whether a cookie is 'first' or 'third' party refers to the website/service placing the cookie. First-party cookies are those set by us. Third-party cookies are cookies that are authorised by us but provided via one of our suppliers. In some limited cases, we may use our suppliers to manage some of these cookies for us, but we never allow any third party to use these cookies for their own purposes.

How we classify the cookies we use

We use a system of classification developed by the International Chamber of Commerce. This allows us to classify the different types of cookies which we use on our website and provide you with more information about why we use them.

Strictly necessary cookies are cookies that are essential in providing specific services you have requested from us. For example:

Remembering information you have entered on online application forms when you navigate to different pages in a single web browsing session.
Maintaining a logged-in session on our website.

Performance cookies aim to improve our website by collecting information about how you use our website. For example:

Counting the number of visitors and how they move around our website.
Understanding what interests our users so that we can deliver the content and level of service you expect from us.
Helping us to improve our website by measuring errors experienced by users of our site.
Testing different designs or content on our website.

Functionality cookies will typically be set because of an action you have taken on our website but may also be set in the delivery of other services. For example:

Saving preferences when using interactive share charts.

Promotional cookies collect information about your browsing in order to deliver promotions relevant to you and your interests. We may from time to time use this type of cookie on our website to deliver promotions relevant to you. Promotional cookies may also be used to limit the number of times you see a promotion as well as help measure the effectiveness of the promotion.

The cookies we use

To ensure you are fully informed of all the cookies we are using (to the point of the last review), our site is independently audited by Cookie Reports Limited - in total 5 pages were reviewed on 22 May 2012.

If you have any further questions, would like any further clarification around our use of cookies or wish to discuss how we are embracing online privacy, please email us at helpdesk@hl.co.uk.

Using browser settings to manage cookies

Most web browsers allow you to manage cookies via the browser settings. For example you may choose to delete existing cookies, prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie or disable cookies altogether.

By using our website you are agreeing to the placement of cookies on your computer.