When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. 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 during one task
- recognising that you have already given a username and password so you don’t need to enter it for every web page requested
- measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and that there is enough capacity to ensure they are fast
You can manage these small files yourself and learn more about them from AllAboutCookies.org.
Our use of cookies
The list below shows all of the cookies that are set by this website and the third-party services we use. If you have any queries about these cookies or would like more information about them, please email the CF Labs team at team@consumerfocuslabs.org.
Cookies for improving service
Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This is to ensure that the website is available when you want it and to help us understand what you want to use.
| Name | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _utma | randomly generated number | 2 years |
| _utmb | randomly generated number | 30 minutes |
| _utmc | randomly generated number | when you close your browser |
| _utmz | randomly generated number and information on how the site was reached (e.g. direct or via a link, organic search or paid search) | 6 months |
For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to the Google Code website
Cookies for sharing links to our website
We use AddThis and Facebook Like Button services to make it easy to share links to our website with others. These third-party services place a cookie on your device to make their service easier to use. Their policy on use can be found on the following websites: Add This (Opt-out for AddThis) and Facebook.
| Name | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| di | randomly generated text | 2 years |
| dt | randomly generated text | 1 month |
| loc | randomly generated text | 3 months |
| psc | number | 2 years |
| uid | randomly generated text | 2 years |
| uit | number | 24 hours |
Cookies to remember your selections and preferences
When you interact with this website and leave a comment, we use a cookie to remember the information you have provided. This means you don’t have to fill out the same details every time you want to leave a comment.
| Name | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| comment_author | your name | 1 year |
| comment_author_email | your email address | 1 year |
| comment_author_website | your website address | 1 year |
