Cookies policy

A cookie is an alphanumeric text file that is sent from a website and stored on your computer's hard drive by your web browser. Cookies are essential for some websites to operate effectively but also to make your visit to a website a better experience, for example, by remembering who you are, so that when you visit again, it recognises you as a previous visitor.

There are two broad types of cookies – 'first party cookies' and 'third party cookies'.

First party cookies are cookies that are served directly by the website operator to your computer and are often used to recognise your computer when it revisits that site and to remember your preferences as you browse the site. Basically, these are our cookies.

Third party cookies are served by a service provider on behalf of the website operator and can be used by the service provider to recognise your computer when you visit other web sites. Third party cookies are most commonly used for web site analytics or advertising purposes.

In addition, cookies may be either 'session cookies' or 'persistent cookies'. Your computer automatically removes session cookies once you close your browser. Persistent cookies will survive on your computer until an expiry date specified in the cookie itself, is reached. We use both session and persistent cookies.

Google DoubleClick

We use DoubleClick cookies to measure the effectiveness of our online advertising. This enables us to ensure that any money we spend on digital marketing gives us a good return on investment. 

DoubleClick cookies do two things: 1) they track anonymised conversion data so that we can measure advertising effectiveness and 2) they are used to serve advertising, enabling us to serve advertisements to or exclude people who have visited our website. The cookies also allow us to limit the number of times a person sees our advertisement. 

DoubleClick cookies sometimes include a pixel from the advertising networks we work with. This allows us to target adverts effectively on their networks. 

Google Analytics and Optimize 360

Google Analytics 360 is a web analytics service provided by Google inc. that enables us to measure how people use our website using cookies. We use this information to improve our website experience for website visitors and to measure the effectiveness of our online advertising. We can also use these cookies to serve relevant advertisements to people who have interacted with specific sections of the site, or to exclude those audiences from advertising. 

For those site visitors who have explicitly opted in to Google’s data privacy policy, Google will associate your IP address with other data held by Google in order to identify you across multiple devices. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser.

Google Optimize allows us to test variants of web pages and see how they perform against an objective that we specify. Optimize monitors the results of our experiment and tells us which variant has the best performance.

Other third party cookies

Christian Aid also uses websites such as Flickr and YouTube to show image galleries and films. Pages from these providers may use cookies. As some of these services are based outside the UK and the European Union, they may fall outside the jurisdiction of EU and UK laws. Christian Aid also maintains a presence on social media channels including Facebook and Twitter.

If you share content from one of Christian Aid websites, a cookie may be used by the service you have chosen to use to share that content. Christian Aid does not control these cookies. You should check the relevant third party main website for more information. Christian Aid also uses digital tools to publish websites, for example Drupal. Christian Aid does not control any cookies used by the providers of these digital tools.

Our website may use SessionCam for analysis. SessionCam is a product that has been developed by SessionCam LTD. SessionCam may record mouse clicks, mouse movements, page scrolling and any text keyed into website forms. The information collected does not include bank details or any sensitive personal data. Data collected by SessionCam from Christian Aid website is for Christian Aid internal use only. The information collected is used to improve our website usability and is stored and used for aggregated and statistical reporting.

Cookies from advertisers

If you are concerned about cookies generated by advertisers, you can see which ones are being used on your machine and turn them off by visiting the Your Online Choices website. This website is supported by the Internet Advertising Bureau UK, the trade body for online and mobile advertisers.

You can also visit the Network Advertising Initiative opt out web page which will tell you which cookies are being used on your computer or device and opt out of them. Please note that separate devices have their own preferences, so you may need to change the settings on all desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile devices you use.

Cookies on Christian Aid Charity Gifts

Christian Aid Charity Gifts, Christian Aid's virtual gifts website, uses cookies to track purchases, so if you place an item in the shopping basket, the website remembers the item, and any others you may select, before going to the Checkout. After the Checkout process has been completed, you will be asked if you would like to register for an account.

This is not mandatory, and you can leave the website after making your purchases without registering for an account. You are also able to register for an account on Charity Gifts without making any purchases. If you do register your details, a cookie will be used so Christian Aid can identify the account holder on a future visit to the Christian Aid Charity Gifts website.