Cookie policy

We use cookies on this website, our Cookie Policy gives you information on why we use them and what they do.  From time to time we may update this policy.  If we do we will flag the change on our website homepage so you can check it out.  You will be asked to give your consent for the use of cookies, you can change or withdraw your consent at any time – we tell you how below. 

What are cookies?

Cookies are text files that contain small amounts of information that may be placed on your device when you visit websites. Websites use different types of cookies for different purposes.  Cookies may be placed by the operator of the website or by other parties setting cookies through that website.

Duration of cookies

  • Session cookies – these are temporary and just stay on your device for the duration of your browsing session.  After this they are deleted.
  • Persistent cookies – these are more permanent and remember your preferences for the future.

Purpose of cookies

1. Essential cookies

  • These cookies allow you to move around this website and use essential features like access to the secure Member’s area. 
  • We do not use these cookies to gather information about when and how you use our site.
  • It is these cookies that identify you as being logged into this website and remember information that you have entered in forms. 
  • If you choose to withhold consent for the operation of these essential cookies the BSA site will not work as these cookies are essential to the delivery of site functionality.  

2. Performance & functionality cookies 

  • Performance' cookies collect information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors.
  • 'Performance' cookies collect information about how you use our website e.g. which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies don't collect any information that could identify you – all the information collected is anonymised and is only used to help us improve how our website works, better understand the interests of our users and measure how effective our advertising is.
  • 'Functionality' cookies are used to provide services within the website or to remember settings to improve your visit.

We use performance and functionality cookies to do things like:

  • Provide us with statistics on how our website is used
  • Help us improve this website by measuring any errors that occur
  • Test different designs of our website when we update it.
  • These performance and functionality cookies may be used to gather information that is used to let you know about BSA services or events that may be of interest to you.
  • Remember settings you've applied.
  • Show you when you're logged in to the website
  • Remember the results of any tests performed to make the website more relevant to you
  • In the future we may share information with partners to provide a service on our website. If we do, the information we share will only to be used to provide the service, product or function and not for any other purpose

If you choose to delete these cookies the site will function, but we may not be able to offer you some services or support.

Third party cookies

Please note that third parties, including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services, may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

  • Google analytics
    • In common with many websites we use Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service provided by Google, Inc.
    • Google Analytics uses cookies to help us to analyse how users generically use our website. It counts the number of visitors and tells us things about their behaviour overall – such as the typical length of stay on the site or the average number of pages a user views.
  • Twitter & LinkedIn
    • No cookies are created until and unless you access these social media channels from the homepage of our website.
    • If you do access your Twitter or LinkedIn accounts via our website they may add cookies to your device/browser
  • Hotjar
    • From time to time we use Hotjar to provide a visual heat map of how our site is being used by our users in aggregate.  

Cookie details

These are the cookies that we use on our site:

Cookie name

Duration

Purpose

Category

ASP.NET_SessionId

Session

Keeps your session ID for security reasons.

Essential

 

CMSCsrfCookie

Session

Stores a security token that helps protect against cross-site request forgery (this is a type of malicious exploitation of a website where unauthorized commands are transmitted from a user that the web application trusts.)

Essential

CMSPreferredCulture

Persistent

Stores your preferred content culture e.g. language.

Essential

CMSLandingPageLoaded

Persistent

Indicates that the landing page has already been visited.  The Landing page activity is not logged again for the current visitor. Expires after 20 minutes - the expiration period is renewed every time the website is accessed.

Functional

HideCookieMessage

Persistent

Identifies whether user has accepted the cookie agreement.

Functional

CMSUserPage

Persistent

Stores the IDs (DocumentID, NodeID) of the last visited page. Used for logging landing and exit page web analytics and activities.

Functional

VisitorStatus

Persistent

Indicates if the visitor is new or returning. Used for tracking visitors statistics in Web analytics.

Functional

CurrentContact

Persistent

Stores the globally unique identifier (GUID).  This is a 128-bit number used to identify information in computer system of the contact related to the current site visitor. Used to track activities on the website.

Performance

_ga

Persistent

Google Analytics - Used to determine unique visitors and it is updated with each page view.

Performance

_gat

Persistent

Used to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_<UA-44609466-1> . The initial script run will check for this cookie, then fire a request to the third party, and then set the cookie. Subsequent page loads will check for this cookie's presence before making requests.

Performance

_gid

Persistent

Google Analytics - Used to distinguish users.

Performance

_hjIncludedInSample

Persistent

Used for web analytics functionality and to identify a user’s browser session. This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate Heatmaps, Funnels, Recordings, etc.

Performance

How do I manage consent for cookies?

  • You can manage cookies through your browser settings and/or by contacting the third parties below. If you continue to use our website without changing your settings, then you consent to us placing the categories of cookies we have listed above on your browser.
  • As we have explained above, if you decide to change your settings and disable cookies, you may not be able to take full advantage of all our website features.
  • The following external links will explain to you how to manage cookies for the most common browsers:

    Cookie Settings in Internet Explorer
    Cookie Settings in Google Chrome
    Cookie Settings in Firefox
    Cookie Settings in Safari