Cookie Policy

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device (computer, tablet, or mobile phone) when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, and to provide information to the website operator.

Cookies are not programs and cannot carry viruses or install software on your device. They cannot access other files stored on your device.

 

There are different types of cookies:

  • Session cookies — these exist only while your browser is open and are automatically deleted when you close it.
  • Persistent cookies — these remain on your device for a set period of time after your browser is closed, or until you delete them manually.
  • First-party cookies — set by the website you are visiting.
  • Third-party cookies — set by a third party (such as an analytics or advertising provider) via the website you are visiting.

How we Manage Your Consent - CivicCookieControl


We use CivicCookieControl, a cookie consent management platform developed by Civic UK, to manage your cookie preferences on this website.
When you first visit our website, a cookie consent banner is displayed. This banner:

  • Explains the categories of cookies we use and why we use them.
  • Allows you to accept all cookies, reject all non-essential cookies, or make granular choices by category.
  • Records your preferences so that we do not need to ask you again on subsequent visits (for as long as your preference cookie remains valid — typically 90 days).


You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking the cookie settings link in the footer of our website, or by clearing your browser's cookie settings (which will reset your preferences and cause the banner to appear again on your next visit).

CivicCookieControl itself sets a small number of strictly necessary cookies in order to remember your preferences. These are listed in the strictly necessary cookies table in Section 5.

For more information about CivicCookieControl, visit: https://www.civicuk.com/cookie-solution

Categories of Cookies We Use

We use cookies in the following categories.

Strictly necessary

Essential for the website to function. 

Analytics

Helps us understand how visitors use our website so we can improve it

We do not currently use advertising, targeting, or social media cookies. If this changes, this policy will be updated and your consent will be sought before any new cookie categories are activated.

Detailed Cookie Information

Strictly Necessary Cookies:

These cookies are essential for our website to work. They do not collect information about you that could be used for marketing purposes, and they cannot be switched off in our cookie consent tool. They are usually set only in response to actions you take, such as setting your privacy preferences.

Cookie Name Provider Purpose Type

Expiry
CookieControl Civic UK (CivicCookieControl) Stores your cookie consent preferences so the consent banner des not appear on every page visit. First-party, persistent 90 days
CookieControlPrefs

Civic UK

(CivicCookieControl)

 Records which individual cookie categories you have accepted or rejected. First-party, persistent 90 days
ARRAffinity / ARRAffinitySameSite Microsoft Azure (hosting) Load-balancing cookie used by Microsoft Azure to route your session to the correct server. Required for the website to function correctly. First-party session Session

Analytics Cookies - Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, to help us understand how visitors use our website. GA4 uses cookies to collect information such as:

  • The pages you visit and features you use on our website.
  • How long you spend on each page.
  • How you arrived at our website (e.g. from a search engine or a social media link).
  • General information about the device and browser you are using.

This information is aggregated and used to produce reports that help us improve the content, structure, and performance of our website. We do not use GA4 to identify individual users.

Analytics cookies are only placed on your device after you have given your consent through our CivicCookieControl banner. If you do not consent to analytics cookies, no GA4 cookies will be set and no tracking data will be collected about your visit.

Cookie Name Provider Purpose Type Expiry
_ga
Google LLC (Google Analytics 4)		 The main GA4 cookie. Generates a unique client ID to distinguish individual users, enabling session and user counts to be calculated. First-party, persistent 2 years
_ga_<container-id>
Google LLC (Google Analytics 4)		 Used to persist session state. The container ID is specific to your GA4 property. Stores and updates the session ID and whether the current session is the user's first. First-party, persistent 2 years
_gid
Google LLC (Google Analytics 4)		 Distinguishes users. Used to throttle request rate and to count and store pageviews. First-party, persistent 24 Hours
_gat
Google LLC (Google Analytics 4)		 Used to throttle the rate of requests to Google Analytics servers. First-party, persistent 1 Minute
_gac_<property-id>
Google LLC (Google Analytics 4)		 Contains campaign-related information. Set only if Google Ads is linked to the GA4 property. Contains the Google Click ID (GCLID) and related attribution data. First-party, persistent 90 Days

Google Analytics data is processed by Google LLC. As a US-based company, Google may transfer data outside the UK. Google operates under the UK-US Data Bridge (an adequacy arrangement) and its own standard contractual clauses. For more information, see Google's Privacy Policy at: https://policies.google.com/privacy

You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking across all websites by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Third-Party Embedded Content

Our website embeds content from third-party platforms that may set their own cookies on your device when you interact with that content. We do not control these cookies and they are subject to the relevant third party's own cookie and privacy policies.

Third Party What is embedded Their Privacy/Cookie Policy
You Tube Video content embedded on the homepage and other pages. YouTube may set cookies when you play a video, including _GRECAPTCHA and YSC. https://policies.google.com/privacy
MailerLite Newsletter sign-up form (linked from the footer). MailerLite may set cookies when you interact with the sign-up form. https://www.mailerlite.com/legal/privacy-policy

Facebook / Meta		 Social media links in the footer to our Facebook page. Meta may set cookies if you are logged into Facebook when you click the link. https://www.facebook.com/policy/cookies/
Instagram / Meta Social media links in the footer. See Meta's cookie policy for details. https://www.facebook.com/policy/cookies/
LinkedIn Social media links in the footer. LinkedIn may set cookies if you are logged in when you click through. https://www.linkedin.com/legal/cookie-policy

How to Manage and Control Cookies

Using our consent tool

The easiest way to manage your cookie preferences on our website is through CivicCookieControl. You can access your preferences at any time by:

  • Clicking the cookie settings link in the footer of any page on our website.
  • Clicking the small cookie icon or banner if it re-appears.

From there you can accept, reject, or customise your consent for each category of non-essential cookie.

 

Managing cookies through your browser

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically:

  • View the cookies stored on your device.
  • Delete some or all cookies.
  • Block cookies from specific websites, or block all third-party cookies.
  • Set your browser to notify you when a cookie is being set.

Please note that if you block or delete strictly necessary cookies, the website may not function correctly and some features may not be available to you.

 

Guidance on managing cookies in the most common browsers:

 

Opting out of Google Analytics specifically
In addition to using our cookie consent tool, you can opt out of Google Analytics tracking across all websites by downloading and installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Cookies and Your Personal Data

Some of the cookies we use, or that are set by third parties through our website, may collect or process personal data (for example, a unique user identifier assigned by Google Analytics, or your IP address). Where this is the case, our Privacy Policy applies in addition to this Cookie Policy.

Edinburgh Napier University and South of Scotland Enterprise each act as a data controller in relation to personal data collected through the Bike Innovation Scotland website. Please refer to their respective privacy policies (linked in the footer of our website) for full details of how your personal data is handled:

 

 

Changes to This Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the cookies we use, changes in our technology providers, or changes in applicable law. The date at the top of this policy shows when it was last revised.

Where we make significant changes (for example, introducing a new category of non-essential cookies), we will notify you through our CivicCookieControl consent banner and ask for your consent where required.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

 

Contact Us & Your Rights

If you have any questions about our use of cookies, or if you wish to exercise any rights you may have in relation to personal data processed through cookies, please contact the relevant organisation:

 

Policy Last Reviewed: July 2026