Details on how we use cookies
The different types of cookies we use
We use two types of cookies:
- Session cookies - these are cookies that are only stored while you are visiting the site
- Persistent cookies - these are cookies that are stored until an expiry date set by the website or in your browser.
The different owners of cookies on our websites
Some of the cookies on our websites have been set by third parties. These cookies include those where:
- we show third-party content, such as YouTube videos
- a third party is providing a service, such as analysing the pages that visitors to our sites view or
- a third party is measuring the effectiveness of advertising links to or from our sites.
Third parties are responsible for any cookies they set. We cannot control these cookies.
Cookies in Flash files
What is Flash
Flash is a file format used to show video and animation. We use Flash files to present information on our sites and integrate with third parties, such as YouTube.
Flash cookies
It is possible for third party creators of Flash files to set cookies as part of their files. At the moment, it is not possible to identify all flash files that set cookies and this means we cannot guarantee the status of every flash file.
The Flash platform is distributed by Adobe and they offer a number of tools to monitor, block and remove flash cookies:
- Find out more about disabling flash cookies (also known as local shared objects)
- Change your settings for storing flash cookies
Cookies used for transactions and forms
We've listed the cookies that we standardly use in our detailed table.
From time to time, we may include short-term surveys, comparisons and other temporary features on our site that could use cookies. If we do this, we'll always try to make sure that we list the cookies that are used, but this may not always be possible given the short-term nature of these features.
Detailed report of the cookies on our websites
At PKF International, we are committed to protecting your privacy and security and we are currently working towards ensuring that we meet the new regulations on cookies in full.
Category: Strictly Necessary Cookies (7)
Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| ARRAffinity | pkf.com | First-party | Session |
Description: This cookie is set by websites run on the Windows Azure cloud platform. It is used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| _hjTLDTest | pkf.com | First-party | Session |
Description: When the Hotjar script executes we try to determine the most generic cookie path we should use, instead of the page hostname. This is done so that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). To determine this, we try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. After this check, the cookie is removed.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| _hjFirstSeen | pkf.com | First-party | 30 minutes |
Description: The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| _hjIncludedInPageviewSample | www.pkf.com | First-party | 2 minutes |
Description: This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress | pkf.com | First-party | 30 minutes |
Description: The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| ASP.NET_SessionId | www.pkf.com | First-party | Session |
Description: General purpose platform session cookie, used by sites written with Miscrosoft .NET based technologies. Usually used to maintain an anonymised user session by the server.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| __RequestVerificationToken | www.pkf.com | First-party | Session |
Description: This is an anti-forgery cookie set by web applications built using ASP.NET MVC technologies. It is designed to stop unauthorised posting of content to a website, known as Cross-Site Request Forgery. It holds no information about the user and is destroyed on closing the browser.
Category: Performance (4)
Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| _ga | pkf.com | First-party | 2 years |
Description: This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| _gat | pkf.com | First-party | 1 minute |
Description: This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics, according to documentation it is used to throttle the request rate - limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| _gid | pkf.com | First-party | 1 day |
Description: This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews.
| Cookie key | Domain | Type | Expiry |
| _hjid | pkf.com | First-party | 1 year |
Description: Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID.
How to turn off cookies
You can turn off cookies in your browser settings. If you do turn them off, it's important to remember that you may not be able to use all the services on our websites.
You can find out more about turning off cookies at the independent website allaboutcookies.org
Further questions about our use of cookies
If you have any questions about specific cookies or our cookie policy, please email us at privacy@pkf.com