Cookie Policy

What is a cookie?

Cookies are small pieces of data that are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website or application.

We use them to:

  • remember information about you, so you don’t have to give it to us again
  • keep you signed in as you move around the site, if you have an account
  • help us understand how people are using our services, so we can make them better
  • help us personalise the site by remembering your preferences and settings

For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Types of cookies

Each cookie falls within one of the following categories.

First-party cookies

These cookies are set by the website you’re visiting. Only that website can read them.

Third-party cookies

These cookies are set by someone other than the owner of the website you’re visiting. Some web pages may also contain content from other sites (for example, YouTube), which may set their own cookies. Also, if you share a link to a page, the service you share it on (for example, Facebook) may set a cookie on your browser. We have no control over third-party cookies.

Session cookies

These cookies only last as long as your online session and disappear from your computer or device when you close your browser (for example, Internet Explorer, Chrome or Safari).

Persistent cookies

These cookies stay on your computer or device after your browser has been closed and last for a time specified in the cookie. We use persistent cookies when we need to know who you are for more than one browsing session. For example, if you have accepted the cookie policy, so we don’t need to keep asking you.

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies let you use all the different parts of website. Without them, services that you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Functional cookies

These help us personalise the site to you by remembering your preferences and settings. Some examples of how we use these cookies are:

  • remembering if you visited the website before so that messages for new visitors are not displayed to you
  • remembering settings on the website such as colour, font size and layout

Performance cookies

These help us understand how people are using the site, so we can make it better. And they let us try out different ideas. We sometimes get other companies to analyse how people are using the site. These companies might set their own performance cookies. Some examples of how we use these cookies are:

  • Collecting information on which web pages visitors go to most often so we can improve our online services
  • Making sure that the website is working properly and fixing any errors
  • Testing designs to help improve the look and feel of the website

Advertising cookies

Some websites use advertising networks to show you specially targeted adverts on other sites based on the sites you visit. These networks may also be able to track your browsing across different sites.

Other tracking technologies

Some sites use things like web beacons, clear GIFs, page tags and web bugs to understand how people are using them and to target advertising to them.  They usually take the form of a small, transparent image that is embedded in a web page or email. They work with cookies and capture data like your IP address, when you viewed the page or email, what device you were using and where you were.

Controlling cookies

You can set your browser not to accept cookies and the websites below tell you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases some of our website features may not function as a result.

For further information visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Cookies used on Apprenticeships.scot

 

Host

Name

Description

Expiry

Category

.apprenticeships.scot

_dc_gtm_UA-59556490-1

This cookie is used by Google Tag Manager to load additional functionality onto a webpage. Without it, parts of the site may not function correctly.

1 Day

First Party, Strictly Necessary

.apprenticeships.scot

ASP.NET_SessionId

General purpose platform session cookie, used by sites written with Miscrosoft .NET based technologies. Usually used to maintain an anonymised user session by the server.

Session

First Party, Strictly Necessary

.apprenticeships.scot

__RequestVerificationToken

This is an anti-forgery cookie set by web applications built using ASP.NET MVC technologies. It is designed to stop unauthorised posting of content to a website, known as Cross-Site Request Forgery. It holds no information about the user and is destroyed on closing the browser.

Session

First Party, Strictly Necessary

.apprenticeships.scot

_gid

This cookie is used by Google Universal Analytics. It stores and updates a unique value for each page visited so that we can understand user’s journeys throughout the site.  None of your personal details are tracked.

1 Day

First Party, Performance

.apprenticeships.scot

_ga

This cookie is used by Google Universal Analytics.  This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.

2 Years

First Party, Performance

.apprenticeships.scot

_hjClosedSurveyInvites
_hjDonePolls
_hjMinimizedPolls
_hjDoneTestersWidgets
_hjMinimizedTestersWidgets
_hjDoneSurveys
_hjIncludedInSample
_hjShownFeedbackMessage

These cookies are set by Hotjar once a visitor interacts with a Survey, Poll, Recruit User Testing, Feedback invite or is part of a sample which is used to generate Heatmaps, Funnels, Recordings, etc.. They are used to ensure that the same invite, survey, or poll does not re-appear if it has already been shown.

1 year

First Party, Performance

.nr-data.net

JSESSIONID

This cookie is used by New Relic to provides insights to us into how our  site behaves when it is loaded in a web browser. New Relic Browser only collects performance data

Session

Third Party, Performance

.apprenticeships.scot

zte2095

This cookie allows the use of Zendesk on the site, which allows us to gather user feedback

Session

First Party, Functionality

login.microsoftonline.com

x-ms-gateway-slice

esctx

testcookie

stsservicecookie

This cookie is used by Microsoft to securely authenticate your login details

 

Third party, Functionality

login.microsoftonline.com

buid

This cookie is used by Microsoft to securely authenticate your login details

Session

Third party, Functionality

.browser-update.org

__cfduid

This cookie is operated by Cloudflare is used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis.

 

1 year

Third party, Functionality

.facebook.com

datr

This cookie identifies the browser connecting to Facebook. It is not directly tied to individual Facebook of the user. It is used to help with security and suspicious login activity, especially around detection of bots trying to access the service.  Any behavioural profile associated with each datr cookie is deleted after 10 days. This cookie is also read via Like and other Facebook buttons and tags on the site

2 years

Third Party, Targeting

.facebook.com

fr

Contains browser and user unique ID combination, used for targeted advertising.

3 months

Third Party, Advertising

.facebook.com

lu

Used to manage the login process, remembers user on return visit if they choose to stay logged in.

2 years

Third Party, Functionality

.google.com
.youtube.com

APISID

In order to remain connected to your Google account when you visit its service again. While you are logged in and use plug-ins from other websites, such as ours, Google uses these cookies to improve your user experience.

Session

Third Party, Functionality

.google.com
.youtube.com

SSID

In order to remain connected to your Google account when you visit its service again. While you are logged in and use plug-ins from other websites, such as ours, Google uses these cookies to improve your user experience.

Session

Third Party, Functionality

.google.com

NID

In order to remain connected to your Google account when you visit its service again. While you are logged in and use plug-ins from other websites, such as ours, Google uses these cookies to improve your user experience.

6 months

Third Party, Functionality

.google.com
.youtube.com

PREF

In order to remain connected to your Google account when you visit its service again. While you are logged in and use plug-ins from other websites, such as ours, Google uses these cookies to improve your user experience.

1 year

Third Party, Advertising

.google.com
.youtube.com

SID

This cookie is used by Google in combination with HSID to verify a Google user account and most recent login time.

2 years

Third Party, Functionality

.google.com
.youtube.com

SAPISID

In order to remain connected to your Google account when you visit its service again. While you are logged in and use plug-ins from other websites, such as ours, Google uses these cookies to improve your user experience.

2 years

Third Party, Functionality

.google.com
.youtube.com

HSID

Used by Google in combination with SID to verify Google user account and most recent login time

2 years

Third Party, Functionality

.youtube.com

demographics

Used for demographic profiling and targeting for advertising

1 year

Third Party, Advertising

.youtube.com

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

This cookie is used as a unique identifier to track viewing of videos

6 months

Third Party, Functionality

.youtube.com

LOGIN_INFO

This cookie contains login information for a user’s Youtube account

2 years

Third Party, Functionality

.doubleclick.net

id

  This cookie is used by Google’s DoublClick network to target advertisements appropriate to you

2 years

Third Party, Advertising