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Cookies, LearnGaelic and your privacy

As part of our drive to be compliant with the EU directive on cookies, we list on this page all the cookies used by the LearnGaelic site, and their purpose.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files left on your computer by many websites. They are generally used so that sites can remember you as you move around on the internet. For instance, when you add books to your basket on Amazon, a cookie is used to make sure those are the books you end up buying when you move to the check-out. Some cookies, however, are used by sites in ways which may affect your privacy. They may (for example) allow you to be tracked across the internet and use information about your browsing habits to show you certain targeted adverts.

LearnGaelic makes very sparing use of cookies (and certainly does not track your visits to any other websites).

Essential cookies

Essential cookies are needed by the site to allow it to function. LearnGaelic uses a maximum of five such cookies. If you are using cookie-blocking software we do not recommend you block them.

We set what is called a session-tracking cookie (JSESSIONID). This just lets the web server know it is the same person viewing different pages within LearnGaelic, meaning it can be more efficient with the data it sends down the line to you.

We may also set a cookie that helps us with our load-balancing technology (AWSELB): this means that even if one of our servers breaks you should still be able to view and use the site. Neither of these cookies is used to identify you personally in any way, and they do not store any data about you or your browsing habits.

The course map uses a cookie (LG_PREFERRED_LOCATION) to remember which default map view you have chosen. It has no other function.

Litir do Luchd-ionnsachaidh and An Litir Bheag use a cookie (LG_LITIR_HINTS_CLOSED) to avoid showing the shortcut keys panel more than once.

And we use a cookie (LG_cc_seenbanner) to avoid showing the "we use cookies" banner more than once.

Non-essential cookies

LearnGaelic also uses some cookies that are not essential to the site's functioning. If you are using cookie-blocking software you may block these cookies, although some minor functionality may be affected.

These cookies come from a third-party service known as Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is widely used by many sites. LearnGaelic uses it to find out how many people come to the site each week, what pages they visit, and (just as importantly) don't visit. It is done anonymously, and information about user demographics is only presented to us in the aggregate. Google Analytics' standard cookies are usually called "_ga" and "_gat".

We also use Google Analytics Advertising features to gain a deeper insight into the demographics of site users. This is purely to beter tailor our offering; we do not use this information to target adverts, and the data is strictly anonyomised and aggregated. However, you may opt out of this information-gathering and continue to use our site by using Google's own currently available opt-outs for the web.

In addition, if you use the LearnGaelic Facebook or Twitter sites you will probably have cookies set by these sites. These are outwith our control, and you should check the relevant privacy policies on their sites if you are concerned about them.

More info

For any questions or concerns you may have about our use of cookies, please email the LearnGaelic webmaster. You may also refuse non-essential cookies at any time by using widely available cookie-blocking software. (We recommend this approach over a blanket ban of all cookies for the reasons given above.)