Privacy and Cookies
What are ‘cookies?
Essentially cookies are small text files which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website or application. Your web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome) sends these cookies back to the website or application on each subsequent visit so that they can recognise you and remember things like personalised details or user preferences.
Cookies are very useful and do lots of different jobs which help to make your experience on websites as smooth as possible. For example, they let you move between web pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving your experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.
Like every blog that uses social networking buttons and has comments and analytics enabled, this blog uses cookies.
Although these cookies collect no personal data about you, a May 2012 EU ruling requires every site within Europe to let visitors know that cookies are being used. I elected to be one of the first to comply.
The cookies used here are:
- For the social media sharing icons you see here and on every blog (Twitter, Facebook and Google+ etc.)
- To make it easier for regular commenters to leave new comments.
- To allow me to measure traffic to the blog.
- To allow certain affiliate links to work, so that when someone visits them from a link on this site, they know the visitor came from me.
If you are happy to proceed, you don’t need to do anything. Nothing has changed on this blog. By continuing to use this blog, you are offering what’s called ‘implied consent’. If for any reason you do not like cookies, you can change your browser settings, delete cookies or try and find an alternative, cookie free blog.
Here is some more information about cookies for those of you who want to know more. It includes some ideas on how to block and manage cookies.
The links below take you to the ‘Help’ sections for each of the major browsers so that you can find out more about how to manage your cookies.
Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196955
Firefox
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Cookies
Google Chrome
http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647
Opera
http://www.opera.com/browser/tutorials/security/privacy/
Safari
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Safari/5.0/en/9277.html
Safari iOS
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1677
Android
http://support.google.com/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=169022
Windows Phone
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/howto/wp7/web/changing-privacy-and-other-browser-settings.aspx
