What are cookies?
A cookie is a small amount of data sent to your computer or mobile phone from a website. This means the website can recognise your device (your computer or mobile phone) if you return to the same site.
A cookie often includes a unique identifier, which is a randomly generated number. This is stored on your device's hard drive. Many cookies are automatically deleted after you finish using a website.
Cookies are not programs and do not collect information from your device.
Cookies make your experience of using websites faster and easier. They allow websites to create a customised view of pages to which you navigate. For example, they are commonly used to authenticate or identify registered users of a website without requiring them to sign in each time they access it. Other uses include maintaining a ‘shopping basket’ of goods a user has chosen to purchase, site personalisation (presenting different pages to different users) and tracking the pages a user has visited on a site for analysis purposes.
Cookies may come with or without an expiry date. Cookies without an expiry date exist until the browser is closed, while cookies with an expiry date may be stored by the device until the expiry date passes.
You can restrict or block cookies set by NHS Choices but this may limit your use of some functionality, such as creating a personalised account or customising the NHS Choices homepage. Finding information about NHS services (for example finding a local GP, hospital or pharmacy), medical conditions and healthy living advice will still be possible even with cookies disabled.
NHS Choices uses third-party suppliers who also set cookies on nhs.uk websites on our behalf to deliver the services that they are providing or record usage. More information on the cookies set by NHS Choices and its third-party suppliers can be found below.
How to manage your cookies
Cookies are sent to your browser (whether you use Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari or any other browser) by a website and then stored in the cookies directory of your device.
To check and update your cookies settings, you will need to know what browser you are using and what version of it you have. You can usually find this out by opening the browser (just as though you were going to use the internet) and then clicking on 'Help' and then 'About'. This will give you information about the browser version you are using.
To find out how to allow, block, delete and manage the cookies on all standard web browsers, go to www.aboutcookies.org and select the browser and version you are using. You'll also find information about how to delete cookies from your computer.
If you use a mobile phone to browse NHS Choices or other sites that use cookies, please refer to your handset manual for guidance.
Flash cookies (also known as local share objects)
NHS Choices uses the Adobe Flash Player to deliver a rich media experience through its interactive tools and videos available on content pages throughout the site and in the tools and video libraries. Flash cookies are used in the same way as other cookies – to store information you provide in terms of settings or preferences. These provide additional features to improve your experience, such as storing questions that you’ve answered in an interactive tool to provide you with personalised outcomes.
To remove or disable a Flash cookie, visit the Flash Player security and privacy section on the Adobe website. Here you will find detailed guidance on how to delete or disable Flash cookies, either for a specific domain, such as nhs.uk, or for all websites. However, some of the interactive tools on NHS Choices will cease to work properly if Flash cookies are disabled.
Cookies used on NHS Choices
The following are cookies you may come across on this site. Note that several of them perform similar functions; the duplications arise because NHS Choices hosts a number of Department of Health campaigns that were originally set up separately, each using different cookies.
Crazy Egg
Domain: crazyegg.com
Purpose: NHS Choices uses code from Crazy Egg to generate visual 'heatmaps' showing how visitors navigate around particular pages and which links are most commonly clicked. This enables us to improve the design of pages and positioning of key links. Crazy Egg uses a cookie that does not collect any personal information. For more details see the Crazy Egg privacy policy at http://www.crazyegg.com/privacy
DoubleClick (Google)
Domain: *.doubleclick.net
Purpose: adserver tags from DoubleClick are used to understand how people engage with government digital media campaigns. This functionality allows NHS Choices to track clicks on adverts, such as the ‘sponsored links’ found when you search for a subject on Google. These cookies are in use only on smokefree.nhs.uk.
eBayobjects (eBay)
Domain: us.ebayobjects.com
Purpose: The Swapathon initiative, part of the Change4Life campaign that is hosted on NHS Choices, uses code published by eBay that generates a cookie labelled as eBay. This cookie enables you to register under this campaign and track your progress through your personalised tools. The cookie itself does not hold any personal information about you and does not link to eBay. If you disable or block this cookie you will not be able to register for the Swapathon or track your progress through personalised tools. NHS Choices does not provide any information to eBay.
Google
Domain: google.com
Purpose: NHS Choices uses Google cookies to record information about which pages you have landed on and how you have navigated through the site. This data enables us to understand:
- Which pages people visit on the site
- Which internet browsers are being used
- What is popular
- Which interactive tools are used
Additionally, we use a Google Translate API cookie to store your translation preferences for a specific page should you choose to use the translation service on NHS Choices.
For more information visit Google Privacy Center: transparency and choice
GroupM (third party)
Domain: uk.gmads.net
Purpose: The Change4Life campaign uses a GroupM cookie to record information about which pages you have landed on and how you have navigated through the site. This data enables us to understand:
- Which pages people visit on the site
- Which internet browsers are being used
- What is popular
- Which interactive tools are used
Map of Medicine
Domain: healthguides.mapofmedicine.com
Purpose: A cookie is used to record whether or not the terms of use have been accepted for the Map of Medicine. By disabling this cookie you may not be able to use some or all of the functionality of this part of NHS Choices.
MIG
Domain: mookie1.com
Purpose: the Swapathon, SmokeFree and Change4Life campaigns use an MIG cookie to record information about which pages you have landed on and how you have navigated through the site. This data enables us to understand:
- Which pages people visit on the site
- Which internet browsers are being used
- What is popular
- Which interactive tools are used
Moxie Software (third party)
Domain: infoservers.co.uk
Purpose: This cookie is on the Carers Direct webchat. It is used to help recognise returning visitors to webchat. This remains on your computer and stores the date and time you last used the service. It does not gather any personal information about you.
NHS Choices
Domain: nhs.uk
Purpose: NHS Choices can provide personalised content to its users. To enable this, a user can create an account where data is captured. A preference centre is provided where users can select the topics of interest to them. Personalisation accounts are used to provide the registration ability in a number of campaigns.
NHS Choices communities
Domain: talk.nhs.uk
Purpose: talk.nhs.uk is the NHS Choices community platform. This provides an area where users registered with NHS Choices can communicate with others on blogs and forums. The NHS Choices and talk.nhs.uk cookies are set to ensure a seamless transition between the two domains so that users do not have to log in to each system separately.
Responsys
Domain: nhschoices.info
Purpose: Responsys is the email service used by NHS Choices. This enables you to subscribe to email newsletters and other requested communications. The Responsys cookie is set when you visit an NHS Choices email newsletter registration form hosted at nhschoices.info.
Smokefree
Domain: smokefree.nhs.uk
Purpose: SmokeFree captures information about your visit to enhance the design of the site, for example how you entered the site, how you navigated through the site and what information you looked at. The cookie does not gather any personal information about you.
SurveyMonkey
Domain: surveymonkey.com
Purpose: SurveyMonkey provides an online survey tool that can be used to ask you questions about yourself, how you use NHS Choices and what you like or don’t like about the website. The information the cookie records depends upon the survey questions. See SurveyMonkey's privacy policy for details.
Swapathon
Domain: swapathon.co.uk
Purpose: the Swapathon initiative is part of the Change4Life campaign, providing advice and help in swapping poor lifestyle activities for healthier options. The cookie captures information about your visit, for example on which page you entered the site, how you navigated through the site and what information you looked at. The cookie does not gather any personal information about you.
TubeMogul, Brightcove, Limelight
Domain: tubemogul.com; brightcove.com; llnwd.net
Purpose: videos viewed on NHS Choices are hosted by Limelight and supplied (streamed) to users by a third-party company, Brightcove. A product called TubeMogul is used by Brightcove to record how much of a video is watched. It uses an anonymous tracking cookie and stores no personal data. For more information see the Brightcove privacy policy, the TubeMogul privacy policy and the Limelight privacy policy.
Webtrends
Domain: *.webtrendslive.com
Purpose: NHS Choices uses Webtrends cookies to record information about which pages you have landed on and how you have navigated through the site. This data enables us to understand:
- Which pages people visit on the site
- Which internet browsers are being used
- What is popular
- Which interactive tools are used
For more information read Webtrends’ privacy policy.
YouTube (Google)
Domain: *.youtube.com
Purpose: some YouTube videos are embedded on http://talk.nhs.uk. A YouTube cookie is used to provide web analytics in terms of the number of times a video has been watched and/or shared. For further information, read YouTube's privacy policy.
