What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the website.
Most web browsers allow some control of cookies through browser settings. More information about cookies, including how to block and/or delete them, via a range of common browsers, can be found at www.allaboutcookies.org.
How we use cookies
When you use our website or online customer portal we may analyse basic information about your activity.
This information will provide us with general information about the users of our website, providing us a better understanding of user requirements. We will not attempt to attribute such traffic information to anything that is personally identifiable.
Additionally, information relating to the Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser and operating system may be observed.
What happens if I do not want to accept cookies?
If you do not wish to accept our cookies you can still continue to use our website and online customer portal but it means we won’t be able to use your visit to help us improve your experience.
It also means the cookie policy will continue to be visible as it takes a cookie to remember that you don’t want to accept cookies.
How do I delete cookies?
Portsmouth Water will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by Portsmouth Water websites and/or online customer portal, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.
Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your computer as well as more general information about cookies. For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.
The cookies we use on our website:
The table below explains the cookies we use and why:
| Cookie | Name | Purpose | More |
| Google Analytics | _ga | These cookies are used to collect information in an anonymous form about how people use the website, including the number of visitors to the website, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited. This allows us to make sure the website is meeting your needs and help us understand what we could improve. | Click here for an overview of privacy at Google |
| _utma | |||
| _utmb | |||
| _utmc | |||
| _utmz | |||
| Cloudflare | __cfduid | This cookie is set by the CloudFlare service to identify trusted web traffic. It does not correspond to any user id in the web application, nor does the cookie store any personally identifiable information. | https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170156-What-does-the-Cloudflare-cfduid-cookie-do- |
| Live Chat | __lc.visitor_id.* | This cookie is set by the LiveChat service to identify a returning visitor. It does not correspond to any user id in the web application, nor does the cookie store any personally identifiable information.
The second cookie checks stores the open/closed state of the livechat window. |
https://www.livechatinc.com/privacy-policy/ |
| lc_window_state | |||
| Portsmouth Water | viewed_cookie_policy | This cookie is used to remember that you have accepted our cookie policy and prevents the policy pop-up from appearing in future visits. Please note that if you delete cookies this will reappear. | |
| Portsmouth Water | wpfront-notification-bar-landingpage | This cookie is used to remember whether you have seen the notification bar (if one is active). Again no identifiable data is stored. |
How do I change my cookie settings on the Portsmouth Water website?
You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on the ‘C’ icon on the left corner of the screen. You can then adjust the available sliders to ‘On’ or ‘Off’ as required. You may need to refresh your page for your settings to take effect.
The cookies we use on our online customer portal:
The table below explains the cookies we use on our online customer portal and why:
| Cookie | Name | Purpose | More |
| Google Analytics | _ga | These cookies are used to collect information in an anonymous form about how people use the online portal, including the number of visitors to the portal, where visitors have come to the portal from and the pages they visited. This allows us to make sure the portal is meeting your needs and help us understand what we could improve. | Click here for an overview of privacy at Google |
| Customer Portal | dismissCookieBanner | This cookie is used to track the acceptance of the cookie banner. | |
| Customer Portal | SNOOZE_ACCOUNT_ENRICHMENT | This cookie is used to track the account ‘enrichment banner’ which prompts a portal user to add missing information (e.g., a mobile or email address).
|
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| Datadog RUM | _dd_s | These cookies help collect data on user interactions, performance, and potential issues in real-time. It allows us to monitor how the portal is performing and detect issues.
|
Click here for an overview of privacy at Datadog. |
How do I change my cookie settings on the Portsmouth Water online customer portal?
You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on ‘Reset Cookie Settings’ at the bottom of the screen. You can then revisit the cookie settings shown and update as required.