Kidney Patient Guide cookies
The Kidney Patient Guide website uses cookies to help us provide you with a good experience when you use the site and to help us understand how we can improve it for you.
What is a cookie?
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 the website, and help us to remember any forum preferences that you have set. More information about cookies is available at www.aboutcookies.org.
What cookies are used on the Kidney Patient Guide site and forum?
There are two types of cookie in place on the site:
Cookies that remember your preferences
The cookies used on the forum are set on your first forum visit and help us to remember your preferences so that you are not asked the same questions repeatedly.
These include cookies that:
- Represent whether you are logged in to the forum or not;
- Remember whether you want to automatically log into the forum;
- Identify you while you use the forum;
- Remember styling preferences – such as font sizes.
Cookies used on the site to remember your preferences:
| Name | What it does | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| phpbb3_3n58e_u | Represents whether a user is logged into the forum or not. | 1 year |
| phpbb3_3n58e_k | Persistent session key used to authenticate a user who has automatic login switched on. | 1 year |
| phpbb3_3n58e_sid | This is a unique session identifier that is used to identify you while you use the Kidney Patient Guide forum. | 1 year |
| style_cookie | This is used to remember a user’s personal theme and style preferences for the site. | 1 year |
| PHPSESSID | Used by PHP to authenticate a user. | Until browser closes. |
Cookies that help us to understand how the site is being used
We use Google Analytics to understand how people use the Kidney Patient Guide website. This includes setting Google Analytics cookies that:
- Tell us the number of unique visitors to the website
- Establish a 'user session' across the site
- Identify how a user has reached the site – for example by a website search or a direct link
The information is anonymous and cannot be used to identify you personally.
Cookies set by Google Analytics (information taken from Cookies and Google Analytics: Google Developers website):
| Name | What it does | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| __utma | This cookie is used to determine unique visitors to the site and it is updated with each page view. Additionally, this cookie is provided with a unique ID that Google Analytics uses to ensure both the validity and accessibility of the cookie as an extra security measure. | 2 years from set/update |
| __utmb | This cookie is used to establish and continue a user session with the site; when a user views a page on the site, the Google Analytics code attempts to update this cookie. If it does not find the cookie, a new one is written and a new session is established. Each time a user visits a different page on the site, this cookie is updated to expire in 30 minutes, thus continuing a single session for as long as user activity continues within 30-minute intervals. This cookie expires when a user pauses on a page on your site for longer than 30 minutes. | 30 minutes from set/update |
| __utmc | This cookie is no longer used. Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether or not to establish a new session for the user. | Not set |
| __utmz | This cookie stores the type of referral used by the visitor to reach the site, whether via a direct method, a referring link, a website search, or a campaign such as an ad or an email link. It is used to calculate search engine traffic, ad campaigns and page navigation within your the site. The cookie is updated with each page view to the site. | 6 months from set/update |
What should I do if I want to restrict or block cookies used by this site?
If you want to restrict or block cookies on this site – or indeed any site – you can do this through your web browser settings: your browser’s help function should explain how to do this.
You can also find out more about how to delete and control cookies at www.aboutcookies.org.
How to contact us
If you have any questions or concerns about the use of cookies on the Kidney Patient Guide website, please email us at kpg@pobox.com