Information about cookies

Information about Cookies*

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org

Cookies on Our Website

The N.I. Housing Executive website implemented March 2019 was developed using the Kentico EMS software solution, delivering enhanced functionality and personalised features to help provide relevant information to website visitors. 

The Kentico solution includes a range of cookies to deliver system functionality. These are categorised under 4 levels:

1. System Cookies

These are the minimum cookies required for the website to work and to remember whether the user allows cookies or not. 

2. Essential Cookies

These are the cookies required for website functionality but excluding tracking cookies. Some website features will not be available to visitors restricting cookie access to Essential Only.  

3. Editor Cookies

These are cookies set for website administrators & editors to manage and update the website. These cookies are applied only to website visitors with a website updating role – primarily NIHE staff and authorised partners. 

4. Visitor Cookies

These are used to deliver personalised marketing information and enhanced functionality to website visitors eg remembering if the visitor is new or returning to the site, promoting relevant information based on previous website visits & interactions etc. This relates to the Accept All Cookies setting.

The table below lists the cookies used by the Kentico EMS as at December 06, 2017.  The cookie list can be viewed on the Kentico website at https://docs.kentico.com/x/Bg4bB

Cookie name/description

  • CMSPreferredUICulture - Stores the preferred UI culture of the user.
  • CMSViewMode - Stores the user's current view mode (Edit, Preview, Design, etc.).
  • CMSImpersonation - Stores user information when impersonating a different user in the administration interface.
  • CMSUserWords - User's custom word dictionary kept by the spell checker.
  • DisplayContentInDesignMode - Remembers the user's setting of the Web part content checkbox on the Design tab (for example in the Pages application).
  • DisplayContentInUIElementDesignMode - Remembers the user's setting of the Web part content check box on the Design tab of UI elements.
  • CMSMacroDesignerTab - Remembers the last active tab of the Edit macro condition dialog.
  • CMSSplitMode - Remembers the state of the language version split-view mode when editing multilingual websites.
  • CMSPreviewState - Stores the user's latest page design preview preferences.
  • CMSPropertyTab - Remembers the last active tab of the Properties section in the Pages application.
  • CMSViewTab - Remembers the last active tab of the View section in the Preview mode of the Pages application.
  • CMSValidationTab - Remembers the last active tab of the Validation section in the Preview mode of the Pages application.
  • CMSEdABSelectorState<ABtestname> - Stores the state of the selectors on the A/B test overview page.
  • CMSEdVariantSliderPositions<templateid> - Remembers the position of the variant slider when defining variants for MVT or Content personalization.
  • CMSEdNoTestMVT<templateid> - Stores the currently selected MVT combination for editors in the administration interface.
  • CMSEd<GUID>Current - Stores the current step of Wizard layout web parts in the administration interface.
  • CMSWebPartToolbarCategory - Stores the selected web part category on the web part toolbar.
  • CMSWebPartToolbarMinimized - Remembers if the user minimized the web part toolbar on the Design tab.
  • CMSCurrentDeviceProfileName - Stores the selected device profile when editing pages.
  • CMSCurrentDeviceProfileRotate - Remembers whether the device preview uses the landscape or portrait view.
  • CMSUniGraph - Stores the user's Snap to grid preference in the advanced workflow and marketing automation designer.
  • CMSSessionToken - Stores the token used by the web service that provides the advanced workflow and marketing automation designer.

Cookie name/description

  • CMSPreferredCulture - Stores the visitor's preferred content culture.
  • CMSMobileRedirected - Indicates if the visitor has been redirected to the mobile version of the website by the Mobile device redirection web part.
  • CMSCurrentTheme - Stores the name of the current visual theme to provide proper design to the dialog windows.
  • Webauthtoken - Live ID authentication cookie.
  • CMSForumPostAnswer - Keeps a list of Question-Answer forum posts in which the user voted for an answer to prevent repeated votes.
  • CMSVotedPolls - Keeps a list of polls where the user voted to prevent repeated votes.
  • CMSRatedDocuments - Keeps a list of pages that the user rated to prevent repeated votes.
  • CMSShowDesktopVersion - Indicates that the visitor has switched to the desktop (default) version of the website from a specific device profile.
  • CMSWindowsUser - Stores information for users who were imported from an Active Directory domain during authentication.
  • .ASPXFORMSAUTH - Stores the user's encrypted authentication ticket when using forms authentication.

Cookie name and description

  • CMSCookieLevel - Specifies which cookies are allowed by the visitor.
  • ASP.NET_SessionId - Keeps the user session ID for security reasons.
  • CMSCsrfCookie - Stores a security token that the system uses to validate all form data submitted via POST requests. Helps protect against cross site request forgery.

 

Cookie name/description

  • VisitorStatus - Indicates if the visitor is new or returning. Used for tracking the visitors statistic in Web analytics.
  • Source - Stores the channel from which the visitor arrived as part of a campaign (e.g., email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Based on the utm_source query string parameter.
  • Campaign - Stores the name of the campaign assigned to the visitor.
  • Content - Stores the specific content item through which the visitor arrived as part of a campaign. Based on the utm_contentquery string parameter.
  • TrackedCampaigns - Stores all the campaigns, which should be tracked within a JavaScript snippet.
  • UrlReferrer - Stores the URL referrer from which the user arrives on the website.
  • CurrentContact - Stores the GUID of the contact related to the current site visitor. Used to track activities on the website.
  • CMSAB<ABtestname> - Used to track conversions for the test and maintain consistent page content for the visitor. Stores the name of the page variant assigned to the visitor, the list of performed conversions and information whether visitor is included in A/B testing specified by an A/B test.
  • CMSMVT<mvtestname> - Stores the combination of variants assigned to the visitor by an MVT test. Used to track conversions for the test and maintain consistent page content for the visitor.
  • CMSShoppingCart - Stores a GUID reference to the user's shopping cart. Allows the system to recover the shopping cart for unregistered customers, even after it is cleared from the cache (for example after an application restart).
  • CMSBodyClass - Body element class to provide accessibility standards.
  • CMSUserPage - Stores the IDs (DocumentID, NodeID) of the last visited page. Used for logging landing and exit page web analytics and activities.
  • ChatLoggedInToken - Stores the login state for the Chat application (indicates if the user is in the online state).
  • ChatSupportLoggedInToken - Indicates if the user is logged in to the support chat. 
  • <Window name>_<Group ID>_roomID - Stores bindings between groups of chat web parts and chat rooms (for a specific window or tab).
  • chat_autoinitchat_displayed_<GUID> - Remembers if the Automatically initiated chat web part was shown to the user (prevents multiple chat initiation messages).
  • chat_kick_roomid_<room ID> - Indicates that the user was kicked from the specified chat room (and is not allowed to return).
  • StrandsSBS_* - Used by the Strands Recommender solely for its own purposes. The cookies are managed on the Strands side.
  • CMSStrandsTrackEvent_* - Stores persistent HTTP context after a page is reloaded. Used for tracking of shopping cart events.
  • __openid_selector_* - Stores OpenId user identification for authentication purposes.
  • CMSLandingPageLoaded - Indicates that the landing page has already been visited and the Landing page activity is not logged again for the current visitor. Expires after 20 minutes and the expiration period of the key is renewed every time the website is accessed again.

YouTube cookies

The YouTube video web part and widget make use of corresponding YouTube cookies.

Further information on Youtube’s  use of cookies is available using the links below:

Google Analytics cookies

Google Analytics is a free Web analytics service that provides statistics and basic analytical tools for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing purposes.  

The analytics generated provide useful anonymised insight into user journeys through the website and their interactions with it (e.g.  the most & least popular pages, search terms used etc).

This can be used to identify areas of most interest to visitors and to assist in making this information more accessible to visitors. The analytics are provided on a summarised – individuals cannot be identified. 

Learn more about Google Analytics cookies

The following cookies are used on the nihe.gov.uk domain for Google Analytics functionality.

Cookie name/expiration 

  • _utmv - 2 years
  • _utma - 2 years
  • _utmb - 30 minutes 
  • _utmz - 6 months

Note:  An additional cookie is to be added to manage user preferences to see the mobile or full view of the website when using a mobile device.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Reach Deck - Web Accessibility Tool

This website uses ReachDeck, an accessibility and reading support add-on that helps you to read the content. To learn more visit their website and read about:

You can read more about the features available through Reach Deck on this website in our section on: 

Addthis Social Media Integration Tools (links to Facebook/ Twitter etc)

AddThis is the world’s largest content sharing platform, providing tools that make it easier to  share content across the social web (eg share to facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc).

AddThis  uses a small amount of HTML and Javascript code that displays sharing tools on pages and captures information about their usage.

Learn more about Addthis Social Media Cookies

Cookie name/functionality and expiry

  • uid - Uniquely assigned machine-generated user ID. 2 years expiry.

  • di - Maintenance cookies that help manage expiration for other cookies. 2 years expiry.

  • dt - Maintenance cookies that help manage expiration for other cookies. 30 days expiry.

  • uit 1 day

  • uvc - Measures how often we see an AddThis user. 2 days expiry.

  • psc - These cookies are used in recording user sharing and social activity. 2 years expiry.

  • loc Geolocation - used to help publishers know approximately where people sharing information are located. 30 days expiry.

Further information

The individual Social Media websites will each have their own privacy policies that can be viewed online  eg:

External websites

This website contains a large number of links to external websites offering a wide range of useful information and services.

Each of these sites may make use of their own cookies in delivering the required service/ information.

Further information on cookies employed should be available on the individual sites.