cookies Policy
WAVE Foundation’s website, like most websites, uses small text files called cookies. This note provides information on what cookies are, which cookies WAVE Foundation uses, and how they can be controlled.
If you wish to restrict or block cookies you can set your internet browser to do so- click on the following link for further information: www.aboutcookies.org
1. What are cookies?
Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are widely used because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device and therefore allow enhanced functionality.
You can find out more information about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org some definitions used in this note are provided at part 5 below.
2. How does WAVE Foundation use cookies?
WAVE Foundation uses cookies for the following purposes:
To compile statistical data on the use of our website and its functioning, so that we can monitor and improve it;
To facilitate users’ ability to navigate through our website, including to allow registered users to access secure parts of our website; and
To allow us to share our web pages via social media platforms.
3. How to control cookies
If you do not wish to receive cookies you can set your web browser to restrict or block them. All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings, typically be found in the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ menu of your browser. In order to understand these settings, the following link may be helpful: www.aboutcookies.org
If you disable cookies you will not be able to use all the interactive features of our website.
4. Definitions
First Party/ Third party cookies
Refers to the web domain placing the cookie. First-party cookies are those set by a website that is being visited by the user at the time – the website displayed in the URL window. Third party cookies are cookies that are set by a domain other than that of the website being visited by the user. If a user visits a website and another entity sets the cookie through that website, this would be a third-party cookie.
Persistent cookies
These cookies remain on a user’s device for the period of time specified in the cookie. They are activated each time that the user visits the website that created that particular cookie.
Session cookies
These cookies allow website operators to link the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close the browser window. Session cookies are created temporarily. Once you close the browser, all session cookies are deleted.
Pixel tags
A pixel tag is not technically a cookie but is a similar type of technology placed on a website or within the body of an email for the purpose of tracking activity on websites, or when emails are opened or accessed, and is often used in combination with cookies. Information collected is anonymous.
5. Categories of cookies used by WAVE Foundation
Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential for the user to move around the website and to use its features, e.g. shopping baskets and e-billing.
Performance cookies: These cookies collect information about how the user makes use of the site, e.g. which pages the user visits most. These cookies do not collect information that identifies the user.
Functionality cookies: These cookies remember choices made by or attributes of the user and enhance the features and content you experience during your visit to our website, e.g. language, appeals visited or user’s location. This cookie is also used to remember a user’s preferences for a font size, or customisable parts of a web page.
Targeting or advertising cookies: These cookies collect information about the users’ browsing habits. This may also include your use of social media sites, e.g. Facebook, etc. or how you interact with our website which then shows you relevant content elsewhere on the internet. NB. These may also be used to choose the advertisements that are displayed to you on our website and other websites.
6. Third party cookies set by WAVE Foundation
Google DoubleClick
We use DoubleClick cookies to measure the effectiveness of our online advertising. This enables us to ensure that any money we spend on digital marketing gives us a good return on investment.
DoubleClick cookies do two things: 1) they track anonymised conversion data so that we can measure advertising effectiveness and 2) they are used to serve advertising, enabling us to serve advertisements to or exclude people who have visited our website. The cookies also allow us to limit the number of times a person sees our advertisement.
DoubleClick cookies sometimes include a pixel from the advertising networks we work with. This allows us to target adverts effectively on their networks.
Google Analytics and Optimize 360
Google Analytics 360 is a web analytics service provided by Google inc. that enables us to measure how people use our website using cookies. We use this information to improve our website experience for website visitors and to measure the effectiveness of our online advertising. We can also use these cookies to serve relevant advertisements to people who have interacted with specific sections of the site, or to exclude those audiences from advertising.
For those site visitors who have explicitly opted in to Google’s data privacy policy, Google will associate your IP address with other data held by Google in order to identify you across multiple devices. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser.
Google Optimize allows us to test variants of web pages and see how they perform against an objective that we specify. Optimize monitors the results of our experiment and tells us which variant has the best performance.
