Cookies

Privacy and cookies

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

• First-party cookies (cookies set by us)
• Third-party cookies (cookies set by other sites through our pages)
• How to control and delete cookies
• Personal data

What are cookies?

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

• Enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
• Recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
• Measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast

Analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with our services so we can make them better

First-party cookies (cookies set by us)

These are cookies set by the Grounds Management Association (GMA) web domain known as 'first-party' cookies. Some are necessary to the functionality of the site, others provide information to us that we analyse to monitor and improve the site.

These first-party cookies do not store or collect any personal information or anything that make you personally identifiable to us. Typically, the cookies generate a random, unique number to store information about a user.

Cookies for measuring website usage

• Google Analytics cookies: _utma, _utmb, _utmc, _utmv, _utmd,_utmz
• Purpose: to record how many people are using the website and how they move around the site once they've arrived. Google's privacy policy

Data stored by cookies:

• _utma stores each user’s number of visits, time of the first visit, the previous visit and the current visit
• _utmb and _utmc checks how long a visitor stays on the site: when a visit starts and ends
• _utmz tracks where a visitor came from (search engine, search keyword, link)
• _utmv and _utmd track visitor journeys through the site and classifies them into groups
• Duration of cookies:
• _utma expires two years after your last visit to this site
• _utmb expires 30 minutes after your visit, or after 30 minutes of inactivity
• _utmc expires at the end of a session (when you close your browser)
• _utmz expires six months after it was last set
• _utmv (not set) expires immediately
• _utmd (not set) expires immediately

Where it is used: all pages of the Grounds Management Toolkit website

Third-party cookies (cookies set by other websites through our pages)

Social media cookies

Some cookies are served by an external service when you use a page on our site, known as 'third-party' cookies.

For example, on a number of pages we use 'plug ins' or embedded media such as YouTube videos. These cookies are specific to the third-party site domain - the data stored in them can be seen and managed by the third party, not by us.

Although we can control whether we use the third-party services within our websites we do not have control over the cookies themselves. It is not always possible to identify precisely the information that the cookies store.

Follow us, Share (Add this) Facebook cookies: reg_ext_ref, reg_fb_gate, reg_fb_ref

Purpose

To allow you to subscribe to the GMA’s social media channels or share GMA content via Facebook. These cookies track registration effectiveness by recording how the user came to Facebook and are set when the browser is either not a Facebook user or is not logged in to Facebook.

Data stored by cookies:

• reg_ext_ref: Follow us...Facebook cookie stores the external referrer, i.e. the GMA web page address from which Facebook was accessed
• reg_fb_gate: Share this...Facebook cookie stores the GMA web page address as the first page identifier as well as logged-out or non-Facebook visitor information
• reg_fb_ref: Share this...Facebook cookie stores the GMA web page address as the last page identifier as well as logged-out or non-Facebook visitor information

Duration of cookies:

• reg_ext_ref: expires at the end of the session (when a user closes their browser)
• reg_fb_gate: expires at the end of the session (when a user closes their browser)
• reg_fb_ref: expires at the end of the session (when a user closes their browser)

Where it is used: news stories and blog posts on the GMA website

Impact on user's experience of the site: none

Google Maps: NID, SNID

• Purpose: to set preferences for various services on Google
• Data stored by the cookie: a unique identifier that allows visitor analysis
• Duration of cookie: expires after two years
• Where it is used: on web pages with embedded google services (for example how to find us)
• Impact on user's experience of the site: none

Google Maps: PREF

Purpose: to set preferences for various services on Google

Data stored by the cookie: a unique identifier that allows visitor analysis

Duration of cookie: expires after two years

Where it is used: on web pages with embedded google services

Impact on user's experience of the site: none

YouTube cookies:

GEO, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, use_hitbox, PREF, recently_watched_video_id_list

Purpose: to track visitor views of YouTube videos embedded in the GMA web pages and usage of its services

Data stored by cookies: unique identifier that allow visitor analysis, data is only used in aggregate.

Duration of cookie:
GEO expires after seven months

• VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE expires after seven months
• use_hitbox expires at the end of a session (when a user closes your browser).
• PREF expires after 10 years
• recently_watched_video_id_list expires after 7 months
• Where it is used: on web pages with embedded you tube videos, for example Grounds Management Association website index pages

Impact on user's experience of the site: none

Flash cookie (Local Shared Object)

Flash cookies are small pieces of information set and accessed by Adobe Flash the browser application that lets you play or display Flash media files such as YouTube and Vimeo videos. The cookies are stored in a different location on your hard drive than standard cookies. More information about this cookie and how to remove it is available Adobe Macromedia’s Flash Player Help.

Purpose: stores information between sessions of using embedded Flash content

Data stored by cookies: a unique ID, tracking information, some configuration information about the computer running the movie.

Duration of cookie: no expiration date

Where it is used: on web pages with embedded flash content

Impact on user's experience of the site: none

How to control and delete cookies

We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit the About Cookies website, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may have an impact upon the functionality of our website.

If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.

For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual. To opt-out of third-parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website, please refer to their websites for further information.