Privacy and cookies

Citizens Advice is committed to safeguarding your privacy, while providing a high quality of service. Citizens Advice will treat your personal information as confidential and your details will not be given or sold to anyone.

We will use the information collected online to help us understand more about how our site is used by visitors, and to develop and enhance our services to you.

Cookies

We use cookies* to:

track aspects of user visits, including the length of a user's visit, their browser, geographic location and the use of the search facility on this website
remember users selected contrast and/or text resizing style preferences for this website
record a user's video preferences for our YouTube videos viewed on this website.

First party cookies

Cookie name	About this cookie (where known)	Expires
__utma	This is one of the four main cookies set by the Google Analytics service which enables website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. This cookie lasts for 2 years by default and distinguishes between users and sessions. It it used to calculate new and returning visitor statistics. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.†	2 years from set/update
__utmb	This is one of the four main cookies set by the Google Analytics service which enables website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. This cookie determines new sessions and visits and expires after 30 minutes. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.†	30 minutes from set/update
__utmc	This is one of the four main cookies set by the Google Analytics service which enables website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. It is set to enable interoperability with the older version of Google Analytics code known as Urchin. In this older versions this was used in combination with the __utmb cookie to identify new sessions/ visits for returning visitors. When used by Google Analytics this is always a Session cookie which is destroyed when the user closes their browser.
__utmz	This is one of the four main cookies set by the Google Analytics service which enables website owners to track visitor behaviour measure of site performance. This cookie identifies the source of traffic to the site - so Google Analytics can tell site owners where visitors came from when arriving on the site. The cookie has a life span of 6 months and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.†	6 months from set/update
__utmv	This is an optional additional cookie set by the Google Analytics service which enables website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. This cookie is used when site owners create custom visitor-level variables for customising what can be measured. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.	0 days
testSessionCookie
AGLogon	Stores login details if the "Remember me" option has been selected.	90 days
ANONID	Anonymous session cookie. Used where information you have entered needs to be used over several pages. For example the contact form and letter generators.	When the user exits the browser
eprivacy	Stops the banner message about cookies showing on every page. It is only shown on the first three pages visited, or until it is closed.	1 year
extent	Used to remember which part are of the UK you prefer to view information in. This allows you to skip the splash screen.	1 month
_lgn_cscv2
t
REQURL	Allows a user to be sent to the correct page following a login.	At end of session
SESSION	Required so users can log in.	At end of session

Third party cookies from web chat service

Cookie name	Purpose	Expires
LivePersonID	Set cookie with site page address, includes LivePerson VisitorID and creation time.	1 year
LivePersonID	Set cookie with site page address, includes LivePerson VisitorID and creation time.	1 year
HumanClickKEY	The session key of a visit.	At end of session
HumanClickACTIVE	Acceptance test cookie.	1 day
HumanClickSiteContainer ID_	LivePerson server identificiation.	At end of session
HumanClickCHATKEY	Unique key to identify each chat session.	At end of session
PHPSESSID	Maintains a web chat session.	At end of session

Third party cookies from .twitter.com, twitter.com

Twitter does not currently provide information on the use of specific cookies.

Cookie name	Expires
_twitter_sess	0 days
k	7 days
guest_id	331 days
remember_checked	3254 days
remember_checked_on	3254 days
secure_session	6906 days
twll	3254 days
auth_token	6906 days
pid	547 days
lang	0 days

Third party cookies from .google.com, .youtube.com

Cookie name	About this cookie (where known)	Expires
SID	This cookie is used by Google in combination with HSID to verify a Google user account and most recent login time.	3646 days
NID		183 days
PREF	This is a common Google cookie, used across several of their services. Stores user preference and can be used to personalise ads on google searches.	730 days
APSID		331 days
HSID	Used by Google in combination with SID to verify Google user account and most recent login time.	331 days
SAPISID		331 days
SSID		331 days
LOGIN_INFO		3650 days
lwb		7 days
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	This cookie is used as a unique identifier to track viewing of videos.	241 days

Third party cookies from plusone.google.com, apis.google.com, plus.google.com

Cookie name	Expires
BEAT	1 day
ULS	0 days
OTZ	30 days

Third party cookies from accounts.google.com

Cookie name	Expires
GAPS	730 days

Third party cookies from .facebook.com

Cookie name	Expires
wd	0 days
datr	331 days
lu	331 days

Third party cookies from .wufoo.com

Cookie name	Expires
ep201	0 days
ep202	1 year
SSID	1 year
SSLB	0 days
SSPV	1 year
SSRT	1 year
SSSC	0 days

Third party cookies from .logo-net.co.uk

Cookie name	Expires
LGNref	360 days

Third party cookies from newsletter.citizensadvice.org.uk

Cookie name	Expires
IEMSESSIONID	0 days

*cookie - a bit of information kept on a user\'s computer.

† For more information on Google Analytics tracking:http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/concepts/gaConceptsCookies.html

How you can manage or delete cookies

If you don\'t want to receive cookies, you can change settings in your web browser so that your browser tells you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies, the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, these sites can provide more information on how to do this:

Your personal information

When you provide Citizens Advice with personal information, for example, when using the feedback form, we take steps to ensure that your information is treated securely. Our Citizens Advice information charter provides full details of how we handle your personal information.

Citizens Advice makes every effort to ensure the security and integrity of emails on our systems. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information after we’ve received it, Citizens Advice cannot ensure or guarantee the security of information when it is being transmitted.

Note: This privacy policy only covers this website citizensadvice.org.uk and it\'s subdomains; other websites linked from this website are not covered by this policy. Once you have accessed another website via one of our links you will be subject to the security and privacy policy of that site.