Cookies Policy
What are cookies?
When you visit our website, the site asks your browser to store a small piece of data (text file) called a cookie on your computer, tablet or mobile phone.
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) covers the rules on cookies. PECR also covers the use of similar technologies for storing or accessing information, such as ‘Flash cookies’ and device fingerprinting.
The ICO is responsible for enforcing these rules.
Organisations must provide clear and comprehensive information about the way they use cookies and ensure that for any cookie not strictly necessary for their website, they give you an appropriate means of consenting to that cookie being set on your device.
Cookies store or retrieve information on your browser, which might be about you, your preferences or your device but does not usually directly identify you.
Cookies do lots of useful jobs. They help make websites work smoothly and provide information about how people browse.
We also use third-party cookies, which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting, for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Types of cookies
Essential
Some cookies are essential for our website to function and to keep it safe and secure. These cannot be switched off in our systems. They let you do things like login, move from page to page, and use our interactive tools. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Performance
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Functional
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Advertising/Targeting & Marketing
We never show adverts from third parties on our website. However, we do advertise our products and services, and you may see our adverts around the Internet too. Some cookies are set by our advertising partners, used to build a profile of your interests and to show you relevant adverts on other sites. Details of these cookies and our advertising partners can be found in our cookie preference centre. We use cookies to measure how well our adverts do, to tell us where you saw a particular advert, and to ensure you don’t see the same advert too many times.
Social Media Cookies
We use buttons that let you share our pages on social networking websites. These buttons may place a third-party cookie on your device, which could gather usage information.
- YouTube
To opt out of being tracked by the Facebook Social Media Button and Twitter Social Media Button on all the websites you visit, go to the General Account Settings of your Facebook and Twitter accounts, then click the opt-out link.
How do I change my cookie settings?
You can find more information about cookies and how to manage them at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/. You may disable cookies by changing the settings on your browser. However, if you do so, this will affect your enjoyment of our site and we will no longer be able to offer to you a personalised service
Some cookies are essential for making our website work well and cannot be turned off. All other cookies are turned off by default when you first visit our website, and you can choose to turn these on or turn them back off if you previously accepted these and have changed your mind. You can do this via our cookie banner or by clicking on “manage cookie preferences” at the top of this page to visit our cookie preference centre. You can also manage what cookies are stored on your computer directly by setting your browser to accept or reject certain cookies. However, blocking some types of cookies may mean some of the services or features on our sites won’t work properly.
Third-party cookies are set by someone else whose services we have added to our site, such as Google for measuring visits to our website. These are detailed in our cookie preference centre and all non-essential cookies (whether first or third-party) can be turned off.
If you share a link to a page on one of our sites, the platform you share it on (for example, Facebook) may set a cookie on your browser. We have no control over third-party cookies set on other sites– you can turn them off, but not through us.
Do not track (DNT) is a feature offered by some browsers which, if enabled, sends a signal to websites requesting that your browsing isn’t tracked. Currently, there is no industry-wide standard that has been agreed upon or universally adopted to determine how such signals are handled and for that reason, we do not respond to DNT requests. We will review how this feature, and other technologies similar, evolve and then take steps to incorporate as and when appropriate.
Remember that editing your cookie preferences will not remove any existing cookies from your browser. It’ll only affect the way cookies are used in future. If you want to remove any existing cookies you can do this via your browser settings.
Browser controls
You can use your web browser to:
- delete all cookies;
- block all cookies;
- allow all cookies;
- block ‘third-party’ cookies (ie, cookies set by online services other than the one you are visiting);
- clear all cookies when you close the browser;
- open a ‘private browsing’ / ‘incognito’ session, which allows you to browse the web without recording your browsing history or storing local data such as cookies (you should however be aware of the limitations of this feature in a privacy context); and
- install add-ons and plugins that extend browser functionality.
Where to find information about controlling cookies
- Microsoft Edge cookies information
- Internet Explorer cookies information
- Chrome cookies information
- Firefox cookies information
- Safari cookies information – mobile devices and desktops
- Opera cookies information
- Useful information
- A number of websites provide detailed information on cookies, including AboutCookies.org and AllAboutCookies.org.
- The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance website Your Online Choices allows you to install opt-out cookies across different advertising networks.
- Google has developed a browser add-on to allow users to opt-out of Google Analytics across all websites which use it. This is also available in the Chrome web store.
- Some browsers include a feature known as ‘Do Not Track’ or DNT. This allows you to indicate a preference that websites should not track you. However, whilst DNT is available in many browsers, websites are not required to recognise its request, so it may not always work. You can get help on how to use DNT in Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.
- Internet Explorer has a feature called Tracking Protection Lists which allows you to import a list of websites you want to block.
- For more information on how private browsing works as well as its limitations, visit the support pages for your browser: Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari (mobile and desktop) and Opera.
Use of cookies
The table below explains the cookies we use and why.
Necessary/Essential Cookies (3)
| Cookie Name | Provider | Description | Type | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _hjFirstSeen | Bigchurchfestival.com | The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information. | First Party | 30 minutes |
| _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress | Bigchurchfestival.com | The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information. | First Party | 30 minutes |
| __cf_bm | Vimeo.com | This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website. | Third Party | 30 minutes |
Performance (4)
| Cookie Name | Provider | Description | Type | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _gid | Bigchurchfestival.com | This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track page views. | First Party | 1 Day |
| _ga_9DEFFM52TV | Bigchurchfestival.com | This cookie is used by Google Analytics to persist session state. | First Party | 1 Year 1 Month |
| _gat_UA-20821771-1 | Bigchurchfestival.com | This is a pattern type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element on the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. It is a variation of the _gat cookie which is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high traffic volume websites. | First Party | 54 Seconds |
| _ga | Bigchurchfestival.com | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. | First Party | 1 Year 1 Month |
Targeting/Advertising (5)
| Cookie Name | Provider | Description | Type | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDE | Doubleclick.net | This cookie is set by Doubleclick and carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website. | Third Party | 1 year |
| YSC | Youtube.com | This cookie is set by YouTube to track views of embedded videos. | Third Party | Session |
| _fbp | Bigchurchfestival.com | Used by Meta to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers | First Party | 3 Months |
| _gcl_au | Bigchurchfestival.com | Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services | First Party | 3 Months |
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | Youtube.com | This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites; it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface. | Third Party | 6 Months |