Cookies Policy

Cookies are simple ‘text files’ that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Typically, they contain two pieces of information: a site name and unique user ID which can be used to recognise your computer when a user of your computer returns to a website that it visited previously. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work better, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

We use cookies to enhance the online experience of our visitors, to better understand how our websites are used and to monitor how our campaigns perform. For example, cookies may tell us whether you have visited our site before or whether you are a new visitor.

Our cookies do not store financial information or information which is capable of directly identifying you (such as your name or address). You have the right to choose whether to accept these cookies. You can exercise this right by amending or setting the controls on your browser to reflect your cookie preferences. However, please note that if you choose to refuse cookies you may not be able to use the full functionality of our website.

The "Help" menu in the toolbar of most web browsers will tell you how to change your browser's cookie settings, including how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, and how to disable cookies altogether.

We have classified our cookies into two broad types - 'first party cookies' and 'third party cookies':

• First party cookies are cookies that are served directly by the website operator to your computer, and are often used to recognise your computer when it revisits that site and to remember your preferences as you browse the site.
• Third party cookies are served by a service provider on behalf of the website operator, and can be used by the service provider to recognise your computer when it visits other web sites. Third party cookies are used for a variety of reasons, most commonly used for website analytics or advertising purposes. More details are provided in the third party cookie section.

In addition, cookies may be either 'session cookies' or 'persistent cookies'. Your computer automatically removes session cookies once you close your browser. Persistent cookies will survive on your computer until an expiry date specified in the cookie itself, is reached.

To help you understand how we use cookies at the MND Association, the following table shows the main cookies set on our website and what we use each one for:

Type of cookie location

Session cookies across www.mndassociation.org and all other MND Association websites.

Purpose

These cookies are used to keep a status of your session as soon as you visit the website. This is required should you wish to log in to the website.

Cookie name/Contents/Expiry

PHPSESSID

Randomly generated identifier assigned to uniquely identify a user's session. Expires when the browsing session ends.

We work with a number of third party suppliers who set cookies on our website to enable them to provide us with services. These cookies are mainly used for reporting and advertising purposes so that we can improve the way we communicate with our supporters and ensure the money we invest in online advertising is well spent. More information about the main suppliers we use and their privacy policies is listed below.

Name: AddThis
Description and privacy policy: AddThis tracks social shares from our website anytime the "Share this page" option is used.
Cookie name(s): _atuvc, _atuvs, uvc, xtc, di2, uid, vc, loc, vstcnt, clid, acs, bt2, di2, loc, um

Name: Facebook
Description and privacy policy: Facebook is a social media platform we use to communicate with our supporters through posts and paid advertising. We use cookies to measure the effectiveness of paid advertising on Facebook to ensure the money we spend is used effectively.
Cookie name(s): fr

Name: Google Analytics
Description and privacy policy: Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google inc. The software will save a cookie on your computer, track and monitor where you visit on the website, what you click on and how long you stay. We use this information to better understand how the website is performing and to help in planning future campaigns.

The cookie will not store, save or collect personal information.

Cookie name(s): _ga (used to distinguish users and has an expiration of 2 years.)
_gid  (used to distinguish users and has an expiration of 24 hours.),
_gat (used to throttle requests and has an expiration of 10 minutes.)

Name: SiteImprove
Description and privacy policy: We use SiteImprove as a quality control tool on our website. It enables us to identify and fix errors on the website.
Cookie name(s): ASP.NET_SessionId, test_cookie, IDE, id, bkdc, bku, sess.

Name: WordFence
Description and privacy policy: WordFence is a plugin that helps us ensure our website is secure.
Cookie name(s): Wordfence_verifiedHuman, wfvt_3140181702

If you go on to a page on our website that contains embedded content, for example YouTube, you may be sent cookies from these websites.

Our website also contains embedded “share” buttons to enable users of the site to easily share articles with their friends through a number of popular networks such as Facebook and Twitter. These sites may also set a cookie when you are logged in to their service.

We do not control the setting of these cookies, so we suggest you check the third party website for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.

Further information about cookies and how to control their use is available from these external links All About Cookies and Your Online Choices.