A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your device when you browse a website. They can provide useful information to companies, in a variety of different ways.
What types of cookies are there?
Generally, there are four different types of cookie, these being; strictly necessary cookies, performance cookies, functionality cookies and targeting or advertising cookies.
- Strictly necessary cookies are essential to use a website properly and without them even the basics of the website wouldn't work as expected.
- Performance cookies are used to track how visitors use a website, but they can't track an actual user.
- Functionality cookies customise a website for a particular user, for example they may remember a username or provide localised information.
- Advertising and targeting cookies are often used for advertising purposes and present adverts that are relevant to the user.
- There are a further two breakdowns of cookies:
- Persistent cookies are set for a certain time period and remain on the device for that time.
- Session cookies are temporary and are deleted as soon as the browser is closed.
Cookies are used for a number of reasons, but primarily it's to give you a better experience when visiting a website. Some common uses could include:
- Enabling a website to recognise your device so that you don't have to submit the same information several times.
- Improving the speed and security of websites.
- Keeping track of the number of visitors and visitor activity patterns on a website.
- To provide third party functionality such as a Google Map or an embedded YouTube video.
phpBB and logging in
Cookies are used within our website and phpBB forum for a number of things, the main things being the 'remember me' feature and 'log me in automatically' feature. When you click the 'remember me' box or the 'log me in automatically' box available on most forums, phpBB will set a cookie with your information in. The cookies set are as follows:
- CBUK_u
- CBUK_k
- CBUK_sid
- style_cookie
We use third parties to provide services on our website. This includes, but is not limited to, advertising and website analytics, and these services may set cookies on your computer. You may see cookies for these sites from Google Adsense, Doubleclick, Google Analytics, Facebook and Twitter.
You can opt out of Google Adsense personalisation here. This applies to all Adsense ads across the Internet:
https://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/
You can opt out of Google Analytics using a browser add-on (available for Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera). Again, this applies to all across the Internet:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
We embed feeds from Facebook on this site. Facebook does not use cookies to create a profile of your browsing behavior on third-party sites or to show you ads, although it may use anonymous or aggregate data to improve ads generally. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases, this may impact your ability to use Facebook.
For more information, visit Facebook’s Cookie Policy.
We embed feeds from Twitter on this site. Twitter may use cookies to better understand how you interact with their services, to monitor aggregate usage by Twitter users and web traffic routing to their services. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases, this may impact your ability to use Twitter.
For more information, visit Twitter’s Privacy Policy.
Allowing us to use cookies
If you are happy to accept cookies, you probably don't need to do anything and you can continue to browse our website as normal.
If your browser settings are adjusted to accept cookies, we take this, and your continued use of our website to mean that you are happy to accept cookies on our website.
What if I do not want to accept cookies?
If you do not want your browser to accept cookies, you can disable them using your browser settings, however please be aware that this will likely limit some functionality on the website. Cookies are a standard aspect of most modern websites and allow them to work as you would expect.
Turning cookies off
You can alter the cookie settings of your browser, this is usually under the 'options' or 'preferences' menu. Browsers are usually configured to automatically accept cookies. The following links provide you with more information:
Google Chrome
Safari
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Find out more about cookies
Further information about cookies and the recent change in the law about cookies can be found here.
