Cookies on The STI Clinic
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are stored by the browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Safari) on
your computer or mobile phone. They allow websites to store such things as user preferences. You
can think of cookies as providing a "memory" for the website, enabling it to recognise a user and
respond appropriately.
How does The STI Clinic use cookies?
A visit to a page on The STI Clinic may generate the following types of cookie:
- User session cookies
- Registration cookies
- Anonymous analytics cookies
- Third party cookies
The STI Clinic uses cookies to record whether a user is allowed to access
certain parts of the website. As such, the use of cookies on The STI Clinic
is required for the website to function correctly.
User session cookies
User session cookies are used to identify you as a user between page loads. This allows
The STI Clinic to remember certain settings, like which part of the website
you were using before you were asked to sign in or register. These cookies get
deleted each time you close your browser.
Registration cookies
When you register with The STI Clinic, we generate cookies that signal
whether you are signed in or not. Our servers use these cookies to work out
which account you are signed in with. These cookies get deleted when you close your browser.
Anonymous analytics cookies
Every time a user visits our website, web analytics software provided by a
third party generates an anonymous analytics cookie. These cookies can tell
us whether or not you have visited the site before. Your browser will tell
us if you have these cookies, and if you don't, we generate new ones.
This allows us to track how many individual unique users we have, and how often they visit the site.
These cookies are used for statistical purposes only.
Third party cookies
On some pages of The STI Clinic, third parties may also set their own
anonymous cookies, for the purposes of tracking the success of their
application, or customising the application for you. Because of how cookies
work, The STI Clinic cannot access these cookies, nor can the third
parties access the data in cookies used by The STI Clinic. No personal
information is ever passed to third parties or available to third party
cookies from The STI Clinic.
For example, when you recommend The STI Clinic using a social media
sharing button on the home page, the social network that has created the
button will record that you have done this.
How do I turn cookies off?
It is usually possible to stop your browser accepting cookies, or to stop
it accepting cookies from a particular website. Please be aware that by
stopping your browser accepting cookies, many websites will not function
correctly. For example, we cannot tell if you are signed in without using
cookies, so you would not be able to purchase medication.
All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. These
settings will typically be found in the 'options' or 'preferences'
menu of your browser. In order to understand these setttings, the following
links may be helpful, otherwise you should use the 'Help' option
in your browser for more details.
Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Firefox
Cookie settings in Chrome
Cookie settings in Safari
Useful links
If you would like to find out more about cookies and their use on the Internet, you may find the following links useful:
Microsoft Cookies guide
All About Cookies
The IAB has provided the following website to give information specifically about privacy issues around Internet advertising:
youronlinechoices.co.uk/uk
For further legal information about privacy issues, you may find these links useful:
Data Protection Act 1998
The Information Commissioner's Office