Cookies
Last updated 23/05/18
Cookie Notice
By accessing our websites, products or services, you agree to the use of cookies as described in this notice. You should be aware that when you access our content, products and services, we may collect information from the devices you use to access the Loughs Agency’s websites, social media pages etc. by using ‘cookies’.
What are cookies and how do they work?
Cookies are small bits of text that are downloaded to the devices you use to access the Loughs Agency’s online content. Your browser makes these cookies available every time you visit the website again, so it can recognise you and can then tailor what you see on your device.
What do you use cookies for?
Cookies are an important part of the internet. They make using devices and accessing online information much smoother and affect lots of the useful features of websites. There are many different uses for cookies, but they fall into four main groups.
1. Cookies that are needed to provide the content or service you have asked for. Some cookies are essential to help your devices download or stream the information, or so you can move around websites and use their features. Without these cookies, content or services you’ve asked for can’t be provided. Here are some examples of essential cookies:
Positioning information on a smartphone screen, tablet device or other screen so that you can see the website and use its functionality.
Some are session cookies which make it possible to navigate through the website smoothly.
Keeping you logged in during your visit or enabling you to stream content; without cookies you might have to log in on every website you visit or repeatedly adjust your volume and viewing settings.
2. Improving your browsing experience
Cookies allow the application or website to remember choices you make, such as your language or region and they provide improved features. For example:
Remembering your preferences and settings, including marketing preferences, such as choosing whether you wish to receive marketing information.
Remembering if you’ve filled in a survey, so you’re not asked to do it again.
Remembering if you’ve been to the website before.
Showing you information that’s relevant to content or services that you receive.
Giving you access to content provided by social-media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
Showing ‘related article’ links that are relevant to the information you’re looking at.
3. Analytics
We like to keep track of what websites, information and links are popular and which ones don’t get used so much, to help us keep our information relevant and up to date. It’s also very useful to be able to identify trends of how people navigate our information and when and where ‘error messages’ may originate.
This group of cookies, often called ‘analytics cookies’ are used to gather this information. The information collected is grouped with the information from everyone else’s cookies. We can then see the overall patterns of usage rather than any one person’s activity. Analytics cookies are used to improve how an application, a website and its pages work.
Our web locations, websites and communications you get from us contain small invisible images known as ‘web beacons’ or ‘pixels’. These are used to manage the interaction between you and the online information or email and allows us to assess the effectiveness of the communication.