About the EU Cookie Law and our cookie policy

The EU Cookie Law

In May 2011, EU countries adopted the ‘EU Cookie Law’ (officially, the EU e-Privacy Directive). Essentially, it put in place legislation to force website owners to be transparent about their use of cookies and to ask visitors for consent. The legislation applies to all sites in European Union Member States, as well as foreign website who target audiences in Member States. The fine for non-compliance can be as much as £500,000.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) gave British websites a 12 month grace period to update their sites and published guidelines for compliance. This grace period ended on 26th May 2012.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small file which is sent to your computer by a website. Many sites use them for things like storing site preferences, analysing web traffic, keeping you logged in and remembering shopping-basket items. Web browsers tend to automatically accept cookies but there are settings that allow you to customize how you deal with them. You can find more information about cookies, as well as find help on how to disable or delete them at aboutcookies.org.

How we use cookies

On this website, we use cookies for anonymous traffic statistics and to improve user experience. Technically, this site can also use cookies to keep track of logged in users and for post commenters. However, this functionality only applies to a limited set of website content editors. These cookies are not set for public visitors. For a list of cookies used on this site, please see the table below.

More information about the data we may collect can be found on our Privacy Policy page.

Your implied consent and how to opt-out

According to the ICO, “Implied consent is a valid form of consent and can be used in the context of compliance with the revised rules on cookies.” By continuing to use this website, we’ll assume you understand that your actions will result in cookies being set and have given your implied consent.

If you prefer not to have these cookies set, you may opt-out by configuring your browser to reject the cookies. Information on how to do this can be found at aboutcookies.org. Google provides a Browser Add-on for Chrome that enables you to opt out of all Google analytics.

Cookies on our clients’ sites

The kind of cookies we use for sites that we build depend on our clients’ requirements. Our general policy is to only use cookies that are needed for the operation of the site. Since we mostly install Drupal and WordPress content management systems, these include cookies that allow users to log in and post comments. When requested by the client, we also install traffic analysis code, such as Google Analytics, which also sets cookies to measure visitor statistics.

Sometimes a client wishes to display content from third-parties, such as advertising, games or ‘widgets’. These often also set cookies but we’d need to perform an audit to find out how they affect their site’s compliance.

Is your site compliant?

Please contact us if you’re not sure what kind of cookies are used on your own site. We will perform a cookie audit so that you can update your privacy policy in order to comply with the law.

More information

The table below describes the cookies we set on this site for public visitors.

CookieTypeDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessaryPersistent1 hourStores which types of cookies you have approved.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-non-necessaryPersistent1 yearStores which types of cookies you have approved.
viewed_cookie_policyPersistentOne year from set/updateStores your acceptance of our cookie policy so that the notification bar no longer displays.
X-Mapping-ihnbadbnSessionEnd of browser sessionUsed by our web hosting company to manage the load on their servers.
_cfduidSession30 daysHelps Cloudflare detect malicious visitors to this website
_gaPersistent2 yearsUsed by Google Universal Analytics to distinguish users.
_gatPersistent24 hoursUsed by Google Universal Analytics to distinguish users.
_gidPersistent1 minuteUsed by Google Universal Analytics to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_.
__utmaPersistentTwo years from set/update. Used to distinguish users and sessions.Set by Google Analytics when their code executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.
__utmbPersistent30 mins from set/updateSet by Google Analytics to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.
__utmcSessionEnd of browser sessionSet by Google Analytics to determine whether a visitor user is in a new session/visit.
__utmzPersistentSix months from set/updateSet by Google Analytics to store the traffic source or campaign that explains how a visitor reached our site. It is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.

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