Cookie Policy

What is a cookie?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a certain webpage. Cookies are then sent back to the originating webpage on each subsequent visit, or to another webpage that recognises that cookie. Cookies are widely used in order to make Plan International UK website work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the website.

Cookies allow you to interact with the website, to share pages with social networks, to comment on blogs, to remember your log in details, to personalise a site’s content, and generally improve the user experience. Cookies may tell us, for example, whether you have visited the website before or whether you are a new visitor. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests and to what you have previously searched or seen on other sites.

There are two broad categories of cookies:

• First party cookies: these are installed by the website which a user visits itself.
• Third party cookies: These are installed by parties other than the owner of the website a user visits. We use third party cookies for functionality, performance / analytics, advertising and social media purposes.

Cookies can remain on your computer or mobile device for different periods of time. Some cookies are 'session cookies', meaning that they exist only while your browser is open. These are deleted automatically once you close your browser or when you leave a website and go to another one. Other cookies are "persistent cookies", meaning that they survive after your browser is closed. They can be used by the website to recognise your computer when you open your browser and browse the Internet again.

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies to:

• track traffic flow and browsing patterns in connection with the website;
• understand the total number of visitors to our Website on an ongoing basis and the types of internet browsers (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari or Opera) and operating systems (e.g. Windows or Mac OS) used by our visitors;
• monitor the overall performance of the website and continually improve it;
• help Plan International UK to identify and resolve errors that visitors encounter on the website;
• customise and enhance your online experience; and
• enable Plan International UK and third parties to advertise both on and off the website.

What types of cookies do we use?

The types of cookies used by us and our partners in connection with the website can be classified into one of five categories, namely "essential website cookies", "functionality cookies", "analytics and performance cookies", "advertising cookies", and "social media cookies". We have set out some further information about each category, and the purposes of the cookies we and third parties set in the following table.

Type: Cookies necessary for essential website purposes
What it does: These cookies are essential to provide you with the website and it's services. Without these cookies, services such as transactional pages and secure login accounts, would not be possible.
How to block: See 'How to control or delete cookies' below.
 

Type: Functionality Cookies
What it does: Functionality cookies record information about choices you've made and allow us to tailor the website to you. These cookies mean that when you continue to use or come back to the website, we can provide you with our services as you have asked for them to be provided. For example, these cookies allow us to:

• Save your location preference if you have set your location on your homepage;
• Remember settings you have applied;
• Show you when you are logged in; and
• Store accessibility options.

By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.
How to block: See 'How to control or delete cookies' below.
 

Type: Performance / Analytics Cookies
What it does: We use performance/analytics cookies to analyze how the website is accessed, used, or is performing in order to provide you with a better user experience and to maintain, operate and continually improve the website. For example, these cookies allow us to: 

• Better understand our website visitors so that we can improve how we present our content;
• Test different design ideas for particular pages, such as our homepage;
• Collect information about website visitors such as where they are located and what browsers they are using;
• Determine the number of unique users of the website;
• Improve the website by measuring any errors that occur; and
• Conduct research and diagnostics to improve product offerings.

How to block: See 'How to control or delete cookies' below.
 

Type: Advertising and Tracking Cookies
What it does: As you use our website, you will notice that it features advertising. We allow third party companies, including advertising companies, to place cookies on our website. These cookies enable such companies to track your activity across various sites where they display ads and record your activities so they can show ads that they consider relevant to you as you browse the Internet. These cookies are anonymous -- they store information about the content you are browsing, but not about who you are.

Cookies also allow us and third parties to know whether you've seen an ad or a type of ad, and how long it has been since you've last seen it. This information is used for frequency capping purposes, to help tailor the ads you see, and to measure the effectiveness of ads.
How to block: All the ad companies or networks that we work with have their own privacy policies and offer a mechanism for users to opt out tracking and behavioural targeting available through the ad itself or through the opt out mechanisms listed in the 'How to control or delete cookies' section below.
 

Type: Social Media Cookies
What it does: On some pages of our website, third parties that provide applications through our website may set their own anonymous cookies in order to track the success of their applications or customize applications for you. For example, when you share an article using a social media sharing button on our website (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus), the social network that has created the button will record that you have done this. Because of how cookies work, we cannot access these cookies, nor can the third parties access the data in cookies used by us. Some pages of our website may also contain embedded content, such as video content from YouTube, and these sites may set their own cookies.
How to block: See 'How to control or delete cookies' below.

Examples of the types of third party cookies we use are included in a non-exhaustive list below:

Google Analytics: Plan International UK uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics sets a cookie in order to evaluate your use of Plan International UK’s website. Google stores the information collected by the cookie on servers in the United States. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

ClickTale: ClickTale is a web usability tool that provides website analytics. The tool collects information on behalf of Plan International UK on our site and reports on individual visitor behaviour inside a web page. ClickTale aggregates various visitor sessions; creates movies of browsing sessions for Plan International UK and offers heat-maps to view data.

24/7 Real Media (Guardian): This cookie is used to track and report on performance of online campaigns, helping Plan International UK evaluate their effectiveness and optimise media allocation.  These cookies collect information in an anonymous format on pages visited by individuals exposed to online advertising activity.

Facebook plug in: Facebook plug in allows you to access your Facebook account when on the Plan International UK website – no data, apart from that consented to when signing up to Facebook is captured or transferred when visiting Plan International UK’s website.

Maximiser: Plan International UK to carry out testing across our site to identify the most effective combination of graphic elements and content in terms of engaging visitors. Maximiser can also be used to provide personalised content and data about visitors’ journey by identifying how they got to our site or actions taken once on the site. Plan International UK uses the tool to deliver more precise and relevant content to visitors to our site.

Any data captured by Maximiser is anonymous, it is aggregated and fully owned by Plan International UK – not transferred to any third party.

How to control or delete cookies

You have the right to choose whether or not to accept cookies. If you do not accept the use of cookies, please disable them using the instructions below. However, please note that if you choose to refuse cookies you may not be able to use the full functionality of our website.

Most browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. These settings will typically be found in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful, otherwise you should use the “Help” option in your browser for more details.

• Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
• Cookie settings in Firefox
• Cookie settings in Chrome
• Cookie settings in Opera
• Cookie settings in Safari web and iOS.

If you only want to limit third party advertising cookies, you can turn such cookies off by visiting the following links:

Your Online Choices (http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/)
Network Advertising Initiative (http://www.networkadvertising.org/)
Digital Advertising Alliance (http://www.aboutads.info/consumers)

Please bear in mind that there are many more companies listed on these sites than those that install cookies via our website.

Changes to this Cookie Policy

We will occasionally update this Cookie Policy to reflect changes in our practices and services. When we post changes to this Cookie Policy, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Cookie Policy. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share information held in cookies, we will notify you by prominently posting notice of the changes on the website. We recommend that you check this page from time to time to inform yourself of any changes in this Cookie Policy or any of our other policies.

Need More Information?

If you would like to find out more about cookies and their use on the Internet, you may find the following links useful:

All About Cookies
youronlinechoices.co.uk/uk

Cookies that have been set in the past

If you have disabled one or more Cookies, we may still use information collected from cookies prior to your disabled preference being set, however, we will stop using the disabled cookie to collect any further information.

Contact us

If you have any questions or comments about this cookies policy, or privacy matters generally, please contact us via email or the post: