What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file that is sent to your computer or mobile phone which contains information that allows us to recognise that you have used our website before. A cookie typically contains:
- the name of the server the cookie was sent from
- the lifetime of the cookie
- a unique identifier (usually a number)
Our website server sends the cookie and uses this number to recognise you when you return to a site or browse from page to page. Only the server that sends a cookie can read, and therefore use, that cookie. This file is stored on your computer's (or phone's) hard drive. All websites can send a cookie to your browser if your browser settings allow it. Many websites do this to track on-line traffic flow.
Cookies can be categorised from their life span:
- session or temporary cookies: these cookies expire when you close your browser or when the session times out
- persistent or permanent cookies: these are usually stored on your hard disk and survive across multiple sessions but have a longer expiration date
When you visit the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit website, the pages that you see, together with a cookie are downloaded to your device. This is a common practice on websites, because it allows website publishers to find out (amongst other things) whether the website has been visited before.
All of our cookies have the title 'Thecpsu.org.uk'. The names and purposes of the cookies are as follows:
Necessary (cookies that are essential for the operation of our website)
Used by the .NET framework to identify the same session across postbacks.
This cookie is essential for the operation of our website and is used to verify a visitor’s identity in order to prevent fraud.
Performance (cookies that analyse how our visitors use our website and to monitor website performance)
- __utma (and __utmb, __utmc, __utmz)
Used by google analytics to provide the site owner with analysis of who uses the site, what they are looking for and other information. This allows the site owner to know what people are searching for. This information can be used in the future to improve the site content.
Social or share buttons
On our website you will see 'social buttons'. These enable users to share or bookmark the web pages.
If you use a 'social button' the social network that created the button may deliver cookies to your computer or mobile phone that track your actions on this and other sites. Even if you don't click on a social button, if you are logged into these social networks' accounts they may be tracking your visits.
How to control or delete cookies
If you don't want cookies to be stored on your PC, it's possible to disable this function within your browser without affecting your navigation around the site.
You can easily control and disable cookies through your browser settings. All browsers are different – visit allaboutcookies.org for instructions for each browser.