Cookie Policy

Cookies are small text files that may be placed on your computer when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work and to make them more efficient. Cookies also help website owners understand how you use the site so that they can make it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Find out how to manage cookies on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

How we use cookies on kentdesignguide.co.uk

Understanding how our website is used

Google Analytics (Universal Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how you use this website (kentdesignguide.co.uk). We do this to help make sure the site is meeting your needs and to make improvements based on our findings.

Google Analytics stores information about:

the pages you visit on kentdesignguide.co.uk
the time you spend on each page
how you got to the site
what you click on while you’re visiting the site

We don’t collect or store your personal information (for example your name or address) so we can’t identify who you are.

We don’t allow Google to use or share our analytics data.

Google Analytics use the following cookies:

Name	Purpose	Expires
_ga	This helps us count how many people visit our website by tracking if you’ve visited before.	2 years
_gid	This helps us count how many people visit our website by tracking if you’ve visited before.	24 hours
_gat	Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made	1 minute
_gat_rollup	Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made.	1 minute

Google Analytics (ga.js) library

Name	Purpose	Expires
__utma	Like _ga, this lets us know if you’ve visited before, so we can count how many of our visitors are new to our website or to a certain page	2 years
__utmb	This works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on our website	30 minutes
__utmc	This works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser	When you close your browser
__utmz	This tells us how you reached the website (for example from another website or a search engine)	6 months

You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Hotjar

We sometimes run studies using Hotjar, which is a tool that helps us understand how users interact with the website.

The technology gives us information such as how much time users spend on a page, and what they choose to click on so that we can see what’s working well and what isn’t. We use this information to make improvements to the site to help users find what they’re looking for as easily as possible. We also use Hotjar to get feedback from users.

Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect information on the user such as their:

behaviour
device type
IP addresses (stored anonymously)
screen size
browser
geographic location (country only)
preferred language

Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user.

You can stop Hotjar from collecting your data by opting out on their website.

Name	Purpose	Expires
_hjClosedSurveyInvites	Used to ensure that the same invite to a Feedback Poll does not re-appear if it has already been shown.	365 days
_hjDonePolls	Used to ensure that the same feedback poll does not re-appear if it has already been filled in.	365 days
_hjMinimizedPolls	Used to ensure that the Feedback Poll widget stays minimized when the visitor navigates through our site.	365 days
_hjDoneTestersWidgets	This cookie is set once a visitor submits their information in the Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the same form does not reappear if it has already been filled in.	365 days
_hjMinimizedTestersWidgets	This cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimized when the visitor navigates through our site.	365 days
_hjDoneSurveys	This cookie is set once a visitor completes a survey. It is used to only load the survey content if the visitor hasn't completed the survey yet.	365 days
_hjIncludedInSample	This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate Heatmaps, Funnels, Recordings, etc.	365 days
_hjShownFeedbackMessage	This cookie is set when a visitor minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if user navigate to another page where it is set to show.	365 days

You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

YouTube

We may use YouTube to embed videos on some pages of the site. YouTube sets cookies when you visit one of these pages to give us information on the number of times a video is viewed and the type of browser used to view it.

For more information visit the YouTube Privacy and Safety Centre

Vimeo

We may use Vimeo’s embeddable video player to show video content on some pages of the site. Vimeo sets cookies that they consider essential to the video player experience.

GovMetric

We may use GovMetric to capture users’ feedback. Further information about how GovMetrics works and what information they use can be found on the GovMetric privacy page.

Name	Purpose	Expires
AWSELB	Used for load balancing.	5 minutes
AWSELBCORS	Used for load balancing	5 minutes

Enabling website functionality

Our cookie banner

You may see a notification when you visit our website to let you know that we are using cookies

Name	Purpose	Expires
complianceCookie	Used to prevent the cookie banner from showing repeatedly.	365 days

Alert messages

We might display a message on our website to tell you about an important event or situation. We use local storage to help us update alert messages periodically.

Name	Expires
globalAlertContent (local storage)	Does not expire
globalAlertLastChecked (local storage)	Does not expire
globalAlertToggle (local storage)	Does not expire
globalAlertContent (local storage)	Does not expire

Squiz Matrix

We use the following cookie to authenticate users:

Name	Purpose	Expires
SQ_SYSTEM_SESSION	Used primarily to enable login functionality to enable our content editors to make changes to our website.	Expires when the browser session ends

CloudFlare

We may use CloudFlare to help improve the delivery of website assets such as style sheets and JavaScript files.

Name	Purpose	Expires
_cfduid	Used to identify individual users of the CloudFlare asset hosting service, behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis.	365 days

Open Objects on kentdegisnguide.co.uk

The directory on kentdesignguide.co.uk uses the following cookies:

Name	Purpose	Expires
complianceCookie	Used to remember dismissal of the cookie banner to prevent it from popping up again.	365 days
__KBLoggedIn__	Used to check if a user has signed into the website. Toggles various site features only accessible by account holders.	Expires when the browser session ends
__KBCookie__/kent/directory/	Used to store directory information such as saved shortlist records.	Expires when the browser session ends
kbroker_presence_controller (local storage)	Used to store website accessibility settings.	Does not expire
JSESSIONID	Used for session management.	Expires when the browser session ends

Open Objects on local.kent.gov.uk also uses the Google Analytics (ga.js) library cookies.