What are Cookies

A cookie is a small piece of data that a website asks your browser to store on your computer or mobile device. The cookie allows the website to “remember” your actions or preferences over time.

Most browsers support cookies, but users can set their browsers to decline them and can delete them whenever they like.

Description

Websites mainly use cookies to:

  • identify users
  • remember users’ custom preferences
  • help users complete tasks without having to re enter information when browsing from one page to another or when visiting the site later.

Cookies can also be used for online behavioural target advertising and to show adverts relevant to something that the user searched for in the past.

How are they used?

The web server supplying the webpage can store a cookie on the user’s computer or mobile device. An external web server that manages files included or referenced in the webpage is also able to store cookies. All these cookies are called http header cookies. Another way of storing cookies is through JavaScript code contained or referenced in that page.

Each time the user requests a new page, the web server can receive the values of the cookies it previously set and return the page with content relating to these values. Similarly, JavaScript code is able to read a cookie belonging to its domain and perform an action accordingly.

What are the different types of cookies?

A cookie can be classified by its lifespan and the domain to which it belongs. By lifespan, a cookie is either a:

  • session cookie which is erased when the user closes the browser or
  • persistent cookie which remains on the user’s computer/device for a pre-defined period of time.

As for the domain to which it belongs, there are either:

  • first-party cookies which are set by the web server of the visited page and share the same domain
  • third-party cookies stored by a different domain to the visited page’s domain. This can happen when the webpage references a file, such as JavaScript, located outside its domain.

What cookies are used on our website

We use a total number of 5 cookies

1 cookie tracks only our admin staff as and when they add or modify content on the website.

The other 4 cookies are anonymous and only collect data about the visit but not the visitor. These are part of Google Analytics which gives us data about the number of visitors to our site and statistics about page popularity etc. You can find out more about Google’s position on privacy about its analytics service at http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/analytics/privacyoverview.html

Cookie Category: Necessary (1)

Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.

Cookie Name: PHPSESSID
Cookie purpose description: Preserves user session state across page requests.
Initiator: Web server
Source: lyndondarkes.co.uk
Data is sent to: Germany (adequate)

This only records the details of Administrators when they log in to the back end of the site to edit and update website content. This does not log any visitor’s details.

Cookie Category: Statistics (3)

Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.

Cookie Name: _ga
Cookie purpose description: Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Initiator: Script tag
Source: https://www .google-analytics.com/analytics.js
Data is sent to: United States (adequate)
Prior consent enabled: No

Cookie Name: _gat
Cookie purpose description: Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate
Initiator: Script tag
Source: https://www .google-analytics.com/analytics.js
Data is sent to: United States (adequate)
Prior consent enabled: No

Cookie Name: _gid
Cookie purpose description: Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Initiator: Script tag
Source: https://www .google-analytics.com/analytics.js
Data is sent to: United States (adequate)
Prior consent enabled: No

Cookie Category: Marketing (1)

Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third-party advertisers.

Cookie Name: collect
Cookie purpose description: Used to send data to Google Analytics about the visitor’s device and behaviour. Tracks the visitor across devices and marketing channels.
Initiator: Script tag
Source: via https://www .google-analytics.com/analytics.js
Data is sent to: United States (adequate)

What if I don’t want to accept cookies?

You can block or restrict cookies set by any website – including our websites – through the browser settings on each browser you use, on each device you use to access the Internet. Please be aware that this may limit the functionality of our website and might lead to issues with other websites like banking sites and online shops.

To learn how to disable cookies on your preferred browser we recommend reading this advice posted by Google.

In many browsers you should be able to delete or clear cookies after viewing a site.