Why is Everyone Talking About Cookies?
Recent EU legislation (GDPR) requires organisations with a website that collects personal data of EU residents to comply with certain rules relating to cookies.
They are legally required to tell visitors about their use of cookies or other tracking technologies, and how they can delete or control them.
To comply with these rules you will notice that websites are now incorporating a pop-up notice when you first visit their website. This notice (similar to the one we use on this website) requests confirmation to Accept or Decline non-essential cookies.
At National Truck and Van Rental we think it is important for people to have the choice to load cookies or not, however, it is also our view that cookies benefit both website owners and their visitors. It is important to know that cookies do not personally identify you, and for this reason we continue to use them on our website.
What are Cookies?
A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user’s hard drive. It is generated by a web page server, which is basically the computer that operates a web site. The information the cookie contains is set by the server and it can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user’s identification card, which tell a web site when the user has returned. (*)
Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer.
Essential cookies: these are cookies that are either:
- used solely to carry out or facilitate the transmission of communications over a network; or
- strictly necessary to provide an online service (e.g. our website or a service on our website) which you have requested.
Non-essential cookies: these are any cookies that do not fall within the definition of essential cookies, such as cookies used to analyse your behaviour on a website (‘analytical’ cookies) or cookies used to display advertisements to you (‘advertising’ cookies).
Why do Companies use Them?
Cookies make the interaction between users and web sites faster and easier. Without cookies, it would be very difficult for a web site to allow a visitor to submit a quote request or to remember the user’s preferences or registration details for a future visit.
Web sites use cookies mainly because they save time and make the browsing experience more efficient and enjoyable. Web sites often use cookies for the purposes of collecting demographic information about their users.
Cookies enable web sites to monitor their users’ web surfing habits and profile them for marketing purposes (for example, to find out which products or services they are interested in and send them targeted advertisements).
How do we use Cookies on our Website?
With the continual advancement in web technology, our use of cookies is subject to change. Hopefully the following list will give you some insight into the sort of things we use cookies for:
Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). As you browse through our website, the analytics program collects information about your visit, not about you personally. We gather and monitor statistics such as:
- number of people who visit the Website;
- average amount of time spent on the website;
- date and time of visits;
- geographical area that the site is visited from; or
- the number of pages viewed.
On certain pages we use separate analytics software to analyse our website design enabling us to check if people are experiencing issues while navigating the website. This enables us to improve our design and offer a better experience to our visitors.
We use Google’s remarketing cookies. This enables us to show targeted banner ads to website visitors when they are browsing other sites. The remarketing cookies allow us to control setting so the visitor does not get “bombarded” with our adverts.
We have embedded YouTube videos on certain pages of our website. YouTube (owned by Google) will set certain cookies when a visitor clicks on the YouTube button within the video player.
See below for a full list of our cookies and their purpose.Name of the Cookie | Type of Cookie | Essential or Non-Essential | Purpose |
---|---|---|---|
ntvr.ie | Essential | ||
addthis.com | Essential | ||
cloudflare.com | Essential | ||
Analytics – Google Analytics | Non-essential (analytical and tracking) | Non-Essential | Google Analytics cookie used to distinguish users on a website to generate statistical information about their use of the website |
Analytics – Google tag manager | Non-essential (analytical and tracking) | Non-Essential | Google Tag Manager cookie used to distinguish users on a website to generate statistical information about their use of the website |
Analytics – Crazyegg | Non-essential (analytical and tracking) | Non-Essential | CrazyEgg collects data pertaining to where you click on a page and what pages you visit |
Third Party – YouTube | Non-essential (analytical and tracking) | Non-Essential | YouTube cookie used to track and gather information about when you watch YouTube videos on different websites |
Third Party – Facebook | Non-essential (analytical and tracking) | Non-Essential | Facebook cookie used to track and gather information about pages you’ve visited and when you complete a form |
Third Party – doubleclick.net | Non-essential (analytical and tracking) | Non-Essential | DoubleClick is a Google product that looks at what sections of their sites you are browsing and gathers statistical data such as geographic location |
Third Party – infinity-tracking.net | Non-essential (analytical and tracking) | Non-Essential | Infinity-tracking cookie serves up unique phone numbers to identify what areas of the site you access and where your referral links (where you came from) |