This policy applies on and from 25 May 2018.

By using our website, you agree to our use of cookies as described in this Cookie Policy.

What are cookies?

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) then 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 (see below for more examples). They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

They are referred to as session or persistent cookies, depending on how long they are used:

• Session cookies only last for your online session and disappear from your computer or device when you close your browser. 
• Persistent cookies stay on your computer or device after the browser has been closed and last for the period of time specified in the cookie. These persistent cookies are activated each time you visit the site where the cookie was generated.

 The cookies used by Bettercaring and why

 Analytics cookies

In order to keep our Services relevant, easy to use and up-to-date, we use web analytics services to help us understand how people use them. For example, we can see which parts of Bettercaring are most popular, identify when errors occur, and test different versions of a page or feature to see which one works best. Web analytics services use cookies to recognise your browser or device and, for example, identify whether you have visited Bettercaring before and what you have previously viewed or clicked on. This allows us to track information, such as how many individual users we have and how often they visit Bettercaring. It also helps us to analyse patterns of user activity and to develop a better user experience. For example, we might see that many people who viewed Page A also viewed Page B and we can then recommend Page B to everyone else who viewed Page A.

Again, these cookies do not identify you directly as they do not collect information such as your name or email address. However, the information collected by these cookies will be linked to a unique user identifier code. This is a random sequence of numbers and letters which we can use to link information collected by the cookies back to you without the cookies collecting your name or email address. This allows us to use the information collected by the cookies to understand more about your viewing habits and your interests so that we can make marketing more relevant to you.

Third party cookies
All the cookies described so far in this policy are "first party cookies", which means they are set and controlled by Bettercaring. Occasionally, third parties may set cookies on our website which Bettercaring does not control. These are called "third party cookies". This may happen in the following circumstance:

Embedded content: On some pages of our websites we may include embedded content, for example from YouTube. When you visit a page with embedded content, the service provider (for example, YouTube) may set its own cookies on your web browser to track the success of their application or to customise their application to you. 

Bettercaring does not control the use of these cookies and cannot access them, as cookies can only be accessed by the party who originally set them. You should check the third party websites for more information about these cookies.

The following tables describe the cookies we use on this site and what we use them for. Currently we operate an ‘implied consent’ policy which means that we assume you are happy with this usage. If you are not happy, then you should either not use this site, or you should delete our cookies having visited the site, or you should browse the site using your browser’s anonymous usage setting (called “Incognito” in Chrome, “InPrivate” for Internet Explorer, "Private Browsing" in Firefox and Safari etc.)

 

Cookie Name	Module	Purpose
__utma	Google Analytics	We use Google analytics to obtain information about how our site is used. This allows us to improve our site and overall customer experience.
__utmb
__utmc
__utmz
EkAnalytics	Ektron CMS	We use Ektron analytics to obtain information about how our site is used. This allows us to improve our site and overall customer experience.
EktGUID	Ektron CMS	Stores a random value for every user which Ektron uses to serve information to users.
ecm	Ektron CMS	Stores information about logged in Ektron users.
.ASPXANONYMOUS	Website	Stores a value allowing the user access to certain areas of the site as an unauthenticated user.
ASP.NET_SessionId	Website	Stores a new random value for every new user session which allows the server technology to store user-specific data temporarily on the server.
OlmBcSqlAuthCookie	Website	Marks the user as logged in and authenticated.
olmUsername	Website	Remembers a user to pre-populate the email address field for next logon.

How to control your cookies

There are various ways that you can control and manage your cookies which are discussed in a bit more detail below. Please remember these changes will apply to all websites that you visit (unless you choose to block cookies from particular sites). The settings you change will also only apply to the device on which you change them and will not apply across all your devices. If you want to opt out of cookies on all your devices, you will need to change the settings on all your devices individually.

Managing cookies in your browser
Most modern browsers will allow you to:
• See what cookies you've got and delete them on an individual basis.
• Block third party cookies.
• Block all cookies from being set.
• Delete all cookies when you close your browser. 

You should be aware that any preferences will be lost if you delete all cookies. Ironically, this includes where you have opted out from cookies, as this requires an opt-out cookie to be set. This means that if you opt out from cookies and then delete all cookies, your opt out will not be saved and you will need to opt out again (which will store a strictly necessary cookie so that your device can remember that you have opted out). 
If you block cookies completely, many websites will not work properly and some functionality on these websites will not work at all. We do not recommend turning cookies off when using our website for these reasons. 

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. 

Google Chrome
http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647 (opens in a new window)

Firefox
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Cookies (opens in a new window) 

Safari
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411?locale=en_GB (opens in a new window) (opens in a new window)

Safari iOS

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201265 (opens in a new window) 

Android

http://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2392971?hl=en-GB (opens in a new window)

Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/ (opens in a new window)

Managing analytics cookies
It is possible to opt out of having your browsing activity recorded by analytics cookies. Bettercaring uses the following analytics provider and you can opt out of their cookies by clicking on the following link. Please note that this will take you to the relevant third party's website and generate a ‘no thanks' cookie, which will stop any further cookies being set by those third parties.

Don't forget that by not allowing analytics cookies, this stops us from being able to learn what people like or don't like about Bettercaring so that we can make them better. 


Google Analytics
http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout (opens in a new window)

More information
If you would like more information about our use of cookies, please contact us by email at Bettercaring@valuingcare.co.uk