Cookies policy
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we may store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer or device. They cannot be used to identify you personally.
You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings in the footer.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users of the Site. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse the Site and also allows us to improve the Site.
Cookies 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; and
- 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
Types of cookies used
The Site uses the following categories of cookies:
- General cookies - this allows the Site to link the actions of a user during a browser session so that the Site is able to store certain information whilst the user is browsing the Site.
- Google Analytics cookies - Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the Site and volumes of usage.
- Hotjar cookies - Hotjar sets cookies to track visitor behaviour on the Site, including click and scroll locations.
- ActiveCampaign cookies - ActiveCampaign is email campaign software we use to manage bulletin newsletters, the cookies allow usage to be tracked from email links.
You can find more detailed information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the tables below:
General cookies
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
| scvo_account | To provide My SCVO account services | 1 month |
| cookie_consent | Remembers whether you accepted or declined optional cookies, so we don't ask again | 1 year |
| dismissible_* | Used to remember which information boxes a user has dismissed | 1 year |
Your choice covers Funding Scotland and Funding Scotland for Funders.
Google Analytics cookies
The information from the following cookies will be used by Google in accordance with Google's privacy policy. For more information on the cookies set by Google Analytics please refer to the Google Analytics website:
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
| _ga | This is used to understand and differentiate between different users. | 2 years |
| _ga_<container-id> | Used to persist session state. Container ID is the identifier for the Google Analytics account being used. | 2 years |
Hotjar cookies
We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users' needs and to optimise this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users' experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don't like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users' behaviour and their devices. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymised user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf.
For further details, please see the 'about Hotjar' section of Hotjar's support site.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
| _hjSessionUser_<site-id> | Set when you first land on a page. Holds your Hotjar user ID, which is unique to our site, so that later visits are linked to the same ID. Hotjar does not track you across other sites. | 365 days |
| _hjSession_<site-id> | Holds data about your current visit, so that each page you view counts as part of the same session. | 30 minutes, extended while you are active |
| _hjHasCachedUserAttributes | Lets Hotjar check whether the visitor details it holds in your browser are up to date. | Session |
| _hjUserAttributesHash | Lets Hotjar tell when any of those visitor details have changed and need updating. | 2 minutes, extended every 30 seconds |
| _hjCookieTest | Checks whether the Hotjar tracking code can use cookies. It is deleted almost straight away. | Under 100 milliseconds |
| _hjLocalStorageTest | Checks whether the Hotjar tracking code can use local storage. It is deleted almost straight away. | Under 100 milliseconds |
| _hjSessionStorageTest | Checks whether the Hotjar tracking code can use session storage. It is deleted almost straight away. | Under 100 milliseconds |
| _hjTLDTest | Works out the most general web address Hotjar can set its cookies on, so they can be shared across our subdomains. It is removed once the check is done. | Session |
| _hjClosedSurveyInvites | Set when you respond to a survey invitation, so that the same invitation does not appear again. | 365 days |
| _hjDonePolls | Set when you complete a survey on our site, so that the same survey does not appear again. | 365 days |
| _hjMinimizedPolls | Set when you minimise a survey on our site, so that it stays minimised as you move around the site. | 365 days |
ActiveCampaign
We use ActiveCampaign for email campaign and bulletin usage tracking.
For further details, please see find out more about ActiveCampaign cookies.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| ac_enable_tracking | This cookie is associated with Active Campaign and is set to confirm that tracking has been enabled for the website. Tracking is used to create reports of our web traffic and improve the user experience of the website | 365 days |
Campaign links
If you accept optional cookies and follow one of our campaign links, we remember which link brought you here for 28 days, so we can tell which campaigns work.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content | Remember which campaign link brought you here | 28 days |
Changing your mind
Select Cookie settings in the footer of any page to see your current choice and change it. If you decline, we delete the optional cookies we set straight away. Cookies that other companies set on their own websites stay until they expire, but we stop loading their tools.