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Cookie policy

This website www.theeducationpeople.org (“Our Site”) uses Cookies and similar technologies in order to distinguish you from other users. We use Cookies to provide you with a better experience and to improve Our Site by better understanding how you use it. Please read this Cookie Policy carefully and ensure that you understand it.

Before Cookies are placed on your computer or device, you will be shown a banner at the top of Our Site requesting your consent to set those Cookies. This does not apply to 'Strictly Necessary' cookies, which are essential to the functioning of Our Site and which We may use without your consent. If you choose to give your consent to us using non-essential Cookies we will place Cookies on your computer or device as described in this Cookie Policy. You may, if you wish, refuse to give consent to the placing of Cookies unless those Cookies are strictly necessary; however certain features of Our Site may not function fully or as intended.

1. Definitions and interpretation

2. Information about us

3. How does our site use cookies?

4. What cookies does our site use?

5. Controlling cookies

6. Changes to this cookie policy

7. Further information

1. Definitions and interpretation

1.1

In this Cookie Policy, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the following meanings:

“Cookie(s)”

means a small file placed on your computer or device by Our Site when you visit certain parts of Our Site and/or when you use certain features of Our Site to distinguish you from other visitors to Our Site;

“Cookie Law”

means the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, the Data Protection Act 2018, the UK GDPR and any other supplementary, implementing or amending legislation or other statutory instruments and all other applicable law relating to the use of cookies in force in the United Kingdom from time to time;

“personal data”

means any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data, as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation ("UK GDPR"); and

“We/Us/Our”

means Edesco Limited, trading as The Education People, a trading services arm of Kent County Council.

2. Information about us

2.1

Our Site is owned and operated by The Education People, a trading services arm of Kent County Council.

2.2

Please contact our Data Protection Officer at [email protected] or in writing at: Data Protection Officer, Commercial Services Group, 1 Abbey Wood Road, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4YT.

3. How does our site use cookies?

3.1

If you give your consent, Our Site may place and access certain first party Cookies on your computer or device. First party Cookies are those placed directly by Us and are used only by Us. We use these Cookies to facilitate and improve your experience of Our Site and to provide and improve Our products and services. We have carefully chosen these Cookies and have taken steps to ensure that your privacy and personal data is protected and respected at all times.

3.2

If you give your consent, you may also receive certain third party Cookies on your computer or device. Third party Cookies are those placed by websites, services, and/or parties other than Us. Third party Cookies are used on Our Site for anonymously analysing the behaviour of visitors to Our Site so We and the third parties who place these Cookies are better able to understand our customers and continually improve our services. For more details, please refer to section 4 below.

3.3

All Cookies used by and on Our Site are used in accordance with current Cookie Law. We may use some or all of the following types of Cookie:

Strictly necessary cookies
A Cookie falls into this category if it is essential to the operation of Our Site, supporting functions such as logging in, moving around Our Site and using its features, using contact forms, and making payment transactions. You cannot switch off these Cookies.

Analytics cookies
It is important for Us to understand how you use Our Site, for example, how efficiently you are able to navigate around it, and what features you use. Analytics Cookies enable us to gather this information, helping Us to improve Our Site and your experience of it. You may switch these cookies off.

Functionality cookies
Functionality Cookies enable Us to provide additional functions to you on Our Site such as personalisation and remembering your saved preferences. Some functionality Cookies may also be strictly necessary Cookies, but not all necessarily fall into that category. You may switch these Cookies off, but please note that some features of Our Site may not be as effective or work in the intended manner if you do.

Targeting cookies
It is important for Us to know when and how often you visit Our Site, and which parts of it you have used (including which pages you have visited and which links you have visited). As with analytics Cookies, this information helps us to better understand you and, in turn, to make Our Site and advertising more relevant to your interests. You may switch these Cookies off.

Third party cookies
Third party Cookies are not placed by Us; instead, they are placed by third parties that provide services to Us and/or to you. Third party Cookies may be used by advertising services to serve up tailored advertising to you on Our Site, or by third parties providing analytics services to Us (these Cookies will work in the same way as analytics Cookies described above).

Persistent cookies
Any of the above types of Cookie may be a persistent Cookie. Persistent Cookies are those which remain on your computer or device for a predetermined period and are activated each time you visit Our Site, unless deleted by you before its set expiry date.

Session cookies
Any of the above types of Cookie may be a session Cookie. Session Cookies are temporary and only remain on your computer or device from the point at which you visit Our Site until you close your browser. Session Cookies are deleted when you close your browser.

3.4

Cookies on Our Site are not permanent and will expire as indicated in the relevant table at section 4 below.

3.5

For more details of the personal data that We collect and use, the measures we have in place to protect personal data, your legal rights, and our legal obligations, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

3.6

For more specific details of the Cookies that We use, please refer to the tables at section 4 below.

4. What cookies does our site use?

4.1

The following first party Cookies may be placed on your computer or device:

Name of cookie

Purpose

Strictly necessary / rxpiry

ApplicationGatewayAffinity

Used by our load balancer to ensure our users visit the same server throughout their session.

Yes – End of Session

ApplicationGatewayAffinityCORS

Used by our load balancer to ensure our users visit the same server throughout their session.

Yes – End of Session

__RequestVerificationToken

Security requirement to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks on our systems.

Yes – End of Session

ASP.NET_SessionId

Anonymously distinguishing one visitor from another.

Yes – End of Session

UMB-XSRF-TOKEN

Security requirement to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks on our systems.

Yes – End of Session

UMB-XSRF-V

Security requirement to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks on our systems.

Yes – End of Session

cookieconsent_status

Remembers if you have already dismissed the cookie banner so you are not shown multiple times.

Yes – 1 year – Persistent

COOKIES_STATUS

Remembers your cookie consent choice.

Yes – 1 year – Persistent

OrderHeader_BookingBasket

Remembers your booking basket for bookings that are in progress.

Yes - 1 month – Persistent

CurrentLoggedInUser

Remembers which user account is logged in.

Yes - 3 weeks – Persistent

SpiritOAuthRefreshTokenKey

Keeps the user account logged in with our single sign on service.

Yes - End of Session

sw-basket-id

Remembers your basket for orders that are in progress.

Yes - 1 month – Persistent

4.2

The following third party Cookies may be placed on your computer or device:

Name of Cookie

Purpose

 Provider

Strictly Necessary / Expiry

external_referer

Used by Twitter services to monitor referral links and login status

Twitter

No - 2 Years – Persistent

_twitter_sess

Used to collect data

Twitter

No - End of Session

personalization_id

To control personalization across devices on Twitter

Twitter

No - 2 Years – Persistent

_gid

Used by Twitter to save a unique anonymous id for each website visitor

Twitter

No - 24 Hours – Persistent

_ga

Used by Twitter to collect data for Google Analytics

Twitter

No - 2 Years – Persistent

guest_id

Used to identify a user to Twitter. If the user does not have a Twitter account or never accessed the twitter.com website directly then Twitter will assign the user a unique code to track their visit to the Twitter feed

Twitter

No - 1 Minute – Persistent

fr

When no authentication cookies are found this cookie redirects to 'https' so that authentication cookies can be found

Facebook

No - 3 Months – Persistent

_hjid

Hotjar cookie that is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behaviour in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.

Hotjar

No - 1 Year – Persistent

_hjIncludedInPageviewSample

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit.

Hotjar

No - 30 Minutes – Persistent

_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress

This cookie is used to detect the first pageview session of a user. This is a True/False flag set by the cookie.

Hotjar

No - 30 Minutes – Persistent

_hjTLDTest

When the Hotjar script executes we try to determine the most generic cookie path we should use, instead of the page hostname. This is done so that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). To determine this, we try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. After this check, the cookie is removed.

Hotjar

No - End of Session

4.3

Our Site uses analytics services provided by Google Analytics. Website analytics refers to a set of tools used to collect and analyse anonymous usage information, enabling Us to better understand how Our Site is used. This, in turn, enables Us to improve Our Site and the products and services offered through it. You do not have to allow Us to use these Cookies, however whilst Our use of them does not pose any risk to your privacy or your safe use of Our Site, it does enable Us to continually improve Our Site, making it a better and more useful experience for you.

4.4

The analytics service(s) used by Our Site use(s) the following third party analytics Cookies to gather the required information:

Name of Cookie

Purpose

 Provider

Strictly Necessary / Expiry

_ga

Used to distinguish users

Google Analytics

No – 2 Years – Persistent

_gid

Used to distinguish users

Google Analytics

No – 24 Hours – Persistent

_gat

Used to throttle request rate

Google Analytics

No – 1 Minute – Persistent

5. Controlling cookies

5.1

In addition to the controls that We provide, you can choose to enable or disable Cookies in your internet browser. Most internet browsers also enable you to choose whether you wish to disable all Cookies or only third party Cookies. By default, most internet browsers accept Cookies but this can be changed. For further details, please consult the help menu in your internet browser or the documentation that came with your device.

5.2

The links below provide instructions on how to control Cookies in all mainstream browsers:

6. Changes to this cookie policy

6.1

We may alter this Cookie Policy at any time. Any such changes will become binding on you on your first use of Our Site after the changes have been made. You are therefore advised to check this page from time to time.

6.2

In the event of any conflict between the current version of this Cookie Policy and any previous version(s), the provisions current and in effect shall prevail unless it is expressly stated otherwise.

7. Further information

If you would like to know more about how We use Cookies, please contact us at [email protected], by telephone on 0345 604 1699.

For more information about privacy, data protection and our terms and conditions, please visit the following: