Cookies

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The Commtap website uses "cookies" in order for it to function correctly and for us to know how the site is used (which is essential in order to secure funding for it).

What is a cookie

A "cookie" is a small piece of text that is stored on your computer as you browse the pages on a site; cookies are only for use by the site that set them. The table below shows the cookies that are used on the Commtap website and what they are used for.

Cookies used on the Commtap site

Some of this information is quite technical and complex (sorry!).

Name of the cookie (sorry, some are a bit unpronouncable!)	What it is for
custom_cookie_test	Checks whether your browser can accept cookies or not. This is used by the site to determine what categorisation to use on the pages that you request (e.g. Early Years, P-levels, TAP, none), and what section of the site you want to view pages in (Early Years, Primary School, Secondary School, Post School Education or Adult).
has_js	Indicates whether your browser can use javascript or not (and if this is switched on). The site uses this information to determine how to send pages to you. Javascript enables you to do lots of things, for example change the categorisation displayed on an activities sheet you are looking at (e.g. P-level to Early Years), view or hide information about activities sheets on a page, edit pages in a user friendly way.
SESS... Name starts with "SESS" then is followed by a set of letters and numbers.	This cookie is essential to allow you to login, to display messages (for example to confirm that you have sent something to Commtap), to allow you to add or edit pages on the site.
cvg_group_prefs	As you go around the site, you will choose how you want things to be categorised (e.g. Early Years, P-levels) as you look at different types of pages (e.g. Language and Communication activities, Phonology and Articulation, Additional Resources), and, in some cases, as you swap sections (e.g. Primary, Secondary). This cookie stores these choices as you go, so that you don't keep having to re-enter them on each page. An example of what's in this cookie: 2-dev_description-p_nc-4,1-dev_description-early_years-5,2-artic_phon_desc-artic-2 For example, the first part "2-dev_description-p_nc-4" means: "In section 2 (primary section), for pages which can be categorised according to a developmental description (dev_description) use the P-Scales/National Curriculum (p_nc) to do this." The last number ("4") means this has a priority of 4 - so if you are looking at a page which could use both a developmental description categorisation and a phonology and articulation categorisation (for example an additional resource), then the page will check for the entry in the cookie which has the highest number to determine which one to use (if it would be possible to use a different entry).
cvg_node_type	This cookie stores the last type of page you looked at (e.g. Language and Communication, Additional Resource). It is used with the cvg_group_prefs cookie (above) to display the right categorisation on the page (see above).
__utma __utmb __utmc __utmz	Commtap, like many other websites, uses Google Analytics to anonymously count the number of visitors to the site and the pages that are visited. These four cookies are used for this process. Commtap is funded by donations from funders, and has been supported by 1000s of hours of unpaid voluntary work. In order to be able to seek and obtain funding (and for us to feel we are doing something worthwhile!) it is essential that we are able to show that the site is being used and how it is being used. Google analytics helps us to do this.

In most browsers it is possible to see what is stored in these cookies. For example:

Firefox

Right click (or control and click) on a page in Commtap, choose "View Page Info", go to "Security", and choose "View Cookies".

Google Chrome

Right click (or control and click) on a page in Commtap, choose "Inspect", choose "Resources", click on the arrow next to "Cookies" on the left, choose the site (e.g. en.commtap.org).

Other cookies

Commtap - like many other websites - uses "Adsense" advertising supplied by Google on some of its pages (which provides a very small amount of revenue for Commtap - at the moment enough to buy a cup of coffee every two or three days). Adsense adverts appear on Commtap pages, but are completely separate from Commtap - we don't know what ads are specifically shown to you. Adsense uses its own cookies to manage the ads that it shows you - it usually stores these under the name "doubleclick.net" - in Firefox for example, you can find these in its cookie window (see details above for getting to that window). More information about the cookies that Google uses. The data in these cookies will look pretty meaningless - they will mostly be codes that Google will use to access information it stores on its servers.