This cookie policy was last revised on 12 July 2017.
1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are sent by a website to a web browser and contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. This enables the website to identify and track the web browser. Cookies can, among other functions, enable a website to recognise a device each time it visits, remember user preferences and recommend content. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, but rather the computer used. However, some cookies may contain personal information such as account user name.
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a more personalised user experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our website. By continuing to browse and use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Different cookies do different things and some are essential to the operation of a website, whilst others are not. The different types of cookie are:
- Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website such as the membership area or use the shopping cart.
- Analytical/performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to our website and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
- Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website, enabling us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences.
- Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visits to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and any advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information (in anonymised form) with third parties for this purpose.
To the extent that any personal information is collected through our use of cookies, our Privacy Policy will apply to our processing of that personal information.
2. What cookies do we use?
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:
| COOKIE | PURPOSE | EXPIRY OF COOKIE |
| wordpress_ | WordPress cookie for a logged in user which contains your user name and a double-hashed copy of your user’s password (if applicable). On logging in, wordpress uses this cookie to store your authentication details. | 2 weeks. |
| wordpress_logged_in_ | WordPress cookie for a logged in user which conatains your user name. After logging in, wordpress sets this cookie which indicates when you’re logged in and who you are. 2 weeks. wp-settings- This is used to customize your view of the admin interface and the main site interface. Your individual user ID from the users database table is added to the end of the cookie. |
2 weeks. |
| wp-settings-time- | This contains the time you logged in and your user ID. It is used to customize your view of the admin interface and possibly also the main site interface. Again, your individual user ID from the users database table is added to the end of the cookie. | 2 weeks. |
The below are 3rd party cookies provided by Google Analytics:
| __utmt | This is used to throttle request rate i.e. limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites. | 10 minutes |
| __utmb | This is used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exist. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | 30 minutes from being set / updated. |
| __utmc | This is used to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. It is not used in the updated ga.js but is used to assist with interoperability with an older version of Google Analytics code known as urchin.js. It was used in combination with the _utmb cookie to identify new sessions/visits for returning visitors. | End of browser session. |
| __utmz | This identifies the source of traffic to our site so Google Analytics can tell us where visitors came from when arriving on the site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | 6 months from set/update. |
| __utmv | This enables us to track visitor behaviour and site performance. It is used when we create visitor-level variables for customising what can be measured. This cookie is created when a developer uses the _setCustomVar method with a visitor level custom variable. This cookie was also used for the deprecated _setVar method. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | 2 years from set/update. |
3. What are Third Party Cookies?
Third parties, including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services, also use cookies. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies. They are used, for example, to track how many users have seen a particular ad and to ensure that you see ads that are relevant to you. These cookies are placed by the relevant third party and we have no control over these cookies other than allowing them to be served.
Our website currently employs cookies from Google Analytics as shown in the above table. Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the website, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve our website. Google holds this information and provides us with access to it. Find out more about Google Analytics here. Read the Google Analytics privacy policy here.
4. Can I refuse or Opt Out of cookies?
Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually change your browser settings to limit or prevent cookies. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit our website. If you set your browser to not accept cookies, it may result in certain sections of our website not working properly and certain personalised services not being provided to users of your computer.
More information about cookies generally can be found here.
You can find out how to opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics by visiting here.
5. Contact Us
If you have any comments or questions about the use of cookies on this website, please contact us by email at info@theaoi.com. You can also write to us at Association of Illustrators, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA.