Cookies
- What is a cookie?
- EU ePrivacy directive
- Cookies we use
- Other information about cookies we use
- How to manage cookies
What is a cookie?
When you use our website, a text file called a 'cookie' is placed in a directory on your computer. This file is passed through to our web server.
Cookies allow websites to remember your preferences for example, if you have specified that you would like the website to appear in high contrast.
Cookies can be sessional (they only last for the time you are on the website) or persistent (they last for a certain length of time).
The cookies that we use cannot harm your computer in any way or give away any of your personal information.
EU ePrivacy directive
On 26 May 2011, the European Union brought in new laws which state websites must get "explicit consent" from web users where cookies are used. Websites must also tell users about cookies and what they are going to use the information for.
Session only cookies are exempt from the regulations as they are needed for a website to work properly and they do not collect or store information permanently.
More information about the directive [external link]
Cookies we use
Here is a list of the cookies we use, on this website and the third-party systems we use (for example, Facebook and Google). The descriptions are provided from Cookiepedia [external link].
| Name | Description | Where used | Duration | Session/ Persistent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| __RequestVerificationToken | This is an anti-forgery cookie set by web applications built using ASP.NET MVC technologies. It is designed to stop unauthorised posting of content to a website, known as Cross-Site Request Forgery. It holds no information about the user and is destroyed on closing the browser. | Across all of our sites | Until the browser is closed | Session |
| cookie_consent_level | This cookie is used for our cookie notice so that we know which cookies you have allowed | www.darlington.gov.uk | 2 months | Persistent |
| cookie_consent_user_accepted | This cookie is used for our cookie notice so that we know you have clicked on it and to not ask you again. | www.darlington.gov.uk | 2 months | Persistent |
| _ga | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners. | Across all our sites | 2 years | Persistent |
| _gid | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics. This appears to be a new cookie and as of Spring 2017 no information is available from Google. It appears to store and update a unique value for each page visited. | Across all our sites | 24 hours | Persistent |
| _gat | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics, according to documentation it is used to throttle the request rate - limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites. It expires after 10 minutes. | Across all our sites | 10 minutes | Persistent |
| __atuvc | This cookie is associated with the AddThis social sharing widget which is commonly embedded in websites to enable visitors to share content with a range of networking and sharing platforms. It stores an updated page share count. | www.darlington.gov.uk, www.letsgoteesvalley.co.uk | 1 month | Persistent |
| __atuvs | This cookie is associated with the AddThis social sharing widget which is commonly embedded in websites to enable visitors to share content with a range of networking and sharing platforms. This is believed to be a new cookie from AddThis which is not yet documented, but has been categorised on the assumption it serves a similar purpose to other cookies set by the service. | www.darlington.gov.uk, www.letsgoteesvalley.co.uk | 30 minutes | Persistent |
| _cfduid | This cookie is used by Cloudflare to identify real users and bots. More information can be found on the Cloudflare website [external link]. | www.darlington.gov.uk | 30 minutes | Session |
Other information about cookies we use
Online library system
Our online library system uses session cookies to maintain your current session. These cookies hold no sensitive or personal information and automatically expire after a period of inactivity.
Pay a parking fineThe system we use which allows you to pay a parking fine online uses a cookie to track session information and to store your ticket number during the payment process. This cookie expires after a short time and cannot be used to derive any information about the user or their computer.
Planning Portal
The Planning Portal complies with the e-Privacy directive. Please see the planning portals webpages for more details [external link].
How to manage cookies
- How to manage cookies in Internet Explorer [external link]
- How to manage cookies in Firefox [external link]
- How to manage cookies in Chrome [external ink]
- How to manage cookies in Safari [external link]
There are applications and extensions available to download in certain browsers that allow you to view the web with a greater degree of privacy.
Bear in mind that blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of your browser.