Privacy policy

1. Introduction

1.1     HM Government (“We”, “Our”, “Us”) are committed to safeguarding and respecting the privacy of our website visitors. This policy (together with our terms of use and any documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your data and how we will treat it.

1.2     When visiting and using our website you will be asked to consent to the practices described in this policy.

1.3     Please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) via www.ico.org.uk to lodge a complaint.

2. What information is collected

With regard to each of your visits to our site we will automatically collect information including (without limitation) the following:

(a)      the internet protocol address used to connect your computer to the internet, time zone setting, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system and platform, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths;

(b)      information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI), clickstream to, through and from our site, page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks and mouse-overs, methods used to browse away from the page) and any ‘phone number used to call us.

3. Using your information

3.1     We use analytic tools on your data in a way you would reasonably expect. This helps us to improve the website and enhance your web experience. You can find more information on this in paragraph 8.

3.3     We will not, without your express consent, supply your personal information to any third party for the purpose of their or any other third party’s direct marketing.

4. Amendments

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.  Please check this page occasionally to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy.

5. Cookies

5.1.    Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website.  This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. This does not allow us to personally identify you.

5.2     When browsing our website, you will be asked to consent to our use of cookies.

5.3     A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

5.4     Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

5.5     Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

5.6     Cookies can be used by web servers to identify and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website.

6. Analytics cookies

6.1     We use Google Analytics to gather and analyse traffic which accesses our website.

6.2     We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.

6.3     Our analytics service provider’s privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

6.4     You can view, delete or add interest categories associated with your browser by visiting: http://www.google.com/settings/ads. You can also opt out of the AdSense partner network cookie using those settings or using the NAI’s (Network Advertising Initiative’s) multi-cookie opt-out mechanism at: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices. However, these opt-out mechanisms themselves use cookies, and if you clear the cookies from your browser your opt-out will not be maintained. To ensure that an opt-out is maintained in respect of a particular browser, you may wish to consider using the Google browser plug-in available at: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.

7. Our details

You can contact us by email using sharechecklist@cabinetoffice.gov.uk