Overview
Like many websites, stirling.gov.uk (the Service) uses small files called cookies to help provide the best possible online experience for you.
Our cookie policy explains what cookies are, how we use them, how third parties we may partner with may use cookies on the Service, your choices regarding cookies and further information about cookies.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of text sent by your web browser by a website you visit. A cookie file is stored in your web browser and allows the Service or a third-party to recognise you. It makes your next visit easier and the Service more useful to you.
Cookies can be 'persistent' or 'session' cookies.
- persistent cookies continue to exist after you finish your website visit. They are eventually deleted, often after 6 months or longer. They are used to help the Service recognise when you return so that it can remember things like your preferences, or who you are.
- session cookies are deleted automatically soon after you finish your website visit, usually within 30 minutes. They are used to help the Service to remember the status of your current visit, for example, a session ID might be stored to ensure you remain logged in.
You can remove cookies from your device at any time, and your device will automatically delete expired cookies.
Types of cookies
Cookies can be set in two ways – some are set by the Service itself. Others are set by other services which may be used to bring enhanced functionality.
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First-party cookies |
These cookies are set directly by the Service. Only the Service can read them. |
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Third-party cookies |
These cookies are set by other digital services and are accessible only by those digital services. For example, if a webpage contains a YouTube video, YouTube may set its own cookies to enable the video to work correctly. Some cookies are set by services used to provide a better experience for you. For example, Google Analytics is a common service used to understand how users interact with websites so the website owners can make improvements, and make the website easier to use. Some cookies are set for advertising purposes. For example, an advertising platform may set a cookie so that it recognises a user across different websites. It is not the Service which sets these third-party cookies. |
We categorise cookies based on how they are used and help you to make broad choices about which cookies you allow us to set.
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Essential cookies |
These cookies let you use all parts of the Service. Without them, the Service cannot be provided. They are sometimes called 'strictly necessary' cookies. Some examples of how we use these cookies are:
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Functional cookies |
These cookies might be used to provide functionality. For example:
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Performance cookies |
These help us make sure that the website is working properly. Any performance cookies we use collect anonymised data to protect your identity. We do not collect any data on age, gender, sex, political or religious beliefs, nationality, or postcodes through cookies. |
The cookies we set
Essential cookies
Session ID
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Name |
Data stored |
Purpose |
Expires |
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UMB-XSRF-TOKEN, UMB-XSRF-V, UMB_UCONTEXT |
Stores a GUID reference to the current logged in backend user. Randomly generated at login and stored in the database. |
These are Umbraco backend specific cookies. They are only seen by site administrators accessing the back end of the website. They are used in maintaining the session state of the logged in user. |
At the end of your session. |
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JSESSIONID |
A random unique number or string of letters and numbers. |
Used by our Pay360 payment portal, a session cookie is required to follow your progress through the portal. This is only used when a payment is being made. |
At the end of your session. |
Load balancer
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Name |
Data stored |
Purpose |
Expires |
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ARRAffinity |
A unique identifier. |
Used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session. |
At the end of your session. |
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AWSALBCORS |
A unique identifier. |
Used by SiteImprove for load balancing. |
At the end of your session. |
Microsoft Application Insights
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Name |
Data stored |
Purpose |
Expires |
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ASP.NET_SessionId |
A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser. |
This is used by Microsoft .Net based technologies to maintain an anonymised user session by the server. |
20 minutes after the session ends. |
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__RequestVerificationToken |
A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser. |
This is used on form submissions to ensure that the submitted data has come from the user's browser and not an untrustworthy source – known as a Cross Site Request Forgery attack. |
20 minutes after the session ends. |
Preference cookies
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Name |
Data stored |
Purpose |
Expires |
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CookieControl |
A string for each preference set. |
Used to remember the user’s cookie preferences on this website. |
90 days. |
Performance cookies
Google Analytics is an example of a first-party cookie used for performance. Other organisations can not access your data or view cookies used by our website, and we do not sell your data to any third parties. We also do not allow Google to share our analytics data.
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Name |
Data stored |
Purpose |
Expires |
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_ga |
Browser ID |
Collects information about how you use this website. |
After 2 years. |
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_gid |
User ID |
Used to distinguish users. |
After 24 hours. |
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_gat, _dc_gtm_property-id |
A numeric value |
Used to throttle request rate. |
After 1 minute. |
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nmstat |
Random generated ID |
This cookie is used to help record your use of the website. It collects statistics about site usage such as when you last visited the site. This information is then used to improve the user experience on the website. This Siteimprove Analytics cookie contains a randomly generated ID used to recognise the browser when you read a page. The cookie contains no personal information and is used only for web analytics. |
After 1,000 days. |
What are your choices regarding cookies?
If you would like to delete cookies or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies, you can do this for any website by visiting the help pages of your web browser.
If you delete cookies or refuse to accept them, you might not be able to use all of the features we offer. You may not be able to store your preferences, and some of our pages might not display properly.
You can change your cookie preferences at any time by going to the Cookie Control symbol at the bottom left of any page on our site. Using this method rather than your browser’s in-built blocking will enable you to block categories of cookies but keep others active. This will help you to preserve the functionality of the site.