1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Our Website (https://www.therapyin.london) uses cookies and similar technologies. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Website and also allows us to improve our Website.
1.2 Cookies are small text files that are downloaded to your device (e.g. your computer or smartphone). Cookies contain uniquely generated references which are used to distinguish you from other users. They allow information gathered on one webpage to be stored until it is needed for use on another, allowing our Website to provide you with a personalised experience (like remembering your favourites) and provide us with statistics about how you interact with our (and sometimes third party) Website.
1.3 Cookies are not harmful to your devices (like a virus or malicious code) but some individuals prefer not to share their information (for example, to avoid targeted advertising).
2 DIFFERENT TYPES OF COOKIES
2.1 Session vs. persistent cookies: cookies have a limited lifespan. Cookies which only last a short time or end when you close your browser are called session cookies. Cookies which remain on your device for longer are called persistent cookies (these are the type of cookies that allow websites to remember your details when you log back onto them).
2.2 First party vs. third party cookies: cookies placed on your device by the website owner are called first party cookies. When the website owner uses other businesses’ technology to help them manage and monitor their website, the cookies added by the other business are called third party cookies.
2.3 Categories of cookies: cookies can be grouped by what they help the website or website owner do:
- Necessary cookies are cookies which help the website to run properly (when they are strictly necessary cookies it means their only function is to help the website work);
- Performance / functionality cookies help a website owner understand and analyse how a user uses a website, in order to personalise content and remember user preferences;
- Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, etc.
3 WHAT DO WE USE COOKIES FOR?
3.1 We use cookies:
- to track how visitors use our Website;
- to keep you signed into our Website;
- where we post content and links to content, we use cookies to capture and analyse information such as the number of views and shares.
4 WHAT COOKIES DO WE USE?
4.1 The cookies we use on our Website are:
| Cookie | Purpose | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| __session | Authentication | Stores session data for authenticated users, helping to maintain user state across pages. | End of browser session |
| _ga | Analytics | Used to distinguish users for analytics purposes. | 2 years |
| _gid | Analytics | Used to distinguish users, but with a shorter lifespan. | 24 hours |
| _gat | Analytics | Throttles request rates for analytics data. | 1 minute |
| __stripe_mid | Payment Security | Used to identify a user’s device for payment security purposes and to prevent fraud. | 1 year |
| __stripe_sid | Payment Processing | Stores session data related to the payment process, ensuring security. | 30 minutes |
| _dd_s | Performance Monitoring | Used by Datadog for session-based performance monitoring, helping track how the application is performing in real-time. | 4 hours |
| _ga | Analytics | Used to distinguish users by assigning a unique ID to each user. | 2 years |
| _gid | Analytics | Used to distinguish users by assigning a unique ID, similar to _ga, but with a shorter lifespan. | 24 hours |
| _gat | Analytics | Used to throttle request rate, limiting the collection of data on high-traffic sites. | 1 minute |
| _gac_<property-id> | Analytics | Contains campaign-related information for the user. If you've linked your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, this cookie will be read by the Google Ads website conversion tags unless you opt out. | 90 days |
| _utmz | Analytics | Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. | 6 months |
| _utma | Analytics | Used to distinguish users and sessions. It is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | 2 years from set/update |
| _utmb | Analytics | Used to determine new sessions/visits. It is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | 30 minutes from set/update |
| _utmc | Analytics | Operates in conjunction with the _utmb cookie to determine whether the user is in a new session/visit. | End of browser session |
| _utmt | Analytics | Used to throttle request rate. | 10 minutes |
| _utmv | Analytics | Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. | 2 years from set/update |
4.2 We can only use cookies with your permission (you will be prompted by a message when you first visit our Website, also known as a cookie banner, where you can choose to accept or decline our cookies).
4.3 You can update your cookies settings and permissions on our Website by opting out of cookies when prompted.
4.4 You can choose to decline cookies but if you turn off necessary cookies, some pages and functions on our Website may not work properly. You can also manage cookies through your browser settings or device settings (your user manual should contain additional information). You may wish to visit https://allaboutcookies.org/how-to-manage-cookies to find out how to disable cookies on different browsers.
4.5 You can also delete cookies and opt-out of being tracked by certain cookies directly with the relevant third-parties (for example, you can disable Google Analytics on their website).
4.6 If you have any questions about our cookies, or how we otherwise use your personal data, please visit our Privacy Notice (https://www.therapyin.london/terms/privacy-policy) for further details.