HSDS Cookie policy

As is common practice with almost all professional websites the HSDS uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve the efficiency of the HSDS website. By using our website and services, you are consenting to the use of cookies.

This Cookie Policy covers the HSDS website and the services that we provide and describes what information our cookies gather, how we use that information and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored, however, this may downgrade or ‘break’ certain elements of the site’s functionality.

What are Cookies?

A cookie is a small text file which helps your web browser navigate through our website. The cookie can then be read back later by the web browser as required. The use of cookies is a convenient way of allowing your computer to remember information relating to a website which has been visited. A cookie may be either “persistent”, meaning it is stored by your web browser until an expiry date is passed or until deletion by you, or they can be “session” cookies, meaning they expire when the web browser is closed.

For further information about cookies including a detailed definition, please consult All About Cookies.

How the HSDS uses Cookies

The HSDS uses both session and persistent cookies to enhance the functionality of our website and services and to track visitor behaviour, such as popular archives and search terms.

The Cookies we set

Functionality Cookies

The following cookies enable our websites and services to function properly.

Analytics Cookies

Cookie Name: _pk_ID, _pk_ses

The HSDS uses these Matomo Web Analytics cookies for the purpose of collecting statistics about how visitors use our website. Matomo uses cookies to collect non-personally-identifying information, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify individuals. We do not make, and do not allow Motomo to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. You can read Matomo’s Privacy Policy on their website.

Third Party Cookies

Social Media Cookies

We may from time-to-time embed “widgets” from social media sites into our pages. These sites use cookies to track who is logged in and identify which pages from HSDS use these “widgets”. Examples of social media sites include Facebook (cookies statement), X (privacy details) and YouTube (privacy information).

Disabling Cookies

If you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by the HSDS, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The Help function within your browser will tell you how. Unfortunately restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of the HSDS website. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.