Legal & Compliance

Cookie Policy

This policy explains what cookies are, which cookies we use on our website, and how you can control or disable them. Your preferences can be updated at any time.

Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Copyright Notice Cookie Policy
Last updated: 1 January 2025 Effective date: 1 January 2025

We use cookies in accordance with the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and UK GDPR. We will only place non-essential cookies on your device with your consent, which you can manage at any time using the preference panel below.

1. What Are Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, tablet, or smartphone when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, to remember your preferences, and to provide information to website owners about how visitors use their site.

Cookies set by the website you are visiting are called "first-party cookies". Cookies set by other organisations — for example, analytics or advertising platforms — are called "third-party cookies". Cookies can be "session cookies" (which are deleted when you close your browser) or "persistent cookies" (which remain on your device for a set period or until you delete them).

2. Why We Use Cookies

Society of Scholar Writers uses cookies for the following purposes:

  • To ensure our website functions correctly and securely
  • To remember your preferences and settings so you do not have to re-enter them on each visit
  • To analyse how visitors use our site so we can improve the experience
  • To understand which pages and content are most useful to visitors
  • To support our marketing and help us reach people who may benefit from our services

3. Types of Cookies We Use

Essential   Strictly Necessary Cookies

Required for the website to function. Cannot be disabled.

These cookies are essential for you to browse the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas and completing order forms. Without these cookies, services you have asked for cannot be provided. They do not collect information that could be used for marketing and are always active.

Examples: session management, CSRF security tokens, cookie consent preferences.

Functional   Functional Cookies

Enable personalisation and enhanced features.

Functional cookies allow our website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced, personalised features. For example, they may remember your preferred subject area, your progress through a quote form, or your language settings. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

Analytics   Analytics & Performance Cookies

Help us understand how visitors use the site.

These cookies collect information about how you use our website — for example, which pages you visit most often and whether you receive error messages. All information collected by these cookies is aggregated and anonymised; it is used only to improve the performance and usability of our website. We use Google Analytics for this purpose.

You can opt out of Google Analytics across all websites using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Marketing   Marketing & Targeting Cookies

Used to show relevant advertising and track campaign performance.

Marketing cookies track your browsing habits across websites in order to deliver advertising more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement and measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. They are usually placed by third-party advertising networks with our permission.

If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising. You may still see our adverts, but they will not be tailored to your interests.

Preferences saved.
Cookie Name Provider Category Purpose Duration
sosw_session Society of Scholar Writers Essential Maintains your session state as you navigate the site and complete order forms. Session
sosw_csrf Society of Scholar Writers Essential Security token to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks on forms. Session
sosw_cookie_consent Society of Scholar Writers Essential Records your cookie consent preferences so we do not show the consent banner on every visit. 12 months
sosw_prefs Society of Scholar Writers Functional Stores your site preferences such as previously selected subject areas or form progress. 6 months
_ga Google Analytics Analytics Distinguishes unique users and sessions to generate statistical data on website usage. 2 years
_ga_XXXXXX Google Analytics Analytics Used by Google Analytics 4 to persist session state and count page views per session. 2 years
_gid Google Analytics Analytics Distinguishes users for a 24-hour period to enable daily visitor statistics. 24 hours
_fbp Meta (Facebook) Marketing Used by Meta to deliver and measure advertising effectiveness on Facebook and Instagram. 3 months
_gcl_au Google Ads Marketing Stores and tracks conversions from Google Ads campaigns. 3 months

5. Manage Your Preferences

You can update your cookie preferences at any time using the toggle controls in Section 3 above. Strictly necessary cookies cannot be disabled as they are required for the website to function. Changes to your preferences will take effect immediately. Your settings are saved locally on your device.

Withdrawing consent for a category of cookies will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out based on your prior consent.

6. Browser-Level Cookie Controls

In addition to our preference panel, all major browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically configure your browser to:

  • Notify you before a cookie is placed
  • Block all third-party cookies
  • Block all cookies
  • Delete cookies when you close your browser

Please note that blocking all cookies will prevent parts of our website from working correctly, including order forms and your saved preferences. Links to cookie management instructions for major browsers:

7. Third-Party Cookies

Some cookies on our website are set by third-party services. These third parties have their own privacy policies and may use your data for their own purposes, including profiling. We list all third-party cookies in the cookie table above. The key third parties are:

We do not have control over the cookies set by these third parties. Where we have a data sharing arrangement with a third party, this is governed by our Privacy Policy.

Under the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and UK GDPR, we require your consent to place non-essential cookies on your device. Strictly necessary cookies are placed on the legal basis of our legitimate interest in delivering a functioning website.

When you first visit our website, you will be presented with our cookie consent banner. You may accept all cookies, reject non-essential cookies, or customise your preferences by category. Your consent is recorded and stored in the sosw_cookie_consent cookie for 12 months, after which we will ask for your preferences again.

9. Changes to This Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the cookies we use or legal requirements. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect the most recent revision. We encourage you to review this page periodically. Continued use of our website after changes are made constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Cookie Policy or how we use cookies, please contact us:

Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions Copyright Notice Cookie Policy
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