Cookie policy

About cookies

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

• enabling a service to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task
• recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested
• measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there’s enough capacity to ensure they are fast.

You can manage these small files yourself and learn more about them through Internet browser cookies – what they are and how to manage them on the gov.uk website. However please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.

Instructions for blocking cookies using browser settings can be found at How to control cookies on the AboutCookies.org website.

We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website and help us create a more useful and easy to use site. See our privacy statement for more information.

Third Party Cookies

In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. The following section details which third party cookies you might encounter through this site.

This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.

For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.

From time to time we test new features and make subtle changes to the way that the site is delivered. When we are still testing new features these cookies may be used to ensure that you receive a consistent experience whilst on the site whilst ensuring we understand which optimisations our users appreciate the most.

We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work the following social media sites including; Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Dotdigital will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.

What information we collect and how

This site uses cookies, but they do not identify users and we only use them to gather statistical information. Unless input from a user directly into a form, the site does not capture and store any personal information about individuals who access it.

The information we collect via the Website may include:

• Any personal details you knowingly provide us with through forms and our email, such as name, address, telephone number etc.
• Your preferences and use of email updates, recorded by emails we send you (if you select to receive email updates on products and offers).
• Your IP Address, this is a string of numbers unique to your computer that is recorded by our web server when you request any page or component on the Website. This information is used to monitor your usage of the Website.
• Data recorded by the Website which allows us to recognise you and your preferred settings, this saves you from re-entering information on return visits to the site. Such data is recorded locally on your computer through the use of cookies. Most browsers can be programmed to reject, or warn you before downloading cookies, information regarding this may be found in your browsers help facility.

What we do with your information

Any personal information we collect from this website will be used in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and other applicable laws. The details we collect will be used:

• In certain cases we may use your email address to send you information on our other products and services. In such a case you will be offered the option to opt in/out before completing.

We may need to pass the information we collect to other companies for administrative purposes. We may use third parties to carry out certain activities, such as processing and sorting data, monitoring how customers use the Website and issuing our e-mails for us. Third parties will not be allowed to use your personal information for their own purposes.

Access to your information

You have the right to make a request for personal information about yourself, or another person if they have given their consent. This is called a subject access request. Find out how to make a subject access request.

Analytics cookies

This site uses Google Analytics cookies. Every time a user visits our website, web analytics software generates an anonymous analytics cookie. These cookies give us statistical information: for example, they can tell us whether or not you have visited the site before. Your browser will tell us if you have these cookies, and if you don’t, we generate new ones. This allows us to track how many individual unique users we have and how often they visit the site. These cookies cannot be used to identify individuals, they are used for statistical purposes only.

Other websites

This privacy policy only covers this website. Any other websites which may be linked to by our website are subject to their own policy, which may differ from ours.

More Information

Hopefully that has clarified things for you and as was previously mentioned if there is something that you aren’t sure whether you need or not it’s usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features you use on our site. However if you are still looking for more information then you can contact us through one of our preferred contact methods.
Email: info@westofengland-ca.gov.uk