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The use of Cookies on this website Many of you are likely to be unaware of a recent EU Directive about the use of Cookies on websites. The directive now requires the user (you) to actively opt-in to allowing each website to place a cookie on your computer. This cookie is a rather simple and small file (very similar to a text file) but it can stores information about your visit and usage of the website you are visiting. This can mean that you don't need to keep logging in to the website; it remembers some settings you are set; it may remember the last time you visited the website; it can also be used to track banners and which ones have been shown. Up until the middle of May 2012, this site used a Google Analytics piece of code - it allowed tracking of webpages - it did not give personal details of the user, just how the site was used in terms of most popular pages, how long users remained on the site, etc. This piece of code has now been removed from the site so is no longer being used. However, there may be traces of this Google Analytics code in the form of up to 4 Cookies -
More information about these cookies can be found on the Google website. These are no longer used and the easiest way to clear these from the computer would be to go to your browser settings and remove all cookies. If you have a login for the forum then you will have a cookie placed on your computer for this website. The cookie for the forum is used to remember who you are. It doesn't store any 'personal' information other than your login details to this website - no bank details or phone numbers or anything like that. If you have the login set to automatically log you in then it will be this cookie that is used. The cookies that remain on this website are fairly small, they all relate to your user account on the system. There are 7 in total with 2 of them being removed when you close your web browser. The other 5 remain on your computer for a period of time. These cookies are only accessed by the web browser when you access this website. The forum is integrated into the wider website, which also uses a small number of cookies. These cookies ensure that when you login to the forum, you also login to the website; any personal preferences would also be stored - this site has got all personal settings disabled so the cookies that are stored are going to have next to nothing in them. The directive requires each website to inform users of any 3rd party cookies, these tend to be used for clever advert placement and browsing history - Google uses these a lot to ensure search results and adverts are appropriate to what you tend to search for and browse. This website only has cookies that are used for login and registration to the forum (and wider website), there are no tracking cookies actively added to this site. Over the coming weeks, the site will be updated to have a better opt-in process, but for now, rest assured that the cookies on your machine aren't used for any tracking or advertising, they are used purely to allow the user (you) to access the website with your own login details.
I don't want to store cookies...what can I do? If you decide you don't want to allow cookies to be placed on your computer you have a couple of options -
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