Privacy & the use of Cookies
Data Protection Policy
MUSEUM OF POWER PRIVACY STATEMENT
We love to keep in touch with you about our news and fundraising activities. Whether you contact us by e-mail or by post we take your privacy seriously, and undertake not to share your personal details with any other organisation.
Mailchimp Newsletter – by signing up to our newsletter you agree to the EU/UK terms and conditions privacy law. Mailchimp holds your data on it’s database but only for use by the Museum in the newsletters. The Museum can remove your data if you decide you wish to stop recieving newsletters after you have signed up.
You can opt out at any time by contacting museum staff. Full details of how we protect your data are available in our privacy policy.
Museum of Power use of Cookies
Most websites use cookies of some nature and the Museum of Power is no exception.
Cookies are sometimes looked at in a bad light. However most are there to help
your with your web experience.
UK & UN law now states any website that has a cookie installed on their website then UK and UN citizens must be informed. This can be as little as we use cookies on this website but we would like to explain a bit more about cookies and how they are used on this website.
Please not websites outside the UK & UN may have cookies on their websites but they do not have to inform you of their presence or use.
So what do cookies do and how does Museum of Power use them?
Cookies, Frequently Asked Questions and the use of cookies on Museum website.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user’s hard drive. It is generated by a web page server, which is basically the computer that operates a web site. The information the cookie contains is set by the server and it can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user’s identification card, which tell a web site when the user has returned.
What does a cookie look like?
Below is the content of a typical cookie. This one is from the Hotmail service and has the filename jss@hotmail.msn.txt (.txt is the standard filename extension for text files):
HMP1 1 hotmail.msn.com/ 0 1715191808
32107852 1236821008 29449527 *
The codes will only make sense to Microsoft’s MSN Hotmail servers.
History of cookies
Cookies for the internet were originally developed in 1995 by the Netscape Communications Corporation. The word ‘cookie’ comes from ‘magic cookie,’ a term in programming languages for a piece of information shared between co-operating pieces of software. The choice of the word cookie appears to come from the American tradition of giving and sharing edible cookies.
What is the purpose of cookies?
Cookies make the interaction between users and web sites faster and easier. Without cookies, it would be very difficult for a web site to allow a visitor to fill up a shopping cart or to remember the user’s preferences or registration details for a future visit.
Web sites use cookies mainly because they save time and make the browsing experience more efficient and enjoyable. Web sites often use cookies for the purposes of collecting demographic information about their users.
Cookies enable web sites to monitor their users’ web surfing habits and profile them for marketing purposes (for example, to find out which products or services they are interested in and send them targeted advertisements).
Are there different types of cookies?
Yes there are a number of different Cookies:
Session, or transient cookies
Cookies that are stored in the computer’s memory only during a user’s browsing session and are automatically deleted from the user’s computer when the browser is closed.
These cookies usually store a session ID that is not personally identifiable to users, allowing the user to move from page to page without having to log-in repeatedly. They are widely used by commercial web sites (for example, to keep track of items that a consumer has added to a shopping cart).
Session cookies are never written on the hard drive and they do not collect any information from the user’s computer. Session cookies expire at the end of the user’s browser session and can also become no longer accessible after the session has been inactive for a specified length of time, usually 20 minutes.
Permanent, persistent, or stored cookies
Cookies that are stored on the user’s computer and are not deleted when the browser is closed. Permanent cookies can retain user preferences for a particular web site, allowing those preferences to be used in future browsing sessions.
Permanent cookies can be used to identify individual users, so they may be used by web sites to analyse users’ surfing behaviour within the web site. These cookies can also be used to provide information about numbers of visitors, the average time spent on a particular page and generally the performance of the web site. They are usually configured to keep track of users for a prolonged period of time, in some cases many years into the future.
Are cookies dangerous?
No. Cookies are small pieces of text. They are not computer programs, and they can’t be executed as code. Also, they cannot be used to disseminate viruses, and modern versions of both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers allow users to set their own limitations to the number of cookies saved on their hard drives.
How does The Museum use cookies?
The Museum of Power uses and third party Statistic Counter (StatCounter). This cookie monitors the visitor use of the Museum web site. It shows where you came from i.e. a Google search or link from another site. It shows what pages you have viewed and if you have downloaded and of the FREE information PDF’s on the site.
The Museum social media sites, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr have their own cookies by default. Cookie Information from these sites is not used by the Museum.
The Members area has a session cookie install. In order to gain access to this area you require a personal login and you have to allow this cookie access otherwise you may not be able to view the restricted pages.
The session cookie will note the time of your login. You can allow you pc to remember you hence where the cookie works by recording you pc login on your pc. This session cookie is set to 100 days unless you logout when the cookie will stop.
If you don’t want to keep cookies on your pc you can clear these from your browser.
How is this information used?
The StatCounter allows the Museum to see if you are landing on the most appropriate page for your search and gives a basic feedback on new and returning visitors. It also gives an indication of your graphical location however is doesn’t us who you are.
Social Media Cookies form a part of the social media accounts. By having your own Social Media account you are agreeing to the social media terms and conditions. The Museum of Power does use a separate tracking counter for the use of their own social media accounts.
Does The Museum sell cookie information?
NO! Please be assured that information from the StatCounter is for the Museum of Power use only and the information it provides is not sold or seen by others.
Can I block cookies from this site?
The simple answer is yes. (Memebers area you must accept cookies) There is a number of things you can do.
Firstly you can view your own PC setting internet option and browser setting. The internet options setting can be found on Windows PC’s by going to the Control panel / internet options. Select Privacy / Advanced and you can then change the Cookies from the general default to accept to Prompt. Please be aware some sites (Not The Museum of Power) may require you to accept cookies in order for the site to run correctly. Browser setting can be changed by viewing the browser are selecting setting. In most cases the browser will look directly at the internet options you have already set however you may find one or two extra options here and this will depend on the browser you use.
The Museum of Power uses StatCounter to record viewer visits and changing your setting you can block many programs like this. Websites don’t have to display hit rates but that doesn’t mean that they are not running a StatCounter in the background. If you feel you would like to remove you PC from being recorded by StatCounter you can by following this link button below.
More information about Cookies and how and why they are used can be found here: Aboutcookies.org
New EU cookie law (e-Privacy Directive) Information Commissioners Office (ico)
Shop and PayPal
The Museum of Power shop uses a secure payment method powered by PayPal. To purchase anything and shop items or events tickets from the site payments must be made via our PayPal account. If you have a PayPal account then it is a matter of signing into your account to complete the transaction. If you don’t have a PayPal account you can sign in into PayPal as a guest, completed the form details and pay via any major credit or charge card.
We have chosen to use PayPal as the method of payment on this website because of its ease of use.
Museum of Power – Membership Renewal
At present, we have not setup a Membership renewal using online payment, however, we will consider adding this at some later date.