Cookie policy
How we use cookies and other websites
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie can be used by web servers to identify and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website. Cookies allow web browsers to respond to you as an individual. This allows websites to tailor their operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
Types of cookies we use
Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
We use both session and persistent cookies.
Controlling and opting out of cookies
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. Please be aware that disabling cookies may prevent you from taking full advantage of the all the features of this website.
You can read more detailed information on disabling cookies from http://www.allaboutcookies.org/
Categories of cookies we use
- Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential for the user to move around the website and to use its features, e.g. making a donation and e-billing.
- Performance cookies: These cookies collect information about how the user makes use of the site, e.g. which pages the user visits most. These cookies do not collect information that identifies the user.
- Functionality cookies: These cookies remember choices made by the user and enhance the features, e.g. language or users location. This cookie is also used to remember a user’s preferences for a font size, or customisable parts of a web page.
- Targeting or advertising cookies: These cookies collect information about the users’ browsing habits. This may also include your use of social media sites, e.g. Facebook, etc. or how you interact with our website which then shows you relevant content, for example in the form of tailored ads, elsewhere on the internet. NB. These may also be used to remarket to you in limited circumstances. For example, using Google AdWords remarketing service to target our ads to previous visitors to our website, based upon the web pages / content that has been viewed / visited.
Google Analytics cookies
This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solutions on the internet to understand website visitor use and behaviour. Your identity is anonymised, and we use it to produce overall trends and statistics to interpret how well our website is doing.
These cookies may track things such as how long visitors spend on the site and the pages that they visit so we can continue to produce engaging content. You are able opt-out of Google Analytics cookies by using Google’s opt-out tool. For more details about Google’s Analytics you can read this overview.
As such, we look at:
- Source/Medium of our visitors (e.g. organic traffic / Google)
- Number and title of the pages visited and for how long
- Donations and forms submitted
For example, we analyse how long our visitors stay on the website, how often people return to the website, which blog posts get the most readership, which volunteer trips get the most interest, and how many subscribers we get for the e-newsletter.
The data is automatically captured by Google Analytics and isn’t shared with any other third party. It allows us to assess the performance of our website in terms of content offering and user experience.
Google Tag Manager cookies
We use Google Tag Manager as an extension of Google Analytics to implement tracking tags for specific events on the website:
- When a form gets completed and submitted (e-newsletter, volunteering, donations)
- Installing the Google Analytics code
- Installing the Facebook Pixel code
- Installing the HotJar code
Facebook Pixel cookies
We use the Facebook “Pixel” (similar to a tracking cookie) to:
- Monitor users coming to our website from Facebook
- Assess the performance of our adverts on Facebook
The data is captured by Facebook’s “Pixel” and stored on their servers. The Pixel is installed on our site via Google Tag Manager.
Formstack
We use Formstack to create online forms that:
- Capture new subscribers to our e-newsletter and offline communication (postal, phone)
- Register individuals for volunteer trips and challenge events
- Receive online donations and payments
- Receive feedback on our volunteer trips and events
All the data captured in the forms is stored by Formstack on their servers. Formstack complies with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union to the United States. You can learn more about the Privacy Shield Framework here. The data is retained for as long as necessary for us to manage our legal obligations.
Hotjar
We use Hotjar to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise our services and user experience.
Hotjar is a technology service that helps us understand our users’ experience, for example – how much time they spend on pages, which links they click, likes and dislikes, etc., which enables us to build and maintain our service based on user feedback.
Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data about our users’ behavior and their devices. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website.
Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymised user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf.
For further information, please vist the ‘about Hotjar’ section on Hotjar’s support site.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we have no control or oversight over those external websites and cannot be held responsible for the protection and privacy of any information you provide whilst visiting such sites. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.