How we use cookies
When you enter Healthcare Improvement Scotland websites, your computer will automatically be issued with a number of small text files known as "cookies".
These cookies are used to make our websites run more efficiently, and allow our web server to remember and store your preferences as you travel throughout our sites.
We also use cookies to track visitor interaction with our websites.
Analytical information is collected anonymously and is used by Healthcare Improvement Scotland to make improvements to our websites and their usability.
A list of cookies used by our sites and their purpose can be found below.
|
Cookie |
Type | Website | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
|
_ga |
Google Analytics | All Healthcare Improvement Scotland websites |
Used by Google Inc. (a third party cookie) to track your interaction with the website. Information is collected anonymously and is used by Healthcare Improvement Scotland to make improvements to our websites and their usability. More information from Google on privacy and how this applies to Google Analytics. |
| uid uvc |
AddThis | SHTG and Healthcare Improvement Scotland corporate websites |
Used by AddThis (a third party cookie) to allow you to share our web content with your social network via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn. |
| GAPS SNID khcookie NID PREF NID PP_TIS_ACK |
Google Maps | SHTG and Healthcare Improvement Scotland corporate websites |
Used by Google Inc. (a third party cookie) to track the number of our visitors using their maps (via our contact us pages). These cookies will remain on your website up to 2 years after your visit. |
| ASP.NET_SessionID | Microsoft.NET | All Healthcare Improvement Scotland websites |
Used by Microsoft ASP.NET (a third party cookie) to allow our websites to know when your visit (or session) has ended and when another one begins. These cookies are deleted immediately when you close your internet browser. |
| ASPSESSIONID {randomstring} | Classic ASP session cookie | All Healthcare Improvement Scotland websites | Allows our websites to know when a session has ended. These cookies are deleted immediately when you close your internet browser. |
| vuid | Vimeo.com | All Healthcare Improvement Scotland websites |
Used by Vimeo (a third party cookie) to collect analytics tracking information. Vimeo cookie policy |
| Visitor_Info_Live YSC |
youtube.com | All Healthcare Improvement Scotland websites | Used by YouTube (owned by Google, a third party cookie) to help the embedded videos on the site to function and also to track usage. YouTube cookies are only installed when you play a video. |
Hotjar
We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs in order to improve all NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland websites.
Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience such as:
- how much time they spend on which pages
- which links they choose to click
- what users do and don’t like
Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour 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)
- the preferred language used to display our website
Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf.
Visit the Hotjar website for more information.
Most modern web browsers allow users to control cookies through the browser settings.
To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your browser and how to manage and delete them, visit About Cookies or All About Cookies.
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you can install a Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On.