Cookies
How the Realistic Maths Education website uses cookies.
What are cookies?
A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer when you visit any web pages that uses cookies. A cookie contains information that allows websites to recognise your computer and perform a variety of functions such as recording which pages of the website you visit or saving your preferences that allow you to personalise your viewing experience. Cookies are recorded via your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari) and are not visible on a website itself.
Cookies can be either ‘first party’, which means they are used by an organisation on its own website, or ‘third party’ which is when they are used by an organisation on another organisation’s website. Some cookies are ‘session’ cookies that are deleted from your computer as soon as you close your web browser. ‘Persistent’ cookies do not self-delete until a specific period of time has elapsed. Further below we provide information on the cookies we use and highlight which are first and third party.
For more general information about cookies visit: All About Cookies.org. There is also a useful video about cookies on Google’s website.
How we use cookies
We use a variety of cookies to perform different functions, from remembering you are logged into a particular online service to tracking your usage of our websites. In the case of tracking, we use this information to enhance the usability and performance of our websites and online services and no personally-identifiable information is recorded.
By using and browsing our websites, you consent to cookies being used in accordance with our policy. If you do not consent, you must disable cookies (please see guidance below) or please refrain from using the site.
First party cookies
The table below lists the first party cookies we use and their purpose:
| Cookie Name or Service | Purpose | More information |
|---|---|---|
| wordpress_test_cookie | Our website sets this cookie when you navigate to the login page. The cookie is used to check whether your web browser is set to allow, or reject cookies. | |
| wordpress_{hash} | On login, our website uses the wordpress_{hash} cookie to store your authentication details. Its use is limited to the admin console area. | |
| wordpress_logged_in_{hash} | After login, our website sets the wordpress_logged_in_{hash} cookie, which indicates when you’re logged in, and who you are, for most interface use. | |
| wp-settings-{time}-{UID} | Our website also sets a few wp-settings-{time}-{UID} cookies. This is used to customise your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface. | |
| catAccCookies | This cookie is set by the UK cookie consent popup to record that you accept the fact that our website uses cookies. | |
| Google Analytics | These cookies are used by the Google Analytics service to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. | Overview of Google Analytics cookie usage |
Please note that the actual cookies set by the website on logging in contain hashed data (represented in the above table by {hash} ), so you don’t have to worry about someone gleaning your username and password by reading the cookie data. A hash is the result of a specific mathematical formula applied to some input data (in this case your user name and password, respectively). It’s quite hard to reverse a hash (bordering on practical infeasibility with today’s computers). This means it is very difficult to take a hash and “unhash” it to find the original input data.
Third party cookies
When you visit our websites there are some cookies that are set that are not related to us, these are referred to as third party cookies. When you visit a page that contains embedded content, for example from YouTube, you may be sent cookies from these websites. We have no control of the setting of these cookies, so we advise you check the third-party websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.
A list of our third-party cookies is provided below:
| Cookie Name or Supplier | Purpose | More information |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps | We use Google Maps to embed location information for training venues. Google set a number of cookies on any page that includes a Google Map. While we have no control over the cookies set by Google, they appear to include a mixture of pieces of information to measure the number and behaviour of Google Maps users. | View Google’s privacy policy |
| YouTube | We use YouTube to host some of our video content. When you view a web page on our site with an embedded YouTube video, YouTube creates at least three cookies: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, use_hitbox, and PREF. In some circumstances you may also find an additional GEO cookie. We use the YouTube service as a convenience for our visitors, so you can view video content on your computer and mobile devices. | View YouTube’s privacy policy |
| Vimeo | We use Vimeo to host some of our video content. We use the Vimeo service as a convenience for our visitors, so you can view video content on your computer and mobile devices. | View Vimeo’s privacy policy |
How can I control cookies?
Most web browsers accept cookies automatically, but you can change the settings of your browser to reject all cookies, to only allow ‘trusted’ websites to use them, or to only accept cookies from those websites which you are currently on. Please follow the instructions provided below on how to do this for the most popular web browsers.
Please note: we do not recommend rejecting cookies as this is likely to result in some features on our website and some of our online services not functioning correctly or as intended.
Microsoft Internet Explorer:
- Choose the menu “tools” then “Internet Options”
- Click on the “privacy” tab
- Select the appropriate setting
Mozilla Firefox:
- Choose the menu “tools” then “Options”
- Click on the icon “privacy”
- Select the relevant options under “history”
Opera 6.0 and above:
- Select the “menu” option at the top-left
- Click on “Settings”
- Click on “Preferences”
- Click on the “Advanced” tab
- Click on the “Cookies” option on the left-hand side
- Select the relevant options
Safari:
- Select the cog icon at the top-left
- Click on “Preferences”
- Click on the “Privacy” option
- Select the relevant options
There is further guidance available on the website All About Cookies.org which tells you how to control and remove cookies using the options available in your web browser.
More information
For more information about how we use cookies, please contact us.