When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the Internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.
These pieces of information 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 task
- recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
- measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast
Information on how to manage cookies can be found within the help documents of your browser. Further information can also be found on the browser websites (see right).
Like many websites, we use cookies to obtain certain types of information when your web browser accesses some of our web pages.
The main use we make of cookies is to track your browser when accessing our online shops, both to ensure your security, and to keep track of your shopping basket. (If you block cookies our online shops will not function correctly, and you may be unable to place an order.) In other parts of the website we also use cookies to remember your preferences from page to page.
Most of the cookies used on our websites are set to expire (i.e. to be deleted by your browser) either as soon as you leave the BGS site or within 20 minutes of inactivity (if you are in the process of placing an order through our online shops).
We do not use cookies to track any user between visits, nor to generate user statistics, neither do we share any data gathered on our website with any other company or organisation, please see our Privacy Policy for more information.
Our use of cookies
Main BGS website - http://www.bgs.ac.uk/
The following applications use the cookie listed below.
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| JSESSIONID | To remember your selections that you've already made when looking at information or using a service on our website | 783011f2 5ee5ed6b 7df556467352741 482a1 | When you close your browser or navigate away from the BGS websites or after 20 minutes of inactivity |
OnlineShops - http://shop.bgs.ac.uk
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| JSESSIONID | To remember your selections that you've already made when looking at information or using a service on our website | 783011f2 5ee5ed6b 7df556467352741 482a1 | When you close your browser or navigate away from the BGS websites or after 20 minutes of inactivity when browsing for products from our online shop |
AssetBank - http://geoscenic.bgs.ac.uk
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| JSESSIONID | To remember your selections that you've already made when looking at information or using a service on our website | 783011 f25ee5ed6b 7df5564673527 41482a1 | When you close your browser or navigate away from the BGS websites or after 20 minutes of inactivity |
Djatoka IIPViewer - http://scans.bgs.ac.uk/
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| JSESSIONID | To remember your selections that you've already made when looking at information or using a service on our website | 783011 f25ee5ed6b 7df5564673527 41482a1 | When you close your browser or navigate away from the BGS websites or after 20 minutes of inactivity |
Earthquake - http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| QUES0 | Used to remember answers to the online questionnaire regarding a potential earthquake - 1st page | day%3A%3A27--%3Emon%3A%3A5--%3Eyear%3A%3A2011--%3Ehr%3A%3A10--%3Emin%3A%3A35--%3E | Expires 1 week after submission of questionnaire |
| QUES1 | Used to remember answers to the online questionnaire regarding a potential earthquake - 2nd page | day%3A%3A27--%3Emon%3A%3A5--%3Eyear%3A%3A2011--%3Ehr%3A%3A10--%3Emin%3A%3A35--%3E | Expires 1 week after submission of questionnaire |
| QUES2 | Used to remember answers to the online questionnaire regarding a potential earthquake - 3rd page | day%3A%3A27--%3Emon%3A%3A5--%3Eyear%3A%3A2011--%3Ehr%3A%3A10--%3Emin%3A%3A35--%3E | Expires 1 week after submission of questionnaire |
| QUES3 | Used to remember answers to the online questionnaire regarding a potential earthquake - 4th page | day%3A%3A27--%3Emon%3A%3A5--%3Eyear%3A%3A2011--%3Ehr%3A%3A10--%3Emin%3A%3A35--%3E | Expires 1 week after submission of questionnaire |
| QUES4 | Used to remember answers to the online questionnaire regarding a potential earthquake - 5th page | day%3A%3A27--%3Emon%3A%3A5--%3Eyear%3A%3A2011--%3Ehr%3A%3A10--%3Emin%3A%3A35--%3E | Expires 1 week after submission of questionnaire |
| QUESHID | Used to identify questionnaire submitted to the earthquakes desk | day%3A%3A27--%3Emon%3A%3A5--%3Eyear%3A%3A2011--%3Ehr%3A%3A10--%3Emin%3A%3A35--%3E | Expires 1 week after submission of questionnaire |
Below is a list of the main cookies set by our hosted sites
Afghan - http://www.bgs.ac.uk/afghanminerals/
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| JSESSIONID | To remember your selections that you've already made when looking at information or using a service on our website | 783011f2 5ee5ed6b 7df556467352741 482a1 | When you close your browser or navigate away from the BGS websites or after 20 minutes of inactivity |
BIAS - http://www.biasweb.org/
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| SESSe88a8e0bbc0691282461667dd490a4bc | Required for user login. | 2sh a1l8sq75kael elib7mj3jv5 | Within a month. |
Third party cookies
Some of our web pages that are hosted by third party organisations may place cookies on your computer e.g. BGSchannel on YouTube. In addition, some BGS web pages embed content from third parties that use cookies e.g. Google Maps from google.com.
For further information on the respective third party organisations and their policies on cookies, please visit the following:
YouTube| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | When you visit Google, we send one or more cookies to your computer or other device. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service, including storing user preferences, improving search results and ad selection and tracking user trends, such as how people search. Google also uses cookies in its advertising services to help advertisers and publishers serve and manage ads across the web and on Google services.(YouTube is a subsidiary of Google) | BX5Kz-iIYf8 | Within a year. |
| GEO | When you visit Google, we send one or more cookies to your computer or other device. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service, including storing user preferences, improving search results and ad selection and tracking user trends, such as how people search. Google also uses cookies in its advertising services to help advertisers and publishers serve and manage ads across the web and on Google services. (YouTube is a subsidiary of Google) | 8dda 4a5 07bc1b71 bf1aa9 b098ee458 e7cwsAAAAz R0L Aq5eQTd 9vDg== | End of session. |
| PREF | When you visit Google, we send one or more cookies to your computer or other device. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service, including storing user preferences, improving search results and ad selection and tracking user trends, such as how people search. Google also uses cookies in its advertising services to help advertisers and publishers serve and manage ads across the web and on Google services. | ID=e7 315a9 d1ee9cf 81:TM=13064 88327:LM= 1306488327:S=A ibaL2tj AjG 1wQFX | One week. |
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| PREF | When you visit Google, we send one or more cookies to your computer or other device. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service, including storing user preferences, improving search results and ad selection and tracking user trends, such as how people search. Google also uses cookies in its advertising services to help advertisers and publishers serve and manage ads across the web and on Google services. | ID=e7 315a9 d1ee9cf 81:TM=13064 88327:LM= 1306488327:S=A ibaL2tj AjG 1wQFX | One week. |
| NID | When you visit Google, we send one or more cookies to your computer or other device. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service, including storing user preferences, improving search results and ad selection and tracking user trends, such as how people search. Google also uses cookies in its advertising services to help advertisers and publishers serve and manage ads across the web and on Google services. | 47=Zf7SGeD sXsy-7DaK O99X2hFSQi -xeRwzC 7UeN JXtvn9mlQuHJEZ 1e z0OyBCYqaWA- JG4E wNH5T90gtt J7M24CityUQ7Nv kSZU2 hQjJvr4E-d7t YimoUz4 5 YxHKTWq-Uk | Six months. |
| SNID | When you visit Google, we send one or more cookies to your computer or other device. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service, including storing user preferences, improving search results and ad selection and tracking user trends, such as how people search. Google also uses cookies in its advertising services to help advertisers and publishers serve and manage ads across the web and on Google services. | 47=t mFrXN28KoivEQkgi- LAxa7AP slcVcOl9ynI1aCSm w=EZ9M1kTo qPJPoQje | Six months. |
BBC
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| BBC-UID | A unique identifier given to each computer to allow log analysis to determine the number of unique users for various parts of bbc.co.uk. Data is only used in aggregate. | 64fd9d5f972ab96e4a2b5 1fa0196cf c44f71b79df 0c0c1b4846fd9b 71cc2 0a010Mozilla%2f4%2e0%20%28 compatibl e%3b%20MSIE%208%2e0 %3b%20Windows %20NT%205%2e1% 3b%20Trident %2f4%2e0%3b%20%2 eNET%20CLR%201%2e1%2e43 22%3b%20%2eNET%20 CLR%202%2e0%2e507 27%3b%20%2eNET%20 CLR%203%2e0%2 e04506%2e30%3b%20%2e NET%20CLR%203%2e0%2e 04506%2e648%3b% 20InfoPath%2e2%3b%20 %2eNET%20CLR %203%2e0%2e4 506%2e215 2%3b%20%2eNET%20CLR%20 3%2e5%2e30 729%3b%20%2e NET4%2e0C%29 | Four years. |
| s1 | Like the BBC-UID cookie, this is a unique identifier given to each computer to allow log analysis to determine the number of unique users for various parts of bbc.co.uk. Data is only used in aggregate. | policyref="http://www.nedstat.com/w3c/p3p.xml", CP="NOI DSP COR NID PSA ADM OUR IND NAV COM" | Five years. |
