What are cookies?
A cookie is a piece of data/text file that is placed in your computer’s memory when you visit a website. The information the cookie contains is set by a website’s server and, depending on the type of cookie, may be used each time you visit the website. Cookies are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently for you, the user, as well as to provide companies with information about traffic through the website.
Cookies are designed to remember things that you have done on a website in the past, which can include putting products in your basket, logging in, or clicking on links. This can save you time when you visit a website more than once.
Cookies can be used by websites in many ways:
- To remember your preferences
- To remember your password
- To find out what the website doesn’t do well and make improvements to it in future
- Allow you to share pages with social networks like Facebook
- To keep a record of the products you’ve put in your shopping bag for next time you visit
- To make personalised product recommendations, based upon your previous times you’ve shopped on the website
- Make sure advertising on other websites is relevant to you
- They can also help us to see how many people are visiting our website and which pages are the most popular
- And many other things too
Cookies are not dangerous. They are not computer programs and cannot be used to circulate viruses. They are not used to identify you personally. In fact, we will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.
Types of cookies
Session (or Transient) Cookies
Session cookies are stored in your computer’s memory for the length of your browsing session. They become inaccessible after the session has been inactive for a time and are automatically deleted from your computer when the browser is closed. They allow you to move from page to page without having to log in repeatedly.
Persistent (or Permanent) Cookies
Persistent cookies are cookies that are stored on your computer’s memory and not deleted when the browser is closed. They are used to remember your preferences for the website for next time you visit. They are also used to collect information about the numbers of visitors, the average time spent on a particular page and analyse shopping behaviour on the website. We use this information to find out how the well the website works and where it can be improved.
Flash Cookies (or Locally Shared Objects)
You probably have Adobe Flash installed on your computer. Websites that contain Flash can also store small files on your computer that are used in the same way as cookies.
Flash cookies can back up the data that is stored in other cookies. When you delete cookies, your Flash cookies are not affected, which means that a website may still recognise you if it backed up the deleted cookie information on a Flash cookie.
Opting out of Flash Cookies
If you’d like to control the use of Flash Cookies on your computer, Adobe’s website offers tools to do this. If you use Mozilla Firefox to browse the internet, you can use an add-on to find and delete Flash Cookies.
Third-party Cookies
The Dentist UK may sometimes work with selected companies to provide additional content. These companies may also set cookies on our behalf. We are working with these third parties to get a full list of the cookies they use and what they are used for.
Advertising on other websites
We do not collect or use your data in any way to affect your online experience on any other website.
Sharing with social networks
If you use the buttons that allow you to share products and content with your friends via social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, these companies may set a cookie on your computer memory. Find out more about these here:
Which cookies do we use?
Cookies used by us – First-party Cookies
Google Analytics
This is a behavioural tracking service that shows us what pages people have visited, for how long and it what order. It also tells us whether people are using desktops or mobile devices to view the website, and other helpful information. This data helps us find out what can be improved on the website and how important it is.
For information about how Facebook use your data visit: http://en-gb.facebook.com/help/cookies/
Cookies used by us – Third-party Cookies
Share buttons (Facebook, Twitter and Google+).
YouTube Cookies
We embed videos from our official YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode. To find out more, please see YouTube’s privacy policy.
E-newsletter
We use a third party provider, Campaign Monitor, to deliver our monthly e-newsletter. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For more information, please see Campaign Monitor’s privacy notice.
What happens if I opt out of all cookies?
Nothing changes – you will still be able to browse our website. If you disable Flash cookies, you will not be able to watch some of the videos on this site.
How do I opt out of cookies?
When you logged on to this website, you should have seen a notification about the use of cookies with the option to accept or deny cookies from this site.
You can also manage the cookies that you allow on your computer through the internet browser that you use. You can even ask to be alerted every time a cookie is offered. There are instructions on how to manage your cookies using the most popular internet browsers below.
Find out which internet browser you use
On a PC: click on ‘Help’ at the top of your browser window and select ‘About’
On an Apple Mac: click on the Apple menu and select ‘About’ (make sure the browser is open)
Opting out of cookies in Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer allows you to select the level of cookie filter on the basis of the source of the cookie and whether the source has a privacy policy.
- Choose ‘Tools’
- Click on ‘Internet Options’
- Click the ‘Privacy’ tab
- Move the slider to choose your settings
- For more detailed privacy settings, click on ‘Advanced’
Opting out of cookies in Safari
- Choose ‘Preferences’ from Safari menu
- Select ‘Security’
- Cookie settings are shown
- Choose your settings
Opting out of cookies in Google Chrome
As a default, Google Chrome allows all cookies. You can manage the behaviour of first-party and third-party cookies or even block them completely.
- Click on the ‘Tools’ menu
- Select ‘Options’
- Click the ‘Under the Bonnet’ tab
- Find the ‘Privacy’ section
- Click ‘Content settings’
- Click the ‘Cookie settings’ tab and choose your settings
Opting out of cookies in Mozilla Firefox
You can configure which sites are allowed to set cookies, how long to keep them for, and view and manage your existing cookies.
- Click on ‘Menu’, then ‘Options’
- Select ‘Privacy’
- Select ‘Cookies’
- Choose your settings
Opting out of cookies in AOL
- From the AOL toolbar, select ‘Settings’
- Select ‘Internet Options’
- Select ‘Use your Internet Explorer Settings to set advanced browser options’
- Select the ‘Privacy’ tab
- Select ‘Advanced’
- Deselect override automatic cookie handling button
- Choose your settings
Opting out of Flash Cookies
If you’d like to control the use of Flash Cookies on your computer, Adobe’s website offers tools to do this.
If you use Mozilla Firefox to browse the internet, you can use an add-on to find and delete Flash Cookies.
To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, you can also visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
You can read about the EU e-Privacy Directive and the UK’s Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 at www.ico.gov.uk
We may update our privacy policy from time to time, so would advise that you check it each time you visit the website.
We’re a friendly team of dentists working together to ensure that you receive the best treatment that you require.