What are Cookies?
Cookies are information packets sent by web servers to web browsers, and stored by the web browsers. The information is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables a web server to identify and track web browsers. There are two main kinds of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are deleted from your computer when you close your browser, whereas persistent cookies remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until they reach their expiry date.
Types of Cookies
Cookies can be classified as either ‘essential’ or ‘non-essential’.
Essential cookies: these are cookies that are either:
- used solely to carry out or facilitate the transmission of communications over a network; or
- strictly necessary to provide an online service (e.g. our website or a service on our website) which you have requested.
Non-essential cookies: these are any cookies that do not fall within the definition of essential cookies, such as cookies used to analyse your behaviour on a website (‘analytical’ cookies) or cookies used to display advertisements to you (‘advertising’ cookies).
Session and Persistent Cookies
Cookies can be classified as either ‘session’ or ‘persistent’, depending on how long they last after they are placed on your browser.
Session cookies: session cookies last for as long as you keep your browser open. They expire when you close your browser.
Persistent cookies: persistent cookies expire at a fixed point in time or if you manually delete them from your browser, whichever occurs first.
Cookie Classifications
Cookies can be classified as ‘first party’ or ‘third party’.
First party cookies: these are cookies placed on your device by our website domain.
Third party cookies: these are cookies placed on your device by third party website domains.
Cookies we use
preference cookies:
| Name | Type | First or third party | Session or persistent | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _AVESTA_ENVIRONMENT | Non-Essential | First party | Session | The cookie is set when the user subscribes to an email service from MailChimp. |
Statistics cookies:
| Name | Type | First or third party | Session or persistent | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Non-Essential | First party | persistent (2 years) | Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. |
| _gat | Non-Essential | First party | persistent (1 day) | Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate. |
| _gid | Non-Essential | First party | persistent (1 day) | Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. |
Marketing cookies:
| Name | Type | First or third party | Session or persistent | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ads/ga-audiences | Non-Essential | First party | session | Used by Google AdWords to re-engage visitors that are likely to convert to customers based on the visitors online behaviour across websites. |
| GPS | Non-Essential | Third Party | persistent (1 day) | Registers a unique ID on mobile devices to enable tracking based on geographical GPS location. |
| gwcc | Non-Essential | Third party | persistent (3 months) | Enables Google Website Call Conversions - This registers if the visitor has clicked on call within the "contact us" sub-page |
| IDE | Non-Essential | Third party | persistent (1 year) | Used by Google DoubleClick to register and report the website users actions after viewing or clicking one of the advertisers ads with the purpose of measuring the efficacy of an ad and toi present targeted ads to the user. |
| pagead/1p-user-list/# | Non-Essential | Third party | session | Unclassified |
| PREF | Non-Essential | First party | persistent (8 months) | Registers a unique ID that is used by Google to keep statistics of how the visitor uses YouTube videos across different websites. |
| test_cookie | Essential | First party | persistent (1 day) | Used to check if the user's browser supports cookies. |
| UUID#[abcdef01234356789]{32} | Essential | First party | Session | A universally unique identifier (UUID) is a 128-bit number used to identify information in computer systems. |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE |
Non-Essential | First party | persistent (179 days) | Tries to estimate the users' bandwidth on pages with integrated YouTube videos. |
| YSC | Non-Essential | Third party | Session | Registers a uniique ID to keep statistics of what videos from YouTube the use has seen |
| yt-remote-cast-installed | Non-Essential | Third party | Session | Stores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video |
| yt-remote-connected-devices | Non-Essential | Third party | Persistent | Stores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video |
| yt-remote device-id | Non-Essential | Third party | Persistent | Stores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video |
| yt-remote-fast-check-period | Non-Essential | Third party | Session | Stores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video |
| yt-remote-session-app | Non-Essential | Third party | Session | Stores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video |
| yt-remote-session-name | Essential | Third party | Session | Stores the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video |
Joomla! Cookies
We use an open-source content management system on our website. Joomla uses its own cookies to store information about a number of things, such as what you have done on the site during your current visit. Whilst we regularly review this privacy notice to ensure it is up-to-date, there may be occasions where a newly published Joomla! cookie is not listed here.
Can I stop using cookies?
Yes, but our website might not function properly if you stop using cookies. If you want to stop using cookies, you can do so by adjusting your browsers cookie settings. To find out more about adjusting your browsers cookie settings, you can visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/
