Article

What are cookies?

Cookies are pieces of information that are used to improve services for you through, for example:

  • Enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one visit.
  • Recognising that you may already have given a username and password, so you don't need to do it for every web page clicked.
  • Measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and we can make sure there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast.
  • Analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with our services so we can make them better.
Cookie name Description Lifetime
__RequestVerificationToken Used by the antiforgery system. Session
.AspNet.ApplicationCookie Used to identify user sessions. A user session starts when a user browses portal for the first time. And ends when the session is closed. Authentication site settings can be used to change session expiry time span. Session
adxPreviewUnpublishedEntities Stores preview ON/OFF mode used in classic CMS system for portal administrators. Session
adx-notification Used in basic form actions to store alert message to be shown on redirection. Session
ARRAffinity Added automatically by Azure websites and ensures that requests are load balanced between different sites. Doesn't store any of user information. Session
ASP.NET_SessionId Used to maintain the session of a logged in user to avoid repeated sign-in. Session
ContextLanguageCode Stores the default language of the user accessing portal within a session and across webpages. The cookie is deleted after session closes. Session
Dynamics365PortalAnalytics Critical service cookie to analyze service usage anonymously and aggregated for statistical purpose. 90 days
isDSTObserved Stores a value to indicate if the current moment is in daylight saving time. Session
isDSTSupport Indicates whether a specified date and time falls in the range of daylight saving time. Session
timeZoneCode Stores the timezonecode field value of CRM timezonedefinition table for the current timezone. Session
timezoneoffset Stores the timezone difference between UTC and Local browser time. Session

Cookies for measuring performance of the website

By understanding how people use the website, we can make improvements to the navigation and content and make the site easier to access.

We use Azure Application Insights to gather data on the number of people accessing this website, where they are accessing it from, what pages they visit, and what technology they are using. Azure Application Insights cannot identify you personally, but does allow us to understand our users as a group, for example by recording what browsers are being used.

Cookies for managing your current visit

To remember who you are as you move from page to page of the website, particularly after logging in to a service, we use a cookie called ASP.NET_SessionId. These store your session ID to allow the site to recognise your movement around the site as being from one computer. This cookie expires when you close your browser or log out, and contain no personal information about you.

Cookies to support specific elements of the site

Some elements of our website use cookies to make them easier to use. These may include:

  • Cookies to record that we have already presented you with a piece of information, which you would find intrusive and annoying if we continually re-presented. These may include notifications about cookies, selection of your local police force in order to serve localised content, the availability of new features or applications, and warning notices.
  • Cookies to retain settings or choices that you have made earlier during your visit to our site, so that we can reapply those choices when you revisit the relevant pages. These save you effort in reselecting the settings or making the choice, improving your experience of the website. For example, prepopulating complex search criteria screens with previous values, or collating selections you have made throughout your visit.

Cookies set by other websites through this site

We want to provide interesting and engaging content on our website. On a number of pages we embed media such as YouTube videos. Where we have used this type of content, the suppliers of these services may also leave cookies on your device when you visit the pages. These are known as 'third-party' cookies. We do not control how a third party uses their cookies. You should check these third party websites' privacy policies for more information about their cookies if you are concerned about this.

How to control and delete cookies

We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The 'Help' function within your browser should tell you how.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website.

If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie. For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.

 

If you wish to opt-out of third-parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website, please refer to their websites for further information.

​​​​​​