Cookies & Privacy

Privacy Policy

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Visiting our website with your personal browser settings configured to accept cookies implies to us that you are in consent to our use of cookies as described below.

The Law

On May 25th 2012 a European Union law was implemented by UK legislation, The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011, with a requirement that websites that leave non-essential cookies on visitors’ devices have to inform the visitor what these cookies are. This website complies with this law by providing information on the cookies we use so that if you choose you can either modify your browser settings to manage cookies or leave the website.

How we use Cookies

This web site also uses non-essential cookies so that we can serve you better, but all user data collected in this manner is anonymous. This site uses visitor tracking that will use cookies to track information about how visitors come to the website, which pages they visit, and other actions that visitors make whilst on the site. This data is then used in order to improve the user experience of our web site.

Non-essential Cookies also enhance our web site performance in a number of ways, personalising your experience on our site, making it more convenient for you.

Your Options

Should you wish to do so, you can refuse cookies by disabling them in your web browser’s settings. Most browsers are defaulted to accept and maintain cookies and you can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it or not. Please consult the support documentation for your web browser, which can be found online, for more information. More detailed information about controlling cookies on your computer is also available at the About Cookies website.

If you do not wish to disable cookies then you have the option to leave the website.

What is a Cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent in a text file to your computer browser from a website’s server and is then stored on your computer, but only IF your browser’s preferences are set by you to allow it. The only personal information a cookie can obtain is information a user supplies. A cookie cannot read data from your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites.

NB: If you are browsing from within a work based network you may not have adequate permissions to allow you to control the cookies that are set.

This site uses the following non-essential cookies: