Cookies! Who needs them?
We are committed to protecting you and your data that we collect from you online, whether it’s anonymous or otherwise. This section will tell you how we like to use cookies, why we use them and how this allows us to do a great job online. We will also let you know how you can go about managing what cookies are stored on your devices! All of the information contained on this page constitutes as being part of our cookies policy – so if you are concerned about cookies make sure you have a good read.
By using this website (www.gregvaughan.co.uk) through any device you are agreeing to our cookies policy and any other terms and condition that may apply. Naturally we reserve the right to change these terms and conditions at any time and therefore your continued use of the website is taken as meaning you agree to such changes.
So what is a cookie?
A cookie, is usually a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user’s web browser while a user is browsing a website. When the user browses the same website in the future, the data stored in the cookie can be retrieved by the website to notify the website of the user’s previous activity. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember the state of the website or activity the user had taken in the past. This can include clicking particular buttons, logging in, or a record of which pages were visited by the user even months or years ago.
The difference between session and persistent cookies.
Cookies can expire at the end of a browser session (from when a user opens the browser window to when they exit the browser) or they can be stored for longer.
Session cookies – allow websites to link the actions of a user during a browser session. They may be used for a variety of purposes such as remembering what a user has put in their shopping basket as they browse around a site. They could also be used for security when a user is accessing a user account or to facilitate use of webmail. These session cookies expire after a browser session so would not be stored longer term. For this reason session cookies may sometimes be considered less privacy intrusive than persistent cookies.
Persistent cookies – are stored on a users’ device in between browser sessions which allows the preferences or actions of the user across a site (or in some cases across different websites) to be remembered. Persistent cookies may be used for a variety of purposes including remembering users’ preferences and choices when using a site or to target advertising.
First and third party cookies – Whether a cookie is ‘first’ or ‘third’ party refers to the website or domain placing the cookie. First party cookies in basic terms are cookies set by a website visited by the user – the website displayed in the URL window. Third party cookies are cookies that are set by a domain other than the one being visited by the user. If a user visits a website and a separate company sets a cookie through that website this would be a third party cookie.
Site Cookies
We use the WordPress framework to provide you with our web site. WordPress makes use of session cookies (which are automatically deleted every time you close your browser).
– wordpress_test_cookie – stores whether Cookies are enabled or not, expires when your browser closes.
– wordpress_logged_in_* – stores whether you are logged in as a site user (this will ony be true for staff and administrators)
– wfvt, wp-settings-5 and wp-settings-time-5 – These cookies contain some information about your general geographic location (used to remember your time zone, for example).
Site Visitor Profiling
We use Google Analytics to collect statistical data about our visitors. We collect this information in a way that does not identify you and the data is not shared with anybody else. We use the information to learn about how visitors use our website, and can adapt and improve the user experience based on such analysis.
– utma Keeps track of the number of times a visitor has been to the site pertaining to the cookie, when their first visit was, and when their last visit occurred.
– utmb Records moment in time when a visitor enters a site and expires at the end of the session.
– utmc Records moment in time when a visitor leaves a site and expires after 30 minutes.
– utmz Keeps track of where the visitor came from, what search engine was used, what link was clicked on and what keyword was used.
– qca Quantcast used by us and by our customer management system to tack statistics. Although useful we’re working to remove this cookie as we can do without it.
Also, from time to time we may imbed other content from other websites, such as youtube, facebook, google and twitter and they may also send you cookies whilst using our site. To find out how they use cookies please check their cookie policies.
So, what if you don’t want to accept cookies from Greg Vaughan?
Easy, you can alter your settings in the browser that you are using to block the above listed cookies. Please be aware that this might impact on the service that this website provides and you may not be able to create an account or login to your existing account. If your browser on your device does not have cookies settings then you should exit this website now and wait until you can use a browser that has these settings.
In addition, if you use firefox you can get an add-on called ‘View Cookies’ which will allow you to monitor cookies used on any website. A similar add-on for Chrome is ‘Attacat Cookie audit tool.’
If you have any questions or concerns then please contact us and we’ll do our best to help.