As an authorised financial services company we are bound by the FSA to ensure that material and advertising which is suitable only for professional investors is not available to users who do not fall into this category, which means it's essential for us to identify our users and adjust our content accordingly.

The most likely explanation for this is that your internet browser has privacy settings which are set to delete ‘cookies’ whenever you finish a session on the internet, or block cookies from the outset.

A cookie is a small computer file which contains information about you that the website needs. In this case, the cookie contains a piece of code that tells us what type of user you are, be that professional or private investor. Allowing us to give you a cookie means you don’t need to tell us who you are every time you visit. This is the only information that the cookie contains, it doesn’t track your movements or record your passwords, and it isn’t a means to invade your privacy – you can find out more here: www.allaboutcookies.org/»

You can add FE Trustnet to a list of trusted sites on your browser, without changing your general settings – so you’ll remain protected when you’re browsing the web but FE Trustnet will be allowed to give your machine a cookie, including your user type details.

Open internet options – this is usually found under the ‘tools’ heading in your browser as illustrated below:

Navigate to the security tab, and click on the tick icon marked ‘trusted sites’. You’ll see a slider and a button, highlighted in yellow, that allows you to add FE Trustnet to your ‘safe’ list.

Make sure the slider is at the bottom setting, which allows FE Trustnet to give you a cookie, then click on the ‘sites’ button.

If you’ve already got FE Trustnet open, you’ll see it in the upper white text area – simply click ‘add’ then close the dialog box. Alternatively you can enter the site address (including http://) manually, then do the same.

Make sure you have your cookies enabled and not set to auto delete when you log out. You’ll find this under the ‘General’ tab in a section marked ‘Browsing history’. Make sure the tickbox which says ‘Delete browsing history on exit’ is not ticked. If there is a tick in the box click on it to remove it.

If you use your internet connection purely for business, and are unlikely to visit any websites you don’t trust or recognise, you may wish to loosen your privacy settings so that your computer more readily accepts cookies from any website. You can do this by opening the ‘privacy’ tab, and sliding the bar on the left down so that your browser is willing to accept all cookies.

Remember though, this will allow any website you visit to give your computer a cookie – and not all websites are to be trusted; so this is only adviseable if you use only a limited number of trusted sites.

We take your satisfaction when using FE Trustnet very seriously. If you’ve gone through this process and are still seeing the popup, or are having difficulty following the instructions, contact me on the details below and I’ll try and deal with your case personally…

Pascal Dowling Group Editor – FE Trustnet 0207 408 8057 pascal.dowling@financialexpress.net