COOKIE POLICY
Find out what cookies are and how they are used on the Historic Scotland Membership website
Like many websites, the Historic Scotland Membership website uses small files called cookies to help provide the best possible online experience for you.
This page will tell you what cookies are and what they do, how we use them, and how you can control your cookie preferences.
Cookies enhance our website performance in a number of ways including providing a secure way for us to measure use of the website including number of visitors, how frequently pages are viewed, and the city and country of origin of users. This helps to determine what is popular and can influence future content and development.
Who are we?
The Historic Scotland Membership website is managed by Historic Environment Scotland, the lead public body established to investigate, care for and promote Scotland's historic environment. We're a non-departmental public body (NDPB) with charitable status.
Historic Environment Scotland cares for over 300 properties of national importance on behalf of Scottish Ministers.
Find out more about how Historic Scotland Membership handles personal data in our privacy notice.
What are cookies?
Cookies are little strings of computer code that websites place on your computer.
Some cookies are deleted after the browser is closed (session cookies). Others delete after a certain period of time has passed or the cookie cache has been manually cleared from your browser (persistent cookies). Depending on the persistent cookie, they may last from one day to two years. We use both session and persistent cookies.
Cookies that are set by us on the Historic Scotland Membership website are first party cookies (essential and performance cookies) as opposed to third party (marketing cookies). We may use third party cookies in the future once we have developed and implemented our opt-in cookie banner. These first party cookies help the website to function and provide us with anonymised data about how our website is being used.
Essential cookies
These cookies are used to load parts of the website you otherwise couldn't, load content quickly, make sure your visit to the website is secure, and remember things like your cookie preferences. These cookies are automatically selected in the cookie preferences.
Performance cookies
We use performance cookies to help us better our website and your experience. They:
- tell us if you've been on our website before
- help us understand if there are problems on our website or if you can't find what you're looking for
- track your behaviour so we can find out what content you're most interested in
Any performance cookies we use collect anonymised data to protect your identity. We don't collect any data on age, gender, sex, political or religious beliefs, nationality or postcodes.
The performance cookies on the Historic Scotland Membership website are set by us. Google Analytics is an example of a first party cookie which we use for performance. Other organisations can't access your data or view cookies used by our website, and we do not sell your data to any third parties.
Marketing cookies
We use advertising cookies from third parties to understand your interests and show relevant adverts based on your browsing habits. If you click on a specific advertisement, these cookies track your interaction and may show you similar offers.
We may advertise to you with an aim of generating income for the ongoing management and protection of Scotland's heritage. Many of our visitors fund us by visiting the historic places we care for, or by becoming Historic Scotland Members. To encourage more visitors and new members, we are reliant on marketing.
There are times when we want to reach visitors who use social media to promote relevant offers, events and promotions. We use third party cookies to help with this.
For example, we might place a tiny image called a pixel on our web pages that allows Facebook to place a cookie on your web browser. If you use Facebook, Facebook will recognise you as a website visitor and show you marketing messages on our behalf. If you receive marketing from us on social media platforms you are able to withdraw your consent by adjusting your privacy settings on the social media platform itself.
We may also use online remarketing through cookies. This system allows us or our advertising partners to show you adverts based on your browsing patterns and interactions with the Historic Scotland Membership website. This means that when you are on another website, you may be shown products or offers related to your browsing history on the Historic Scotland Membership website.
The marketing and remarketing cookie services we use are managed by third parties. The privacy policies for the third party cookie providers we work with on the Historic Scotland Membership website can be found here:
- Google Adwords allows conversion tracking, optimisation and remarketing.
- Google DoubleClick allows conversion tracking and optimisation.
- Facebook pixel allows conversion tracking, optimisation and remarketing.
- Media iQ pixel allows for the display of adverts which are relevant to you and your interests.
Manage your cookie settings
On the Historic Scotland Membership website, we only use essential and performance cookies after you have given your consent.
You can also control your cookies in your web browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to manage and delete them, please use the following links:
We are not responsible for the information or the setting of cookies on these external websites.