Privacy and cookies policy

We collect certain information or data about you when you use www.pointsoflight.gov.uk. This includes:

• questions, queries or feedback you leave, including your email address if you send an email to the Points of Light team
• your IP address, and details of which version of web browser you used
• information on how you use the site, using cookies and page tagging techniques to help us improve the website
• details to allow you to access government services and transactions, e.g. an email address (you’ll always be told when this information is being collected, and it will only be used for the purpose you provide it for)

This helps us to:

• improve the site by monitoring how you use it
• respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
• provide you with information about services if you want it

We can’t personally identify you using your data.

Where your data is stored

We store your data on our secure servers in the UK.

It may also be stored outside of Europe, where it could be viewed by our staff or suppliers.

By submitting your personal data, you agree to this.

Keeping your data secure

Transmitting information over the internet is generally not completely secure, and we can’t guarantee the security of your data.

Any data you transmit is at your own risk.

We have procedures and security features in place to try and keep your data secure once we receive it.

We won’t share your information with any other organisations for marketing, market research or commercial purposes, and we don’t pass on your details to other websites.

Disclosing your information

We may pass on your personal information if we have a legal obligation to do so, or if we have to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements. This includes exchanging information with other government departments for legal reasons.

Your rights

You can find out what information we hold about you, and ask us not to use any of the information we collect.

Links to other websites

www.pointsoflight.gov.uk contains links to and from other websites.

This privacy policy only applies to this website, and doesn’t cover other government services and transactions that we link to.

Following a link to another website
If you go to another website from this one, read the privacy policy on that website to find out what it does with your information.

Following a link to Points of Light from another website
If you come to the Points of Light website from another website, we may receive personal information about you from the other website. You should read the privacy policy of the website you came from to find out more about this.

Cookies

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, your 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:

• 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
• analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with government services so we can make them better

You can manage these small files and learn more about them from the Cookies page on GOV.UK

If you’d like to learn how to remove cookies set on your device, visit About Cookies

Our use of cookies

There are two types of cookie you may encounter when using www.pointsoflight.gov.uk:

First party cookies: these are our own cookies, controlled by us and used to provide information about usage of our site.

Third party cookies: these are cookies found in other companies’ internet tools which we are using to enhance our site, for example Facebook or Twitter have their own cookies, which are controlled by them.

First party cookies

The Points of Light website uses cookies in several places – we’ve listed each of them below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last.

We will endeavour to let you know before we store a cookie on your computer.

Cookies set by the Points of Light website

Name	Purpose	Typical content	Expires
PHPSESSID	To remember your selections or preferences that you’ve already made when looking at information or using a service	Random data	Expires on exit
AWSELB	Allows load balancer routing the same client to the same application server	Random data	Expires on exit

Third party cookies

We use a number of suppliers who may also set cookies on their websites’ on its behalf. The Points of Light team does not control the dissemination of these cookies. You should check the third party websites for more information about these.

Provider	Name	Purpose	More info
Google Analytics	_utma _utmb _utmc _utmz _ga	These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.	Google Privacy policy

 

If you have a query or complaint about this privacy policy or about the site, you can contact us via email at webmaster@cabinetoffice.gov.uk