What is a cookie?
Cookies are little text files downloaded by and stored on your device (phone, laptop, tablet, etc.) when you visit a website. Cookies are used to help the website owner (in this case, Relate) to provide you with a smooth experience while you browse.
Relate uses cookies to:
- Make our website work
- Collect anonymous data to gain insight into how visitors use our website
- Help us show advertisements about our services to those people who might be interested in them
- Allow you to share content with social networks like Twitter and Facebook
Relate does not use cookies to collect any information that could personally identify you. Neither do we use cookies to pass on any personally identifiable information to third parties.
Ok, so what cookies does Relate use and why?
We use several types of cookie on the Relate websites (including message.relate.org.uk). each of which is described below. We also provide the names of the cookies that fall into these categories and we explain what they are used for.
The cookies described below were identified by a CookieBot scan during April 2018.
Necessary cookies
Necessary cookies make a website work by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The Relate website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Cookie name: has_js
Purpose: Registers whether or not the user has activated JavaScript in the browser.
Statistic cookies
Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.
Cookie name: _ga
Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Cookie name: _gat
Used by Google Analytics to control the number of requests for data.
Cookie name: _gid
Another cookie that registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Marketing cookies
Relate uses marketing cookies to track your visits across our websites, for instance, to display adverts about our services that might be relevant to people interested in our services.
Cookie name: _hjIncludedInSample
Works out if the user’s navigation should be included in a certain statistical ‘placeholder’ - this is simply a programming term to describe a character, word, or string of characters that may be used to take up space until such a time that the space is actually needed.
Cookie name: ads/ga-audiences
Used by Google AdWords to re-engage visitors that are likely to convert into customers based on their online behaviour.
Cookie name: ads/user-lists/#
Used by Google when a user visits a page on a website containing a remarketing tag. Google puts a cookie on the user’s device and adds the cookie to a ‘user list’. This is simply a collection of visitor cookied generated by one (or more) remarketing tags.
Cookie name: collect
Used by Google Analytics to collect data about the user’s device and behaviour.
Cookie name: IDE
Used by Google Double Click to register and report the user’s actions after clicking on an ad. So for example, you might search Google for ‘relationship counselling’, click on a Relate ad for relationship counselling and be directed to a page on our website about relationship counselling. This cookie would collect that data.
Cookie name: test-cookie
Does what it says on the tin: tests to see if the user’s browser supports cookies.
Cookie name: hjCookieTest
Similar to the cookie above, but tests to see if the user’s browser supports cookies for the HotJar application, which Relate uses to understand more about how visitors actually use our website.
Unclassified cookies
These are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of individual cookies.
Cookie name: (unnamed)
Unclassified, but originated at: https://static.hotjar.com/c/hotjar-424700.js?sv=6
Cookie name: SSESS612ddc447be40fe3087f1ef6bd80d097
Unclassified, but originated at relate.org.uk/relationship-help
Third party cookies
Relate uses some third party applications on our website, for example:
- Video content embedded from our YouTube channel
- Content embedded from our Twitter feed
- Google Maps content to help you find your nearest Relate centre, outpost or counsellor.
If you visit pages with this type of content embedded, you may be sent cookies from these websites. We don’t control the settings of these cookies, so please do check with the third party website for more information about how to manage these cookies.
Controlling the use of cookies
Mostly, you are able to manage the cookies set up by websites and you can do this through your browser settings. Most browsers will automatically accept cookies unless you tell them otherwise - you can restrict, block or delete cookies. Please check your browser settings for more information on how to do this.
However, please be aware that if you set your browser to block cookies, some or all parts of the Relate website will not function.
You can find out more about cookies and discover how to manage them at: http://www.aboutcookies.org.uk/