Cookies
The European Union has ruled that web-sites owned or hosted within their territories must state their cookie policy in order that you may decide whether to use the website or not.
It appears that their goal is to try to make the use of 'tracking cookies' apparent; all 'non-essential' cookies must be accepted by you before they can be used. 'Essential' cookies are those without which the website cannot work, such as those used in reply forms or shopping baskets, for keeping in touch with you while you are using the web-site. These do not need your permission and will be deleted when you close your browser; they do no need to remain for longer than this.
This is a reasonable idea, so here goes:
Many web-sites simply inform the viewer that 'By using our website, you agree to our use of cookies.', then proceed to dump all manner of unwelcome, long-lived cookies onto Your browser. Some allow you to view their Cookie Policy following this statement, but practically all insist on Javascript in order to show more detail, and use a cookie to store your acceptance of their policy! Some have a policy-statement page which permits you to fine-tune which cookies they will provide, out of a small subset of the total. Normally, it is made very much easier for you just to allow everything than to wallow laboriously through the deselection of specific categories! They may have statements such as 'We use personalisation to provide you with a better, more personalised experience.'!
This web-site does not use any cookies during normal viewing of the site.
There are NO tracking cookies used by us for targeted advertising or following your movements from site to site.
Two cookies, known as 'session cookies', might be used. One is used for the Contact Form, the other for the Guest Book. These cookies are deleted when you close your browser and are used only to help to manage your message. They are essential for this operation and are permitted in Europe WITHOUT any need to ask your permission.
You are welcome to block cookies by use of your browser settings, but if you decide to block these cookies you will be unable to write a message to the Guest Book or send a message to me using the Contact Form.
We also avoid using the almost ubiquitous icons for Twitter and Facebook. Both of these icons appear able to cause considerable and unexpected tracking of your visit to our pages. See this Information from Twitter for why we omit these link icons! But Note: Their page does use cookies...
Just because they tell you nicely about what they do doesn't make it right!
| Contact Form |
Guest Book |
| The Contact Form, if used, places a single 'session' cookie named "PHPSESSID" which is used only to ensure that we can continue to identify anything you write (including the 'captcha' verification) as coming from you. Without this, the Form could not work. This is a permitted, essential cookie which does not store any personal, identifiable information. It is deleted by your browser when you exit. | When you write a message to the Guest Book, it places a single 'session' cookie named "GBOOK" which is used solely to keep track of your written message and the 'captcha' verification that goes with it. Without this, the Guest Book could not work. This is a permitted, essential cookie which does not store any personal, identifiable information. It is deleted by your browser when you exit. |
Other sources of cookies
It is possible that off-site resources used by brian-sisters.org, such as YouTube, may use their own cookies according to their own policies from time to time. We have tried to avoid this as far as is possible.
YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode might set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube say they will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode.
You can read more at YouTube's embedding videos information page.
As you might expect, there seem to be few web-sites in Europe that seem to follow the rules. Most drop cookies as soon as you use their site and many merely tell you that you need to accept their cookies 'for the site to work'. Some don't even seem to do this; they just behave exactly as before. Ah well.
The world ignores what seemed like a good idea. It is apparently up to you to set your own cookie behaviour in Your browser - if you wish or are able!