1. What’s a cookie?
A “cookie” is a piece of information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive and which records how you move your way around a website so that, when you revisit that website, it can present tailored options based on the information stored about your last visit. Cookies can also be used to analyse traffic and for advertising and marketing purposes.
Cookies are used by nearly all websites and do not harm your system.
We are required to obtain your consent for all non-essential cookies used on our website. You can block cookies (including essential cookies) at any time by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
2. How do we use cookies?
We use cookies to track your use of our website. This enables us to understand how you use the site and track any patterns with regards how you are using our website. This helps us to develop and improve our website as well as products and / or services in response to what you might need or want.
2.1 Types of cookies
Cookies are either session cookies or persistent cookies.
Session cookies
These are only stored on your computer during your web session and are automatically deleted when you close your browser – they usually store an anonymous session ID allowing you to browse a website without having to log in to each page but they do not collect any personal data from your computer; or
Persistent cookies
A persistent cookie is stored as a file on your computer and it remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the website that created it when you visit that website again. We use persistent cookies for Google Analytics.
Cookies can also be categorised as follows:
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are essential to enable you to use the website effectively, such as when buying a product and / or service, and therefore cannot be turned off. Without these cookies, the services available to you on our website cannot be provided. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the internet.
Performance cookies
These cookies enable us to monitor and improve the performance of our website. For example, they allow us to count visits, identify traffic sources and see which parts of the site are most popular.
You may choose to prevent this website from aggregating and analyzing the actions you take here. Doing so will protect your privacy, but will also prevent the owner from learning from your actions and creating a better experience for you and other users.
Functionality cookies
These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced features. For instance, we may be able to provide you with news or updates relevant to the services you use. They may also be used to provide services you have requested such as viewing a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect is usually anonymised.
Targeting cookies:
These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests.
First and third party cookies:
First party cookies are cookies set by our website. Third party cookies are cookies on our website that are set by a website other than our website, such as where we have adverts on our website or use Facebook pixels so that we can show you relevant content from us when you are on Facebook.
2.2 Cookies on our website
The list below details the cookies used on our website. We have outlined who sets these cookies and their purpose. If the party reads something other than ‘Epic Road Rides’, these are our third party business partners who help us to enhance your browsing experience.
| Category | Party | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary, Functionality, Performance, Other | GDPR Cookie Consent | Our cookie consent banner uses a cookie to remember user consent. |
| Targeting | Facebook Ads, Google Adwords | These third parties use cookies (or, if applicable, anonymous identifiers) to track our own paid advertising activity. We use the information collected by these cookies to help us determine where our ads will be most effective online. |
| Functionality | Social Media plugins | Sites such as Facebook and Instagram serve cookies in order to be able to share and discuss content on social networks. |
| Functionality | WordPress |
WordPress serves user (session) cookies to store authentication data. They are limited to the /wp-admin/ screen. After you are logged in a “wordpress_logged_in[hash] cookie is set. By default, these cookies are saved for 15 days. All the personal information is stored as hashed or encrypted data. WordPress also serves comment cookies when a visitor comments on a post. These cookies are helpful in that the visitor does not have to type in their information each time they want to leave a comment. Commenter cookies expire just under a year after they are set. Here are the three cookies that are set: commentauthor[hash] |
| Functionality | Mailchimp | Mailchimp serves cookies in order to allow you to sign up to our email list and receive emails from us. Find out more under the heading “Cookies served through the Service”, which is part of Mailchimp’s Cookie Statement. |
| Functionality | Google Maps | Google Maps Platform APIs use cookies subject to Google’s Privacy Policy. Examples of how they use these include to calculate daily and 7-day active users and service abuse prevention. |
| Performance | Google Analytics, Google Universal Analytics and Google DoubleClick | These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the website and blog, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited. |
| Performance and functionality | Akismet | Akismet collects data from visitors that comment on a post. This is in order to protect our site against comment spam. Find out more from Akismet’s privacy notice. |
| Performance and functionality | Shops and service providers such as Amazon Associates, EasyAzon, Booking.com, AirBnB and Wiggle | We embed links to products and services provided by third party organisations (sometimes via an intermediary – for example to Amazon via EasyAzon). They may set cookies on your computer in order to track where a referral has originated from and (in some cases) pay us a commission. There is more information on this in our disclosure policy. |
| Performance and Functionality | Ride with GPS | We embed GPS routes from ridewithgps.com. This may set cookies on your computer when you click on the route. |
| Performance and Functionality | YouTube | We embed videos from our official YouTube channel. This may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player. |
| Performance and Functionality | Vimeo | We embed videos from Vimeo. This may set cookies on your computer once you click the Vimeo video. |
Sharing with social networks
If you use the buttons that allow you to share products and content with your friends via social networks like Twitter and Facebook, these companies may set a cookie on your computer. Find out more about these here:
https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/
http://www.google.com/intl/en-GB/policies/privacy/
Advertising on our website
Please note that third parties who advertise on our website (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
3. Managing your cookies
You can alter your cookie preferences at any time through your web browser or through your settings here:
[cookie_settings margin=”0px 5px 0px 0px”]
You can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, by going to http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
If you have any questions about the cookies that we use, feel free to email us at info@epicroadrides.com