COOKIES and OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES
Let’s start with what a cookie is:
Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognizes that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognize a user’s device.
You can find more information about cookies at:
www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu.
For a video about cookies visit
www.google.co.uk/goodtoknow/data-on-the-web/cookies.
Cookies do many different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience. They can also help to ensure that the advertisements and other content you see online are more relevant to you and your interests. They can be set by the website that you are visiting (known as first party cookies) or by another entity such as an advertising network (known as third party cookies).
The cookies used on this website have been categorized on the basis of the four categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide. A list of all the cookies used on this website by category is set out below. Within the four categories, cookies can either be session or persistent. Session cookies are temporary and once you close the browser window they are deleted from your device. Persistent cookies remain on your device for a longer period and are used by the website to recognize your device when you return.
What other tracking technology do we use?
We may also use web beacons or other technologies for similar purposes and we may include these in marketing e-mail messages or our newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and links clicked on. Web beacons do not place information on your device, but may work in conjunction with cookies to monitor website activity.
What if I don’t want cookies?
By using our website you agree that we can place cookies on your device as explained below. If you want to remove existing cookies from your device you can do this using your browser options. If you want to block future cookies being placed on your device you can change your browser settings to do this.
When you review your browser settings or options, you can identify the Bristol Ventures cookies by the fact they include “Bristol Ventures” in the name. For more information on managing cookies see www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies, Current “Do Not Track” initiatives are not recognized by our website.
Please bear in mind that deleting and blocking cookies will have an impact on your user experience as parts of the website may no longer work. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings to block cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit our website or click a link in a targeted email we have sent you, even if you have previously deleted our cookies.
You cannot remove or block web beacons or personalized URLs, as they form part of the content of web pages and emails rather than placing information on your device. But, as they work in conjunction with cookies, turning off cookies will also prevent any web beacons from tracking your user activity on our site. The web beacon will still account for an anonymous visit, but your unique information will not be recorded.
What types of cookies are there and which ones does the website use?
Strictly necessary cookies – These cookies are essential to enable you to move around the site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies services you have asked for cannot be provided.
We categorize the following cookies as strictly necessary:
1. Registered Visitor Cookie – A unique identifier given to each registered user, used to recognize them through their visit and when they return to the website. (see also Functionality cookies below).
Performance cookies – These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is anonymous and is only used to improve how a website works.
We categorize the following as performance cookies:
1. Referrer URL (internal page) – Used to store the URL of the previous page visited. Allows us to track how visitors navigate through our website. (Pretty useful to know what’s working for you and what is not needed)
2. Referrer URL (external page, including if you click on links on Bristol Ventures social media pages) Used to store the URL which refers a visitor to our website so we may understand what URLs are referring visitors to our website.
3. URL history – Used to store the page visited by a user before that user submits a form. Also, used to display recently viewed articles to each visitor.
4. Unregistered Visitor Cookie – A unique identifier given to each visitor to allow analysis on how unregistered visitors use our website.
5. Session management cookies – These cookies allow us to follow the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close their browser window. Our session management cookies are created temporarily. Once you close your browser, our session management cookies are deleted.
Functionality cookies – These cookies allow a website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, a website may be able to provide you with local information or news by storing in a cookie the region in which you are currently located. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, font and other parts of web pages that you can customize. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. These cookies cannot track your browsing activity on other websites. They don’t gather any information about you that could be used for advertising or remembering where you’ve been on the internet outside our website.
We categorize the following as functionality cookies:
1. Recently viewed pages – Stores pages visited by the user on our website and displays them in right hand navigation for easy reference.
2. Search history – Stores searches on our website conducted by the user and displays them for the user in the right hand navigation for easy reference.
3. Registered Visitor – A unique identifier given to each registered user to our website, used to serve them content and offers based on their profiles. Also used for analysis and marketing purposes (See also: Strictly necessary cookies above and Use of cookies for marketing and analytics below).
Targeting cookies – These cookies are used to: (1) deliver advertisements that are targeted to be relevant to you, (2) limit the number of times you see an advertisement, and (3) help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organizations such as advertisers. Quite often they will be linked to website functionality provided by the other organization.
At Bristol Ventures we do not have third party advertising on our website so we do not use these targeting cookies on our website. (See Use of cookies for marketing and analytics below for how we may use these on third party websites).
Third party social media websites may log information about you, for example if you click an “Add This” or “Like” button for a social media website while on our website. We do not control such websites or their activities. You may be able to find information about social media websites on the websites themselves. We recommend you read the terms of use and privacy policy of such websites before using them.
Use of cookies for marketing and analytics – We may use information collected from our cookies to identify user behaviour and to serve content and offers based on your profile, and for the other purposes described below.
Some of the cookies we use don’t collect information that identifies a visitor.
For example –
• Performance cookies (see above)
• If you click on an Bristol Ventures advertisement on a non-Bristol Ventures website, a cookie may be used to log which website you are on, to ensure our advertisements are served effectively and to measure whether our advertisements are viewed. Bristol Ventures may use service providers such as Doubleclick, MediaMind, www.DidIt.com and others for these purposes
• We sometimes partner with ShareThis on our website. ShareThis is a widget on the website that enables users to share content from the website with others through social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. ShareThis includes cookies on the website which collect information on how users use the website and associate users with topics of interest, based on the content they share. This data will be used for analytics on the website (creating statistics as to what is most popular and how many people are sharing particular content) and to determine how to target advertising on other external websites. ShareThis may share its analytical data with Bristol Ventures. ShareThis does not use personal identifiers of users (such as names and e-mail addresses) for these purposes and identification is solely by an anonymous identifier. For further information about ShareThis, the cookies it uses and how to opt out of ShareThis cookies, please refer to their website [www.sharethis.com/privacy].
In other cases we can associate information (including information from cookies placed via our advertisements on third party sites) with an identifiable individual. For example –
• If a user is a registered user (see RegisteredVisitorCookie above)
• If we send you a targeted email which includes web beacons, cookies or similar technologies we will know whether you open, read, or delete the message.
• When you click a link in a marketing e-mail you receive from Bristol Ventures, we will also use a cookie to log what pages you view and what content you download from our websites, even if you are not registered at or signed into our site.
Non-cookie tracking technologies – Bristol Ventures also employs technologies that perform similar functions to cookies, but that may not respond to browser settings intended for use with cookies. These include personalized URLs (PURLs), web beacons, and other similar technologies as have been described.
Please check to see if your browser is set to accept cookies. Cookies are used on the Bristol Ventures login sites to authenticate user log-ins, and are therefore required.
Here’s how you can enable cookies on your browser:
Firefox 3.0+ Users
Pull down the “Tool” menu and select “Options…”
Select the “Privacy” tab.
Make sure the check-box to “Accept cookies from sites.” is checked.
Internet Explorer 7.0+ Users
Pull down the “Tools” menu and select “Internet Options.”
Select the “Privacy” tab.
Make sure your security level accepts cookies. To override, click the advanced button.