Our use of cookies
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data that are gathered from the device you use to visit our website, for example your computer, tablet or mobile phone. Cookies are created to improve your experience of websites, for example they are needed for shopping carts or if you visit a site where you need to log in.
Types of cookies
Cookies can be classified into persistent or session and first party or third party, explained below.
Session cookies
These are cookies that last for a session. A session starts when you launch a website or web app and ends when you leave the website or close your browser window. Session cookies contain information that is stored in a temporary memory location which is deleted after the session ends. Unlike other cookies, session cookies are never stored on your device. Therefore, they are also known as transient cookies, non-persistent cookies, or temporary cookies.
Persistent cookies
These cookies are stored on a user's device in-between sessions. They can allow the preferences or actions of the user across a site (or across different websites) to be remembered.
First-party cookies
These are our own cookies, controlled by us and used to provide information about usage of our site.
Third-party cookies
These cookies are created by domains that are not the website (or domain) that you are visiting. These are usually used for online-advertising purposes and placed on a website through a script or tag. A third-party cookie is accessible on any website that loads the third-party server's code.
The third-party cookies used on this site are:
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Cookie
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Description
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Duration
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Type
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_ga
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The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
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2 years
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Analytics
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_gid
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Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
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1 day
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Analytics
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_gat
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This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic site
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1 minute
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Performance
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Our use of cookies
We do not use cookies to collect personal information about users or to identify individual users. Any cookies used by this website are either on a per session basis or to help us monitor our website, to improve it for future visitors.
Google Analytics sets a number of cookies to help us evaluate the use of our website, for example the number of visitors we have and the pages visited. Read Google's overview of privacy and safeguarding data.
Our cookies collect information about how our visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how our website works.
Our video content is hosted on YouTube. Please see their terms and conditions (including age requirements).
Our videos aimed at children and families have been set to "yes, it's made for kids" to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or other laws. The law states that we're required to tell that our videos are made for kids if we make kids content. Further information from Google about this: Set your channel or video audience.
Controlling cookies
You can control whether to accept or refuse cookies and to delete cookies that have already been set.
If you choose not to accept or to disable our cookies, you may not be able to use some site features.
How to manage cookies on different browsers
Please see the links below on how to manage the cookies on your device for different browsers. You can also search for more information on cookies by using search engines.
Further information on cookies
If you have any questions or suggestions about the use of cookies on this site, please email our digital team at digitalteam@gstt.nhs.uk and we will get back to you.
Cookies are regulated by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
More information about cookies can be found on the Pinsent Masons website.
This policy was updated on 10/02/2023.