COOKIE POLICY 

When you visit any web site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies (small text files). Since websites do not have memory, cookies are useful in that they allow the website to remember certain things that help you use the service. When used properly, they are used to inform and encourage best practice by online websites and businesses, and to deliver and record timely and relevant information to users.

This information does not usually directly identify you.

Because we respect your right to privacy, we are trying to set our website so that you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Once we have managed to do this you will be able to click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

In the meantime visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using our website, with the drawback that certain features of the website may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

We use cookies to help identify and track visitors, their usage of our website, and their website access preferences.

Purpose of cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookies:

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms.

You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Strictly Necessary Cookies used on our site:

• __cfduid associated with CloudFlare, used to speed up page load times. According to CloudFlare it is used to override any security restrictions based on the IP address the visitor is coming from. It does not contain any user identification information.

Performance/Analytic Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site.

All information that these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance effectively and improve the service.

Performance/Analytic Cookies used on our site:

• _gat     This is a Google Analytics cookie used to limit the rate of requests. It’s valid for 24 hours after the date of the session.
• _ga      This is a Google Analytics cookie used to distinguish users. It’s valid for 2 years after the date of the session. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners.
• _gid     This is a Google Analytics cookie used to distinguish users. It’s valid for 2 years after the date of the session.

Advertising Cookies

These cookies are to define advertising on and off our website to certain users based on their browsing habits

Advertising Cookies used on our site:

• NID      Google uses these cookies, based on recent searches and interactions, to customise ads on Google websites. Persistent – 6 months

These are the cookies we are aware of, if additional cookies are found please let us know at cookieaware@swarmcatcher.co.uk along with any additional details that may help us in identifying it. Its possible that in the future additional cookies may be utilised in various circumstances

• If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
• If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
• When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year.
• If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
• If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

First Party Cookies

The term “party” relates to the website that places the cookie on your computer or mobile device. Cookies that have the domain “swarmcatcher.co.uk” are first party cookies. These can be persistent or temporary cookies.

An example of a first-party cookie is “_ga”. It contains an anonymous identifier which is used to track website usage across our domain with Google.

We do not use cookies to store any personal information about the users on our website.

Third Party Cookies

Some of the cookies have a domain which is not swarmcatcher.co.uk. Any cookie which has a domain that is different from the website is a third party cookie. An example of a third party cookie that you may find on our site is “PREF” which has the domain google.co.uk. This means that Google Analytics collects data about the traffic to swarmcatcher.co.uk via Google advertising cookies and anonymous identifiers. Google Analytics is a web analytics tool which Google provides to allow us improve our understanding of how our website is being used by visitors.

Google Cookies

Google uses a range of cookies on swarmcatcher.co.uk website including:

• Preferences: The PREF cookie allows the SwarmCatcher website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks. This includes your preferred language or text size.
• Security: The SID and HSID cookies contain digitally signed and encrypted records of your ID and most recent sign-in time. The combination of these cookies allows Google to keep your account secure by blocking attempts to steal content on forms that you complete on the website.
• Advertising: Google uses the PREF, NID and SID cookies to help customise ads on places like Google search. The cookies allow Google to remember your most recent searches, your interactions with SwarmCatcher ads and your visits to the SwarmCatcher website. This way, ads can be customised to suit your preferences.

In summary, the third party cookies on our site are used for the following purposes:

• To count and track the movement of anonymous users across our site(s);
• For website usage analysis
• To serve advertisements on third party sites and ensure they are timely and relevant
• To tailor content to your preferences

Duration of Cookies

Cookies are always set with an expiry time but this can vary from as soon as the website browser is closed (session) to e.g. 4 years (persistent). The different durations are specified based on the requirements for which the cookie was set. These are explained below:

Session Cookies

Session cookies allow a website to keep track as you move from one page to another so that the server does not treat you like a new visitor and repeatedly ask you for the information you have previously provided to the website.

Session cookies are temporary so they expire as soon as you close your browser. This means that when you revisit the website again, it recognises you as a new visitor unless specified otherwise (in a cookie!)

You can adjust your session cookies through the settings feature of your browser.

Persistent Cookies

Persistent cookies are set with expiry dates so they remain on your hard drive until you either delete them manually or until they expire.

We use persistent cookies for the following purposes:

• To help us recognise you as a unique visitor when you return to our website
• To compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how people use our site and to help us improve the structure of our website
• To internally identify you by account ID, Name, Email address and location (geographic and computer IP address)

How to control Cookies

You can adjust the cookie settings on your browser to give you more control over which cookies are placed on your computer or device. By managing cookies you can:

• Accept all cookies
• Receive a notification when a new cookie is about to be stored on your computer or device so you can decide whether or not to accept it
• Block all cookies

Please note that some parts of our website may not function properly if you reject cookies.

You might not want your data to be collected by Google Analytics. In that case, you can download the opt-out add-on. Also, clearing or deleting cookies from your browser does not ensure that your subsequent visits to swarmcatcher.co.uk will be considered as a new session in Google Analytics. This add-on works by sending instructions to the Google Analytics JavaScript that is running on the SwarmCatcher website to prohibit sending information to Google Analytics.

To opt out of the Google Analytics Advertising Features that we use, you can follow this link. To understand how the opt-out add-on works, you can click here.

There are guides available on how to manage cookies on various browsers including:

Internet Explorer
Firefox
Google Chrome
Apple Safari

Find out more about cookies

The Interactive Advertising Bureau is an industry body that has produced a series of web pages that explain how cookies work and how they can be managed.

You can also visit:

• The Information Commissioner’s Office
• All About Cookies