What are cookies?
Most websites you visit will use cookies in order to improve your user experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you. There are several types of cookie and the most common are often referred to as 'session' cookies. These are used to keep track of information needed by a user as they travel from page to page within a website. These cookies have a short lifetime and expire within a few minutes of the user leaving the site.
Other types of cookies can be used to track internet activity after the user has left a website. These are either sponsored by organizations external to the website being visited (known as 'third party' cookies) or can originate from the website organization itself ('first party' cookies). These usually have a long lifetime with several months being quite common. They are 'harvested' and 'refreshed' whenever the user visits a page where the same or a similar cookie is being used.
What is in a cookie?
A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers. It allows a website to remember things like your preferences or what’s in your shopping cart.
Cookie usage at Image Gently’s website
This organization uses 'necessary' cookies which help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. They are also used to track anonymously which areas of the site are popular and which are not used; this allows us to target carefully our website resources.
First party cookies
First party cookies are set by the website you are visiting and they can only be read by that site. The Image Gently website, https://www.imagegently.org/, uses following first party cookies:
- Application session management: in order to ensure proper delivery of our content, we work on several servers; this cookie allows you to stay on the proper server to access the latest information.
- Cookie policy: this is a legal requirement to ensure you read and accept this cookie policy. This cookie is the only persistent one we place on your browser. It lasts 1 year, i.e., each year (or before if you clear your cookies) you will need to indicate again that you agree with this policy.
Third party cookies
Third party cookies are set by a different organization to the owner of the website you are visiting. For example, the website might use a third party analytics company who will set their own cookie to perform this service. The website you are visiting may also contain content embedded from, for example, Informz and Crazy Egg and these sites may set their own cookies. The https://www.imagegently.org/,website uses the following third party cookies:
- Google Analytics: this is used to allow us to identify the content that is most visited, how that content is visited, what the user journey is, etc. Google will use the information generated by the cookie about your use of this website (including your IP address) to evaluate website user experiences. The data from this tool allows us to continuously improve your user journey and experience on our website.
- Website monitoring: this allows us to track how the website is performing for you (e.g., page loading times) and gives us these indications by geo-localization so that, if you are in a country where our website runs slower, we can be informed and take actions to improve this.
- Wufoo: Image Gently uses Wufoo, an online form service to provide its users with the ability to submit forms for various reasons to include, but not limited to: membership applications, registration for activities and events, disclosure forms, grant submissions, etc. The cookies set by Wufoo allow you to submit information to us via the Wufoo forms service.
Session cookies
Session cookies are stored only temporarily during a browsing session and are deleted from the user’s service when the browser is closed.
Persistent cookies
This type of cookie is saved on your computer for a fixed period (usually a year or longer) and is not deleted when the browser is closed. Persistent cookies are used where we need to know who you are for more than one browsing session.
What to do if you don’t want cookies to be set
Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their computer or mobile device a bit intrusive, particularly when this information is stored and used by a third party without them knowing. Although this is generally quite harmless you may not, for example, want to see content that has been targeted to your interests. If you prefer, it is possible to block some or all cookies or even to delete cookies that have already been set; but you need to be aware that you might lose some functions of those website.
How can I control cookies?
If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.
If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.
Our website does work without cookies, but you will lose some features and functionality if you choose to disable cookies.