Cookie Policy

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer, smart phone, tablet and other electronic devices when you visit a website. A cookie helps us recognise you when you visit our site or digital properties again. Cookies may store user preferences and other information. You can configure your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some website features or services may not function properly without cookies. A cookie cannot read data off your computer hard disk, nor can it read cookie files created by other websites.

What category of cookies are there?

Strictly Necessary Cookies – These cookies are essential for you to browse the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the site for example the donation form to make a financial transaction. These only last until you close your browser.

Functional Cookies – Also known as “functionality cookies,” these cookies allow a website to remember choices you have made in the past, like what language you prefer etc. This cookie cannot track your online activity to other websites.

Social Media Cookies – These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we may have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies, you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

Performance or Analytical Cookies – Also known as “performance cookies,” these cookies collect information about how you use a website, like which pages you visited, and which links you clicked on. None of this information can be used to identify you. It is all aggregated and, therefore, anonymised. Their sole purpose is to improve website functions. This includes cookies from third-party analytics services if the cookies are for the exclusive use of the owner of the website visited.

Targeting or Advertising Cookies – These cookies track your online activity to help us deliver more relevant advertising or to limit how many times you see an advert. They are linked to services provided by third parties, such as Facebook and other social media sites. The third party provides these services in return for recognising that you have visited our website.

Session Cookies – also called Non-Persistent Cookies or Temporary Cookies, are stored in memory and never written to the disk. Session cookies remain active as long as the browser remains active – once the browser is closed, the cookies vanish.

Persistent Cookies – are stored on a user’s device to help remember information, settings, preferences, or sign-on credentials that a user has previously saved. This helps create a convenient and faster website experience. These cookies have an expiration date issued to it by the webserver. Basically, this type of cookie is saved on your computer so when you close it and start it up again, the cookie is still there. Once the expiration date is reached, it is destroyed by the owner. Persistent cookies track visitors as they move around the website to figure out what people like about the website to help improve the user experience. The most popular persistent cookie is a Google Analytics cookie.

First Party Cookies – First-party cookies are directly stored by the website (or domain) you visit. These cookies allow website owners to collect analytics data, remember language settings, and perform other useful functions that provide a good user experience. The domain host can see the data that the cookie retrieves. First-party cookies can’t usually be used to track a user’s activity on another site other than the original website it was placed on. These types of cookies include things such as your sign-on credentials, items you put in the shopping cart or your preferred language. First-party cookies are set by the publisher’s web server, or any JavaScript loaded on the website.

Third Party Cookies – Third-party cookies are created by domains that are not on the website (or domain) that you are visiting. These are usually used for online-advertising purposes and placed on a website through adding scripts or tags. A third-party cookie is accessible on any website that loads the third-party server’s code. Online advertising is the most common use of third-party cookies. By adding their tags to a page, which may or may not display adverts, advertisers can track a user (or their device) across many of the websites they visit.

Marketing – UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) Data is stored for 7 days on the website, UTM data is used to track the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns and attributing online income. The 7-day window is the retention period decided upon to assist achieving the above.

No sensitive or personal data is tracked as part of the UTM data retention and if you do not wish your online activity to be stored for 7 days, we advise you clear your cache via your web browser.

How can I manage my cookie preference with Operation Smile UK?

Operation Smile United Kingdom uses a cookie preferences tool called Google Tag Manager to customise your cookie preferences. This tool will record your consent in accordance to our cookie policy and will ask for it again every 12 months, to ensure you stay up to date with changes made to our cookie policy.

If you opt to delete cookies or prevent us from placing cookies onto your device, some features of our website may not be as effective or work in the intended manner. To delete or review cookies that are on your device, you will need to go into the settings of your browser and review them.

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by visiting the following link and adjusting your settings: Cookie Preferences

Strictly Necessary cookies cannot be disabled. These cookies are essential for you to be able to use and move around websites or for you to use certain features.

You may notice some other cookies that are not related to Operation Smile UK’s website. Some of our pages contain embedded content such as YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, Facebook likes or Google+ shares etc.., and you may receive cookies delivered from these websites. Depending on the cookies you choose to allow some of their content may not work.

Operation Smile UK does not govern the publication of third-party cookies. To understand more about these third-party cookies and their privacy policies please visit their websites directly.

Alternatively, you can easily control and disable cookies, including third party cookies, through your browser settings. Learn how to remove cookies set on your device by visiting: https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/clear-cookies-installed.html

How does Operation Smile UK use cookies and similar technologies?

Operation Smile United Kingdom uses cookies and tracking technologies to:

• Improve the user experience on our website
• Monitor the effectiveness of any fundraising activities
• Use the information to make potential marketing decisions
• Monitor email activity
• Measure what content is popular on our website and track user’s movements through our websites to build a wider picture on site performance
• To build an audience of people like those who visit our sites. This helps us find new potential supporters.
• Provide us with aggregate statistics about how people use our website

The collected data is NOT personally identifiable and therefore cannot be tied back to an individual user. This information is not used to develop a personal profile of you.

Google Analytics

Our website uses Google Analytics to analyse traffic and provide anonymous information about your use of the website.

For further details please read Google Analytics Overview.

You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies by using Google’s Opt Out Tool.

Changes and review to this policy

This policy will be reviewed periodically and may be changed/updated to reflect the review. Please ensure that you stay up to date by visiting our website and checking.

Last review date: July 2023

Next Review Date: June 2024