What’s a cookie?
- A “cookie” is a piece of information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive if you agree to this and which records how you move your way around a website so that, when you revisit that website, it can present tailored options based on the information stored about your last visit. Cookies can also be used to analyse traffic and for advertising and marketing purposes.
- Cookies are used by nearly all websites and do not harm your system.
We are required to obtain your consent for all non-essential cookies used on our website. You can block cookies (including essential cookies) at any time by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block essential cookies you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
How do we use cookies?
- We use cookies to track your use of our website. This enables us to understand how you use the site and track any patterns with regards how you are using our website. This helps us to develop and improve our website as well as products and / or services in response to what you might need or want.
- Cookies are either:
- Session cookies: these are only stored on your computer during your web session and are automatically deleted when you close your browser – they usually store an anonymous session ID allowing you to browse a website without having to log in to each page but they do not collect any personal data from your computer; or
- Persistent cookies: a persistent cookie is stored as a file on your computer and it remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the website that created it when you visit that website again. We use persistent cookies for Google Analytics.
- Cookies can also be categorised as follows:
- Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential to enable you to use the website effectively, such as when buying a product and / or service. Without these cookies, the services available to you on our website cannot be provided. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the internet.
- Performance cookies: These cookies enable us to monitor and improve the performance of our website. For example, they allow us to count visits, identify traffic sources and see which parts of the site are most popular.
- Functionality cookies: These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced features. For instance, we may be able to provide you with news or updates relevant to the services you use. They may also be used to provide services you have requested such as viewing a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect is usually anonymised.
- Targeting cookies: These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests.
- First and third party cookies: First party cookies are cookies set by our website. Third party cookies are cookies on our website that are set by a website other than our website, such as where we have adverts on our website or use Facebook pixels so that we can show you relevant content from us when you are on Facebook.
We use third party cookies on our website and these are set out in the table below.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:
| Cookie | Duration | Purpose | Logged-in Users Only? |
|---|---|---|---|
| wordpress_test_cookie | Session | Tests that the browser accepts cookies. | No |
| _ga | 2 years | Google Analytics – Used to distinguish users. | No |
| _gat_<property-id> | 1 minute | Google Analytics – Used to throttle request rate. | No |
| _gid | 24 hours | Google Analytics – Used to distinguish users. | No |
| tk_ai | 24 hours | Jetpack – Stores the unique identifier for the publisher to enable Jetpack to collect data. | No |
| tk_lr | 1 year | Jetpack – Stores the unique identifier for the publisher to enable Jetpack to collect data. | No |
| tk_or | 5 years | Jetpack – Stores the unique identifier for the publisher to enable Jetpack to collect data. | No |
| wp-settings-{user_id} | 1 year | Used to persist a user’s wp-admin configuration. | Yes |
| wporg_logged_in wporg_sec |
14 days if you select “Remember Me” when logging in. Otherwise, Session. | Used to check whether the current visitor is a logged-in WordPress.org user. | Yes |
| wporg_locale | 1 year | Used to persist a user’s locale configuration. | Yes |
| _fbp | 3 Months | Used by Facebook to identify browsers for the purposes of providing advertising and site analytics services. | No |
| _xs c_user |
1 Year | Used by Facebook to store a unique session ID. | No |
| fr | 3 Months | Used by Facebook to deliver, measure and improve the relevancy of ads | No |
| _datr | 3 years | Used by Facebook to provide fraud prevention. | No |
| dpr | 7 Days | Used by Facebook to deliver an optimal experience for your device’s screen. | No |
| sb | Persistent | Used by Facebook to identify your browser securely. | |
| gravatar is-logged-in |
6 Months | Used by Gravatar to load signed in users Avatar on the site if they use the Gravatar service. | Yes |
| _uetsid
_uetvid |
Persistent | Used by Microsoft’s Bing Ads to place search ads where our potential customers are likely to see them. Microsoft uses cookies to track visitors and analyse the performance of these ads across their network. You can opt out of Bing Ads. | No |
| _pinterest_cm _pinterest_sess |
1 year | Used by Pinterest to track the usage of services. | No |
You can alter your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on our cookie consent banner and adjusting your settings. Please refresh your page to ensure that the new settings have taken effect. You can also control your cookie settings through your web browser.
You can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, by going to http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
If you have any questions about the cookies that we use, feel free to email us at caroline@carolineleon.com.