What are cookies?
The DPS’ website uses cookies like many other websites. Cookies are small text files saved on your computer, smartphone or any other device used to visit our website.
Cookies are used to provide website owners like The DPS with information about their visitors’ actions, such as which pages are visited. Cookies cannot examine your computer, read data from it or in any other way share personal information stored on your computer with others.
Why do we use cookies?
Cookies enable us to improve your user experience and provide you with relevant content across our website. Storing useful webpage settings, such as your user name and preferred language, helps us to make each visit to our website an easy and seamless experience, as well as enabling you to save information you have entered (for example in a contact form).
We do not collect any personal data through the use of cookies; we only use them to analyse user behaviour in order to improve our website.
Types of Cookie
| Types of Cookie | Definition | As used by The DPS |
|---|---|---|
| Session Cookie | A session cookie is stored within the computer memory, not on the hard drive, and will only last for the duration of your visit to the website. Web browsers usually delete session cookies when closed down. | We use session cookies to identify your session when moving between pages within our website. This data is logged using a unique session ID, which does not personally identify you, but will allow us to ensure you are the same user that logged into the website initially using your username and password. |
| Persistent Cookie | Persistent cookies last longer than session cookies. The initial information saved in a persistent cookie is sent back to the server every time you visit the website. It is used to record useful information, such as your geographical location. | We use persistent cookies to store user preferences, e.g. your preferred location and/or language, so there’s no need for you to keep making the selection each time you visit our website. |
| Secure Cookie | A secure cookie is used when you’re visiting a website which requires encrypted communication, usually for online payments or sharing secure information. | We use secure cookies to store information such as your username and/or login details, to enable convenient access for regular visitors. |
| First-party Cookie | A first-party cookie is any cookie set by a website you visit directly. These can be used by the website to improve the visitor’s experience through tailoring content and storing preferences for the next time you visit. Some sites store logins and passwords in cookies on your computer, to allow you to access private areas without having to log in each time you move to a new page. | Any cookies used by The DPS are first-party, as they originate from our web pages. These are only used to improve our website and tailor your experience by storing useful information such as your username for future visits. Our cookies will not store any private information without your prior consent. |
| Third-party cookie | Third-party cookies are stored with different domains from the one shown on the address bar. These are usually from advertisements, to ensure an advert is displayed each time a user visits a webpage. Most modern internet browsers allow users to block third-party cookies from being stored on their computer. | We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors engage with our website and so we can improve it. The Google website contains further information about Analytics. All other cookies used on our web pages come directly from us (first-party cookies) and are used to improve your experience. |
