This policy covers the treatment of personally identifiable information that Clackmannanshire Council collects when you are visiting the Council website and other associated websites. This privacy policy does not cover links within this site to other websites or third party suppliers.
You can use the website and most of the services provided through the site without telling us who you are or providing any personally identifiable information. The site will use cookies in some cases to improve the quality of your visit.
It is only when you complete a form that requires personal information, or email Clackmannanshire Council, that you can be identified. In these cases your personal information will be used to fulfil your request for services or information, as input for improving the website, or to notify you about changes to the site (where you have requested this).
Your data will be stored securely within various enterprise systems, most of them hosted on the Council's corporate network.
In line with our Records policy, we aim to archive or delete data from our systems when it's no longer actively useful for providing the relevant service to you.
Clackmannanshire works closely with Secure Trading to ensure that your financial details are fully encrypted using the most sophisticated e-payment software. Your details are always transmitted using secure channels, and at no time does Clackmannanshire Council have access to your credit or debit card number.
To help us monitor website trends and statistics, our webserver collects visitor information such as IP address, city or country of origin, type of browser and operating system used, pages visited and duration of visit. These statistics are anonymised and we do not use this information to identify individuals.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a small text file that is placed on an internet user's hard drive. It is generated by a web server, which is the computer that operates a website.
The law which applies to how cookies are used for storing information on your equipment (such as your computer or mobile device) is changing on 26 May 2011. From this date, we will provide you with clear information about how our sites use cookies, and how to disable them if you wish.
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 website when the user has returned.
What cookies do Clackmannanshire Council use?
| Site / Name | Category | Purpose |
| Site: clacks.gov.uk Name: PHPSESSID |
Session Cookie | Used by Clackmannanshire Council within your current browser session, it is removed when your browser is shutdown or your session ends |
| Site: clacks.gov.uk Name: username |
Setting-based | This cookie is used to record if a user has accepted the use of cookies on the Clackmannanshire Council website. |
| Site: clacks.gov.uk (Google Analytics) Name: _ga |
Analytics-based, Third-party |
This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, camapign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assigns a randoly generated number to identify unique visitors. Find out more: Google Cookie Usage |
| Site: clacks.gov.uk (Google Analytics) Name: _gid |
Analytics-based, Third-party |
This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the wbsite is doing. The data collected including the number visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages viisted in an anonymous form. Find out more: Google Cookie Usage |
What is the purpose of cookies?
Cookies make the interaction between users and websites faster and easier. Without cookies, it would be very difficult for a website to allow a visitor to fill up a shopping cart or to remember the user's preferences or registration details for a future visit.
Websites use cookies mainly because they save time and make the browsing experience more efficient and enjoyable. Websites often use cookies for the purposes of collecting demographic information about their users.
Cookies enable websites 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 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 Internet Explorer and browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Opera allow users to set their own limitations to the number of cookies saved on their hard drives.
Can cookies threaten users' privacy?
Cookies are stored on the computer's hard drive. They cannot access the hard drive - so a cookie cannot read other information saved on the hard drive, or get a user's email address etc. They only contain and transfer to the server as much information as the users themselves have disclosed to a certain website.
A server cannot set a cookie for a domain that it is not a member of. In spite of this, users quite often find in their computer files cookies from websites that they have never visited. These cookies are usually set by companies that sell internet advertising on behalf of other websites.
Therefore it may be possible that users' information is passed to third party websites without the users' knowledge or consent, such as information on surfing habits. This is the most common reason for people rejecting or fearing cookies.
Where can I find further information on cookies
How do I block or remove cookies
This external website has information on how to block cookies on the most common browsers, while details on how to remove cookies can be found on All About Cookies website.
The Council may receive information about you from others, or may give information to them. If so, it will only be done as the law permits, to:
When receiving personal information from you the Council will:
Strategy & Customer Services
Kilncraigs, Greenside Street, Alloa, FK10 1EB
Tel: 01259 450000
Email: clacksweb@clacks.gov.uk