What is a Cookies Policy?
A Cookies Policy is a legal requirement under the EU Cookies Directive.
The policy lets you know that our website uses cookies, why we use them, how the you can change your preferences, and if there are any third-parties who have access to the your data.
The directive is meant for any website or app directed towards European Union citizens or a website that is owned by a business in the European Union.
Under this directive, it’s required to:
- Provide an opt-out method
- Obtain consent before cookies can be used
- Inform your users of your use of cookies and how they are used
Google Analytics keep track of data used by storing cookies on a user’s PC. This makes it necessary to have a Privacy Policy that abides by the EU Cookies Directive.
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This site uses Google Analytics
Cookies Policy for Google Analytics
Should you care about the EU’s cookies directive if your site uses Google Analytics?
Most websites have a tracking solution used to collect information about visitors to the site. These tracking solutions influence the decisions which increase web traffic.
Google Analytics is a popular tracking solution used by popular websites like Twitter, Washington Post, New York Times, and Mashable. This software is not only powerful, it’s also free.
This service provides you with comprehensive statistics about how users interact with your application or website including the geographical location of visitors, average time on site, traffic, and other important metrics. Google Analytics also has marketing tools like remarketing advertising capabilities.
Cookies are used by Google Analytics to provide these services. It’s the only way Google can gather information, identify unique users, identify special sessions, and store information.
What is ga.js?
ga.js is a Google Analytics tracking code. This code is able to track events and its size allows for faster downloads. Cookies are browser detailed for ga.js. A user working on Safari on their work PC will have different cookies stored than when using Safari on their home computer.
Cookies Set by Google Analytics
Google Analytics uses different cookies to note down information. A built-in GA code determines when the cookies expire.
These cookies accumulate a domain hash that links them to one site.
Here’s a look at examples of Google Analytics use of cookie.
-utmz
This cookie contains all the information on the source of traffic for the current visit, the cookie doesn’t change if no traffic source information is found for the current visit. This cookie doesn’t contain historical information for previous sources. It’s the way Google Analytics attributes visit information, such as transactions and conversions to a traffic source. Being a persistent cookie means it expires in 6 months. The only way to refresh it is to change the traffic source.
-utmv
-utmv is a user-defined variable cookies. A developer can separate visitors by specific variables through a native JavaScript method.The new variable is stored in an insistent cookie which expires after two years.
-utma
Utma is the main way through which Google Analytics tracks unique visitors. The cookie stores the date, time of the first visit, and a visitor’s ID. Also, this cookie stores information on the number of visits they’ve made. The -utma cookie can last for up to 2 years. However, you can customize the expiration time in the tracking code.
-utmb
-utmb is a type of cookie that tells Google Analytics whether a visit has timed out and also how far the visit went. It also stores information of the start time of the visitor’s current visit as well as the number of page views in the current visit. This persistent cookie expires in less than an hour. But, each page visit refreshes it.
-utmc
This is the only session cookie used by Google Analytics. The -utmc cookie registers that the visit ended once the user closed the browser.