Cookie Policy
A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your device so that it can recognise your browser on the next page or the next visit. This page lists the cookies ior.org sets, what each one does and how to change your choice. Our Privacy Policy explains the personal information we hold and your rights over it.
Your choice
The first time you visit, a bar at the foot of the page offers two buttons. Essential only keeps the cookies the site needs to work and switches the analytics off. Accept all keeps the analytics on and allows LinkedIn's tag as well. You can change your mind at any time with the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page, or here:
Cookies the site needs to work
siororg. The session cookie. It keeps you logged in as you move from page to page and remembers the form you were filling in. It ends after 24 hours without activity, or when you log out.
user. Set only if you tick Stay signed in when you log in. It keeps you logged in on that device so that you do not have to enter your password each time. Logging out removes it.
bior_consent. Records the choice you made on the cookie bar, so that the bar does not ask again. It lasts 182 days and holds nothing but your choice and the time you made it.
Site statistics, which you can switch off
Google Analytics 4 (cookies beginning _ga). Google counts, for us, which pages are read, where visits come from, the type of device and the country or city, and reports the totals. We use the totals to decide what to write and what to improve. It does not tell us who you are, we do not use it for advertising, we do not link it to any advertising account, Google's "signals" feature is off, and the detailed records Google keeps for us are deleted after two months. Our own office visits are excluded from the figures. Because it is used only as statistics about how the site is used, the law lets it run without asking first, provided we tell you and give you a simple way to say no. Essential only on the cookie bar, or the Cookie settings link, switches it off and removes its cookies. Google's description of these cookies is at policies.google.com/technologies/cookies.
Google Analytics counts the view of a page, including the checkout page. It never receives what you type into a form.
LinkedIn's tag, only if you accept all
LinkedIn Insight Tag (LinkedIn's cookies, listed in LinkedIn's cookie table). If you choose Accept all, LinkedIn reports to us, in aggregate only, the job titles, industries, seniorities and company sizes of LinkedIn members who visit the site. It does not tell us who you are. Because LinkedIn also uses the tag for its own advertising purposes, it is set only with your consent, and never on the checkout, renewal and account pages. LinkedIn members can control LinkedIn's use of their data in their LinkedIn settings. LinkedIn's cookie table is at linkedin.com/legal/l/cookie-table.
Cookies set by others
One blog post embeds a video from Vimeo, set to Vimeo's do-not-track mode; Vimeo may set its own cookies when you press play, and Vimeo's cookie notice applies. No page embeds a YouTube video (checked 21 October 2026). If you pay through PayPal, PayPal's own pages and PayPal's cookie notice apply.
How to refuse cookies in your browser
Every browser also lets you block or delete cookies in its settings, for the whole web or for one site. If you block the session cookie you will not be able to log in. Blocking the analytics cookies does not change what the site does for you. You can opt out of Google Analytics across all sites with Google's browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Last reviewed 21 October 2026.