Cookie Policy

What are cookies?

This site uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications like Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better. However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others. The most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. We suggest consulting the Help section of your browser or taking a look at the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Most big websites do this too.

You block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

We types of cookies do we use?

  • Strictly necessary cookies – These are cookies that are required for the operation of the Site, it allows us to manage data submited by forms.
  • Functionality cookies – These are used to recognise you when you return to the Site. We use these types of cookies to display cookie policy disclaimer alerts.
  • Analytical/performance cookie – These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to our website. We use these to monitor visitor behaviour on our website to help us improve our information and services.
  • Targeting Cookies – These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies

What cookies do we use?

There are two different types of cookies – the ones we use on www.scottish-business.uk (first party cookies) and the ones set by companies with work or interact with (we call these third party cookies).

We use various first Party browser cookies to enable the smooth running of the website, this includes remembering whether you are logged in, whether you have accepted our cookie policy and other necessary information.

List of Cookies.
Every attempt has been made to list all the cookies our website is currently using as accurately as possible. If you think we have missed any or any information is inaccurate, please feel free to contact us and we will investigate further.

Scottish-business.uk First Party Cookies

WordPress
Cookies used:
wordpress_sec_{random}
wordpress_logged_in_{random}
wordpress_test_cookie

The Scottish Business UK website is built using the WordPress platform. These cookies are Essential WordPress session management cookies for logged in users.

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

For those logged in into the WordPress backend (system administrators)
wp-settings-[UID]
wp-settings-time-[UID]

WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-{time}-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customize your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface.

Cookie Consent
Cookies used:
catAccCookies

Used by our Cookie Consent plugin which is used to present the cookie information and acceptance bar each visitor is presented with and remember if you accepted or not.

Wordfence Security
This website uses Wordfence – a security plugin to help keep our website safe. This cookie is set by the WordPress security plugin “Wordfence”. It is used to authenticate user’s login request. This cookie is persistent and expires in 1 day.

Cookies used:
wfwaf-authcookie-(hash)
This cookie is used by the Wordfence firewall to perform a capability check of the current user before WordPress has been loaded. This is only set for users that are able to log into WordPress.

How this cookie helps: This cookie allows the Wordfence firewall to detect logged in users and allow them increased access. It also allows Wordfence to detect non-logged in users and restrict their access to secure areas. The cookie also lets the firewall know what level of access a visitor has to help the firewall make smart decisions about who to allow and who to block.

wf_loginalerted_(hash)
This cookie is used to notify the Wordfence admin when an administrator logs in from a new device or location. This is only set for administrators.

How this cookie helps: This cookie helps site owners know whether there has been an admin login from a new device or location.

wfCBLBypass
Wordfence offers a feature for a site visitor to bypass country blocking by accessing a hidden URL. This cookie helps track who should be allowed to bypass country blocking.

Who gets this cookie: When a hidden URL defined by the site admin is visited, this cookie is set to verify the user can access the site from a country restricted through country blocking. This will be set for anyone who knows the URL that allows bypass of standard country blocking. This cookie is not set for anyone who does not know the hidden URL to bypass country blocking.

How this cookie helps: This cookie gives site owners a way to allow certain users from blocked countries, even though their country has been blocked.

Third Party Cookies

Google Analytics
Cookies used:
_ga
_gat_gtag_
_gid

We use google analytics so we can measure the traffic and success of individual pages and our website as a whole. We use these to learn more about how our users interact so we can keep it as up to date, relevant, enjoyable and error-free as possible.

We have used The IP anonymization feature in Google Analytics which allows a website to request that all of their users’ IP addresses are anonymized within the product. This feature is designed to help site owners comply with privacy policies such as GDPR.

Google stores the information collected by these cookies on servers in the United States. Google may transfer this information to third-parties where required to do so by law, or where such third-parties process the information on Google’s behalf.

Opt-out of Google Analytics

In order to provide website visitors with more choice on how data is collected by Google Analytics, Google has developed the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to stop data being sent to Google Analytics. The Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on does not affect usage of the website in any other way. A link to further information on the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on is provided below for your convenience.

http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=None

For more information on the usage of cookies by Google Analytics please see the Google website. A link to the privacy advice for this product is provided below for your convenience.

http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html

Disabling Cookies

If you would like to restrict the use of cookies you can control this in your Internet browser. Links to advice on how to do this for the most popular Internet browsers are provided below for convenience and will be available for the Internet browser of your choice either online or via the software help (normally available via key F1).

Internet Explorer https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies
Google Chrome https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/61416?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Mozilla Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences
Apple Safari https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/manage-cookies-and-website-data-sfri11471/mac