Cookies

Cookie policy

Cookies are small text files that may be placed on your computer when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work and to make them more efficient. Cookies also help website owners understand how you use the site so that they can make it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Find out how to manage cookies on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

How we use cookies on kentfostering.co.uk

Understanding how our website is used

Google Analytics (Universal Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how you use this website (kentfostering.co.uk). We do this to help make sure the site is meeting your needs and to make improvements based on our findings.

Google Analytics stores information about:

the pages you visit on kentfostering.co.uk
the time you spend on each page
how you got to the site
what you click on while you’re visiting the site.

We don’t collect or store your personal information (for example your name or address) so we can’t identify who you are.

We don’t allow Google to use or share our analytics data.

Google Analytics use the following cookies:

Name	Purpose	Expires
_ga	This helps us count how many people visit our website by tracking if you’ve visited before.	2 years
_gid	This helps us count how many people visit our website by tracking if you’ve visited before.	24 hours
_gat	Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made	1 minute

You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Hotjar

We sometimes run studies using Hotjar, which is a tool that helps us understand how users interact with the website.

The technology gives us information such as how much time users spend on a page, and what they choose to click on so that we can see what’s working well and what isn’t. We use this information to make improvements to the site to help users find what they’re looking for as easily as possible. We also use Hotjar to get feedback from users.

Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect information on the user such as their:

behaviour
device type
IP addresses (stored anonymously)
screen size
browser
geographic location (country only)
preferred language.

Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. Find out how Hotjar manages data for more information.

You can stop Hotjar from collecting your data by opting out on their website.

Name	Purpose	Expires
_hjClosedSurveyInvites	Used to ensure that the same invite to a Feedback Poll does not re-appear if it has already been shown.	365 days
_hjDonePolls	Used to ensure that the same feedback poll does not re-appear if it has already been filled in.	365 days
_hjMinimizedPolls	Used to ensure that the Feedback Poll widget stays minimized when the visitor navigates through our site.	365 days
_hjDoneTestersWidgets	This cookie is set once a visitor submits their information in the Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the same form does not re-appear if it has already been filled in.	365 days
_hjMinimizedTestersWidgets	This cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimized when the visitor navigates through our site.	365 days
_hjDoneSurveys	This cookie is set once a visitor completes a survey. It is used to only load the survey content if the visitor hasn't completed the survey yet.	365 days
_hjIncludedInSample	This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate Heatmaps, Funnels, Recordings, etc.	365 days
_hjShownFeedbackMessage	This cookie is set when a visitor minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if user navigate to another page where it is set to show.	365 days

YouTube

We use YouTube to embed videos on some pages of the site. YouTube sets cookies when you visit one of these pages to give us information on the number of times a video is viewed and the type of browser used to view it.

For more information visit the YouTube Privacy and Safety Centre.

Vimeo

We use Vimeo’s embeddable video player to show video content on some pages of the site. Vimeo sets cookies that they consider essential to the video player experience.

For more information read the Vimeo cookie policy.

Enabling website functionality

Our cookie banner

You may see a notification when you visit our website to let you know that we are using cookies.

Name	Purpose	Expires
cookieBannerShown	Used to prevent the cookie banner from showing repeatedly.	365 days

Squiz Matrix

We use the following cookie to authenticate users:

Name	Purpose	Expires
SQ_SYSTEM_SESSION	Used primarily to enable login functionality to enable our content editors to make changes to our website.	Expires when the browser session ends