Cookie Policy

Catchments.ie uses small pieces of data called cookies to help customise your user experience. Learn more about cookies and how you can control them by reading our Cookie Policy.

We may update our Cookie Policy to reflect any changes in technology or data protection legislation. Any updates or changes that may affect how we use cookies or how you as a user can manage cookies will appear on this page.

What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small piece of data sent by a website’s server to your computer or mobile device and stored in your browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari etc). It consists of anonymous information, as well as a unique user identifier. When you revisit a site or navigate between pages, this data is passed from your browser to the site’s server. With this data, the website is able to ‘remember’ your browser, enabling it to retrieve your user preferences, to personalise your visits and to simplify any sign-in procedures.

Cookies are intended to improve your user experience by making it easier and faster to navigate through a website. All of the information a cookie collects can only be retrieved by the website server that sent the cookie to your browser.

For more information please visit the About Cookies website which offers guidance for all modern browsers.

Cookies on Catchments.ie
The following cookies are present on Catchments.ie:
Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use Catchments.ie. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us to make improvements.

Google Analytics stores information about:

• the pages you visit on Catchments.ie – how long you spend on each Catchments.ie page
• how you got to the site
• what you click on while you’re visiting the site

We do not display ads or collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are.

Google Analytics sets the following cookies:

• _utma – Determines the number of unique visitors to the site (expires after 2 years)
• _utmb – This works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on our site (expires after 30 minutes)
• _utmc – This works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser (expires when you close your browser)
• _utmz – This provides information about how you reached the site (expires after 6 months)
• GDS_successEvents and GDS_analyticsTokens – These help us identify how you use Catchments.ie so we can make the site better (expires after 4 months)

Our introductory message
You may see a pop-up welcome message when you first visit Catchments.ie. We store a cookie so that your computer knows you have seen it and knows not to show it again.

• seen_cookie_message – Saves a message to let us know that you have seen our cookie message (expires after 1 month)

WordPress Session
Catchments.ie is developed using the WordPress content management system which is built using PHP. PHP is a programming and scripting language to create dynamic interactive websites.

• PHPSESSID – The PHPSESSID cookie is native to PHP and enables websites to store serialised state data. It is used to establish a user session and to pass state data via a temporary cookie, which is commonly referred to as a session cookie. (expires when you close your browser)

Controlling Cookies
Cookies are meant to improve the user experience, but some users prefer to set restrictions on the types of cookies that can be stored on their computer or mobile device.

By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set or to reject all cookies.

It is important to note that you will lose some functions of a website if you choose to restrict or disable its cookies.

Changes to this statement
If there are updates to the details of this Privacy and Cookie Policy, we will post those changes and update the revision date at the top of this document, so you will always know what information we collect online, how we use it, and what choices you have.

Data Protection in Ireland
More information on data privacy rights is available directly from the website of the Irish Data Protection commissioner