Cookies

Last updated: 10 May 2018

Like most organisations, the Patchwork Foundation uses cookies to capture information about our websites’ users.

Cookies are a piece of text that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk so that it can remember who you are. They make interaction between your computer and our website faster and easier by remembering any registration details and preferences from previous visits.

A cookie will typically contain the name of the website from which the cookie has come, the lifetime of the cookie and a value. It does not give us access to the rest of your computer and only the site that created the cookie can read it.

Cookies allow us to recognise and count your visits, and to see how you move around our sites while you are using them. This helps us to provide you with a good experience while you browse and to improve the way our sites work, for example by making sure you can find what you need.

Cookies are also set when you:

• click on social networking buttons in our pages
• watch videos
• register for services and events
• take part in surveys and other activities.

Third-party cookies

As well as the cookies we set, we may use third party cookies and other similar technologies set by other websites when you visit them to help us to understand some simple information about the age, location and interests of the people who visit our sites. Third parties may use these technologies to collect or receive information from our website and elsewhere on the internet and use that information to provide measurement services and to target adverts.

We only ever use this information in aggregate, and never associate it with any personal information that might identify you. 

You can opt out of being tracked by cookies set by third parties by using the Google ad preferences page or the opt-out tool. 

You can also get more information from Google or the Your Online Choices website.

You can opt out of being tracked and the collection and use of information for Facebook ad targeting in your ad settings page on Facebook. You can also get more information from Facebook on their use of cookies and advertising policies.

You can opt out of tracking from all participating companies through the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance ‘Your Online Choices’ site. In the UK, click on the ‘Your ad choices’ menu option.

By continuing to use our sites and by using video and social media functionality, you consent to the relevant cookies being set on your device.

For general information about cookies, and how to control and disable them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org

Cookies we use on our sites by type

We use the following types of cookie:

Session cookies: to ensure you are recognised when you move from page to page within our site and that any information you enter is remembered.

Persistent cookies: to recognise you as a unique visitor to our website so that we can tailor content to match your interests.

You can control cookies through your web browser, just click on browser settings to find out the options your chosen browser allows. If you’d like to learn more about cookies, including how they have been set and how to manage them, visit All About Cookies.

Across our sites we may make use of Flash files, which present information, allow integration with third parties (such as YouTube) and can offer a richer online experience. We have strived to identify any Flash elements that are likely to set cookies but, at this point in time, we cannot guarantee the status of every Flash file. Adobe offers a tool to monitor and remove Flash cookies.

We embed videos from our YouTube channel, therefore, due to YouTube’s privacy-enhanced policy you may find that cookies are set on your computer once you have clicked to play the videos. However, YouTube doesn’t store personally-identifiable cookie information relating to playbacks of embedded videos when using their privacy-enhanced mode. You can find out more at YouTube Help.

We use Google Analytics, Google Analytics demographics and interest reporting, and integrated services that require Google Analytics to collect data via advertising cookies and identifiers. Google Analytics is a tool that helps website and app owners to understand how their visitors behave. It uses a set of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics without personally identifying individual visitors to Google. It also uses some cookies set by other websites to help us understand more about our sites’ visitors. The information generated relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of the website. Google will store this information.  You can find out more by reading Google’s privacy policy.

We use web beacons like Facebook Pixel to understand what users of our site do after clicking a link in an email that we’ve sent to a list of subscribers, or clicking on an advert we’ve placed on Facebook. This information helps us to improve the content we make, reach people who are interested in our work with our advertising and social activity, and measure how effective our advertising and newsletters are, without personally identifying individual site visitors, newsletter subscribers or social media users.

The following table is a list of the cookies we use, why we use them, and on which of our sites.