Cookies & Privacy Policy

Cookies Policy

This page outlines aspects that may affect your browsing experience at The Trying Scotsman. This cookies policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on 10 September 2017. It is advised that you re-read this from time to time to make sure you are happy with the various policies.

The reading of all information on The Trying Scotsman is of your own free will. If you do not accept these Terms and Conditions, you should cease use of this website immediately.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we put on your computer if you agree. These cookies allow us to distinguish you from other users of our website, which helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. The cookies we use are “analytical” cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. We also use social media sharing buttons which may store cookies on your device. We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums. We also use third party advertisements to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites). See how Google uses cookies.

To learn more about cookies, please visit All About Cookies, a free cookie resource. You can manage your cookies via your browser You can delete cookies easily by following the steps on AboutCookies.org

So what is an “essential” cookie?

The wording in the directive is broad, but the regulations specify that if cookies are necessary for carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication or is “strictly necessary” for providing an “information society service” requested by the user. Cookies likely to be deemed essential are those used for the shopping basket and checkout, those that provide security for online banking services and those that help ensure that your page loads quickly by distributing the workload.

What is a non-essential cookie?

Any cookies used for analytical purposes to count the number of visitors to a website, any cookies used by first party or third party advertisers, including affiliates, and cookies used to recognise the user when they return to a website so they receive a tailored greeting or optimised landing page. These are the cookies being targeted by the new EU legislation.

Google Analytics cookies (OX_plg, _ga)

We use the Google Analytics suite to know what’s happening on our websites. How many people are visiting us, when, how often, what do they look at etc. This helps us monitor what’s popular and what’s not and make sure we’re delivering you quality content.

Oath (Aol, ADTECH)

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers stored on to your browser when you access certain websites, including Oath Services. Cookies allow a website to recognise a user’s preferences as previously chosen by the user when they return to a site. A cookie itself does not contain or collect information. However, when it is read by a server in conjunction with a web browser it can help a website deliver a more user-friendly service for example, remembering previous purchases or account details. The website server which sends the cookie uses a randomly generated unique number (called a value) to recognise you when you return to a site or browse from page to page. Only the server that sent a cookie can read, and therefore use, that cookie. Cookies are central to the customisation of the internet and online behavioural advertising usually works using cookies.  Further information can be found on the Oath website.

Google Advertising Services (AdSense, AdX, Doubleclick)

Google uses cookies to serve ads based on a user’s previous visits to websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our sites and/or other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.

OpenX

These cookies collect information about your browsing habits in order to make advertising more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. The cookies remember the websites you visit and that information is shared with other parties such as advertisers. Further information can be found on the OpenX website.

Log Files

As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, the browser you used to visit our site (such as Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.

What happens when I visit another website from your website?

When you click on a link or ad that takes you to another site, you will leave our site and go to a third party site, which is outside of our control. When we place an advertisement on one of our sites, we are not endorsing that advertiser’s product or service. We do not accept responsibility for their content, have no control over their privacy policy (and ours doesn’t apply there) and if these third party sites collect Personal Data, we cannot control how this data is processed, stored or used. We advise that you read their data collection statements and privacy policies you submit your personal information.

If you’re visiting our site from outside the UK

Please be aware that our servers are in the EEA and when you submit your details you agree to the data being transferred to the EEA and processed under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

 

Privacy Policy

This site collects basic information for the purpose of user registration and commenting.  No details are sold or shared with other entities.  Subscribing to the site adds you to an automatic mailing list which sends an e-mail to advise of new blog posts.  This site does not e-mail marketing or sales content.  Users can unsubscribe to these alerts at any time using the unsubscribe link within the e-mail.

Users can also subscribe to this blog using Bloglovin’ – no user details are stored on this site when users choose to follow this blog on this site.  All e-mails generated are sent from Bloglovin’ and can be unsubscribed from via their e-mails or by unfollowing this blog on their website.

This site is powered by WordPress, and as such, allows users to like and follow this site using their WordPress account.  WordPress account information is not held on this site but users’ names will be displayed in comments based upon their WordPress settings.  Users can comment on the site by either logging in using WordPress, Google, Facebook or Twitter.  These details are not stored on this site.  Users’ e-mail addresses are not visible to other users of the site.  Users can also choose to comment on posts by inputting their name and e-mail address.  The e-mail address may be used to notify the user of replies and new comments if they choose to have notifications.  Name and e-mail address information is required to prevent comment spamming and is used for no other purpose.

In line with the Cookies notice above, this site uses affiliate links with companies such as Amazon and, when clicking on a link, users are directed to the respective company’s site – no user details are collected nor store on this site for third-party sites.  Adverts may be personalised automatically based on an individual’s cookie information.  This site does not store that information.

This site automatically stores users’ IP addresses for analytics and security purposes.  In cases where users abuse the terms of service on this site, IP addresses can be used in order to block those individuals from accessing the site.  IP addresses are also used to provide statistics relating to visitors based upon their geographical location.  Site stats are provided by Jetpack and Google Analytics.

Registered users can delete their account via their profile page and choose to remove all data or they can opt to for their post comments to remain.

Information is held until such time as a user removes their account or opts out of automatic e-mails.

Users can contact me with any queries, concerns or suggestions.  The contact me form requires the user’s name, e-mail address and they can provider their web address (optional).  The name and e-mail address is required in order to respond to any forms received and the web address can be provided if the user wishes; this is merely for courtesy (I like to visit other users’ blogs) and will not be shared unless the user gives consent or in cases where the user would like me to promote it.