Cookie Policy
Background
The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations (PECR) cover the use of cookies and similar technologies for storing information, and accessing information stored, on a user’s equipment such as their computer or mobile. They are derived from European law. They implement European Directive 2002/58/EC, also known as ‘the e-privacy Directive’.
The e-privacy Directive complements the existing data protection regime and sets out more-specific privacy rights on electronic communications. It recognises that widespread public access to digital mobile networks and the internet opens up new possibilities for businesses and users, but also new risks to their privacy.
PECR have been amended four times. The more recent changes were made in 2015, to allow emergency text alerts and to make it easier to take action for breaches of the marketing rules; and in 2016, to require anyone making a marketing call to display their number. It a re-drafted version of PECR is under review and it is expected that the final version will be released in May 2018 and that it is aligned with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will come into force on 25.5.2018.
The intent of the PECR is to broaden users’ or subscribers’ awareness of Cookie- or similar technology used by certain web services. The user or subscriber to a website has to be informed once, that
1. Cookies are used on the site
2. What the Cookies are used for
3. Ask for explicit consent or assume indirect consent.
GDPR emphasises the need for many organisations to request the user to actively provide consent to their use of Cookies.
This website
This website is hosted by 1&1 and they have stated here that they do not use any profiling cookies.
I’d like to be able to prevent all third party tracking on my site, but it requires more expertise and time to achieve this.
I am at least not using Google analytics and started using GOSQUARED/ MATOMO for analytics which are much more privacy respectful.
Basically, when you visit this site a little piece of you will be left behind. The section below tells you what type of cookies currently exist within internet technology and what you can do to protect yourself.
I do not harvest personal data from this website and I do not monetise personal data.
So, what are cookies anyway?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that is downloaded on to your computer when you visit a website. Cookies are used by many websites and can do a number of things, eg remembering your preferences, recording what you have put in your shopping basket, and counting the number of people looking at a website.
Cookies can be classified into various types based on their lifetime behaviour and the domain they are stored for. Major type of cookies are:
1. Session Cookies
2. Persistent Cookies
3. Secure Cookies
4. Third Party Cookies
Session Cookies: This cookie lives in memory of the client computer and its lifetime depends on the current browser session. If the user closes the browser these cookies are deleted from the client machine. If the user visits the website again after closing the browser these cookies will not be available.
Persistent Cookies: Persistent cookies are the cookies that are stored on the secondary storage of the client machine. These cookies do not depend on the browser session. If the user closes the browser and then access the website again then these cookies will still be available. The lifetime of these cookies are specified in cookies itself (as expiration time). The maximum age of such cookies could be 1 year.
Secure Cookies: These cookies have an attribute for security. there cookies can only be accessed by the HTTPS connections and not HTTP connections. The reason for having this type of cookie is that it lessen the chances of cookie stealing/eavesdropping(more on this later in the article)
HttpOnly Cookies: This mode will allow the cookie to be accessed using HTTP or HTTPS requests. Such cookies will not be accessible by any other methods(JavaScript APIs for instance).
Third Party Cookies: First party cookies are the cookies which set the domain of the cookie same as the domain or sub-domain of the website that is being browsed. Third Party Cookies on the other hand are the cookies with domain set to different domain then the website being browsed. These cookies are mainly used for tracking user browsing patterns and/or finding the Advertisement recommendations for the user.
How can I control my cookies?
You can use your web browser to:
• delete all cookies;
• block all cookies;
• allow all cookies;
• block third-party cookies;
• clear all cookies when you close the browser;
• open a 'private browsing' / 'incognito' session, which allows you to browse the internet without storing local data; and
• install add-ons and plug-ins to extend browser functionality.
Disabling cookies in your browser:
If you disable cookies, some features will be disabled It will turn off some of the features that make your site experience more efficient and some of our services will not function properly. However, you can still place orders over the telephone by contacting customer service.
Where to find information about controlling cookies
• Internet Explorer cookies information
• Chrome cookies information
• Firefox cookies information
• Safari cookies information
• Opera cookies information
Useful information
• A number of websites provide detailed information on cookies, including AboutCookies.org and AllAboutCookies.org.
• The Internet Advertising Bureau website Your Online Choices allows you to install opt-out cookies across different advertising networks.
• Google has developed a browser add-on to allow users to opt-out of Google Analytics across all websites which use this popular analytics product.
• New technologies such as Mozilla's Do Not Track allow you to tell websites not to track you.
• Internet Explorer has a feature called Tracking Protection Lists which allows you to import a list of websites you want to block.