Cookie policy
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) puts small files (known as ‘cookies’) onto your computer to collect information about how you browse the site.
Cookies are used to:
- measure how you use the website so it can be updated and improved based on your needs
- remember the notifications you’ve seen so that we don’t show them to you again
You’ll normally see a message on the site before we store a cookie on your computer.
Find out more about how to manage cookies.
How cookies are used on the CCS portal
Managing your access and experience
We use cookies to provide you with a better website experience, manage access/use of the system and provide you with features and functionality. For instance, we use cookies to ensure you’re accessing the system from a trusted computer, and that you see features and information relevant to you.
Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)
We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use CCS. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements, for example, improving site search.
Google Analytics stores information about:
- the pages you visit on CCS
- how long you spend on each CCS page
- how you got to the site
- what you click on while you’re visiting the site
We don’t collect or store your personal information (for example, your name or address) so this information can’t be used to identify who you are.
We don’t allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
Google Analytics sets the following cookies:
Universal Analytics
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | This helps us count how many people visit CCS by tracking if you’ve visited before | 2 years |
| _gid | These help us count how many people visit CCS by tracking if you’ve visited before | 24 hours |
| _gat_UA-47046847-4 | These help us count how many people visit CCS by tracking if you’ve visited before | 1 minute |
You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.
Measuring website usage (Contentsquare)
We use Contentsquare software to collect information about how you use CCS. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements.
Contentsquare stores information about;
- browsing activity
- click-stream activity
- session heatmaps
- scrolls
We don’t collect or store your personal information (for example, your name or address) so this information can’t be used to identify who you are.
We don’t allow Contentsquare to use or share our analytics data.
Contentsquare sets the following cookies:
| Name | Description | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| _cs_id | Stores technical user data | 13 months |
| _cs_s | Stores Session Replay data | 30 minutes |
| _cs_c | Stores user consent on use of session data use within replays (not anonymized vs. full anonymized) | 13 months |
| _cs_cvars | Stores the URL-encoded custom variables from the session | Session length |
| _cs_ex | When set, the user is excluded from tracking | 30 days |
| _cs_optout | When set, the user is opted-out from tracking | 13 months |
| _cs_inc | Allows forcing tracking and collecting Session Replay data for a user session | Immediately removed |
| _cs_t | Checks if the browser supports cookies and sets flags | Immediately removed |
| _cs_same_site | Check if the browser supports the SameSite flag | Immediately removed |
| _cs_root-domain | Stores the URI-encoded main domain name of the site | Immediately removed |
| _cs_mk_ga | Ensures Google Analytics dimensions and eVars are set only once every 30 minutes | 30 minutes |
To be excluded from this monitoring, click here.
Measuring website usage (LinkedIn)
We use LinkedIn software to collect information about how you use CCS together with LinkedIn. We do this to help us understand how many of our users arrive from LinkedIn and the user journey they take, and also to retarget users with advertising on LinkedIn based on their activity on the website
LinkedIn sets the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| UserMatchHistory | Used to track visitors on multiple websites, in order to present relevant advertisement based on the visitor’s preferences. | 4 weeks |
| lang | This cookie is used to store the language preferences of a user to serve up content in that stored language the next time user visit the website. The main purpose of this cookie is functional. | Session |
| lang |
Set by LinkedIn when a web page contains an embedded “Follow us” panel. The main purpose of this cookie is functional. |
Session |
| lidc | This cookie is set by LinkedIn and used for routing. The main purpose of this cookie is functional. | 1 day |
| bcookie | This cookie is set by linkedIn. The purpose of the cookie is to enable LinkedIn functionalities on the page. The main purpose of this cookie is functional. | 2 years |
| bscookie | This cookie is a browser ID cookie set by Linked share Buttons and ad tags. The main purpose of this cookie is advertising. | 2 years |
YouTube/Google
We use YouTube to provide videos on some pages of the site. YouTube sets cookies when you visit one of these pages. No sensitive data is collected unless you log in to your Google account, in which case your choices are linked with your account (for example if you choose to “like” a video). YouTube/Google sets the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | This cookie is set by Youtube. Used to track the information of the embedded YouTube videos on a website. The main purpose of this cookie is advertising. | 5 months |
| YSC | This cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos. The main purpose of this cookie is performance. | |
| GPS | This cookie is set by Youtube and registers a unique ID for tracking users based on their geographical location. The main purpose of this cookie is analytics. | 30 minutes |
| IDE | Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. The main purpose of this cookie is advertising. | 1 year |
Our introductory message
You may see a pop-up welcome message when you first visit CCS. We’ll store a cookie so that your computer knows you’ve seen it and knows not to show it again.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| seen_cookie_message | Lets us know that you’ve seen our cookie message | 1 year |
| cookie_preferences | Saves your cookie consent settings | 1 year |
| cookie_preferences_set | Lets us know that you’ve saved your cookie consent settings | 1 years |
Salesforce Pardot
Pardot is the Marketing Automation platform provided by Salesforce.com, inc. that tracks visitor cookies composed of a unique visitor ID and the unique identifier for your account. For example, the cookie name “vistior_id12345” is the account identifier. Pardot cookies do not store personally identifiable information. This cookie is set for visitors to our website by the Pardot tracking code.
We use the data to understand activities on our website and landing pages, offer a better more personalised experience for our website users, support campaigns, and conduct analytics on site performance for all users. We will also use this data to remember preferences (such as form field values) when a visitor returns to our site.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| visitor_id<accountid> | The visitor cookie includes a unique visitor ID and the unique identifier for your account. For example, the cookie name visitor_id12345 stores the visitor ID 1010101010. The account identifier, 12345, makes sure that the visitor is tracked on the correct Pardot account. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code. | 2 years |
| pi_opt_in<accountid> | If Tracking Opt-in preferences is enabled, the pi_opt_in cookie is set with a true or false value when the visitor opts in or out of tracking. If a visitor opts in, the value is set to true, and the visitor is cookied and tracked. If the visitor opts out or ignores the opt-in banner, the opt-in cookie value is set to false. The visitor cookie is disabled, and the visitor is not tracked. | 2 years |
| pardot | A session cookie named pardot is set in your browser while you’re logged in to Pardot as a user or when a visitor accesses a form, landing page, or page with Pardot tracking code. The cookie denotes an active session and isn’t used for tracking. | This cookie will expire when your browsing session is over. |
More information about Pardot’s privacy practices are available here:
and their cookie tracking policy
Opt-out
Visitors to our website receive a message that asks them to opt-in to tracking cookies on their first visit. The message doesn’t appear again unless the user clears their cookies. If a user opts out of tracking, Pardot treats the user as if their cookies are disabled. Email link clicks and form submissions still appear in their activity history, but their page views and form views don’t.
If you have previously opted-in and then decide you want to opt-out, you can do so by clearing your cookies using your browser tools, and then when you revisit the page, you will be prompted to opt-in again.
Pardot cookie selection page
Marketing cookies
We’d like to set marketing cookies to help us offer a better more personalised experience for our website users.
Other services
This policy is for CCS only. When you go to a service run by a different organisation, they may have their own cookies policy.
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