Cookie Policy

Last Updated: 25th September 2015

Welcome to ICSPrivateHire.co.uk. We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring a transparent online experience. This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are, how we use them on our website, and your choices regarding their use.

Launched on 25th September 2015, ICSPrivateHire.co.uk is a dedicated online platform passionately exploring the multifaceted world of taxis and private hire services in the UK. We are an independent blog, not affiliated with any specific taxi company, nor do we operate with physical premises or maintain a presence on social media platforms. Our sole focus is on providing high-quality, informative, and engaging content to our readers.

Our mission is to be the definitive, trusted resource for enthusiasts, drivers, and passengers alike, offering insightful articles, historical perspectives, industry news, and practical advice within the dynamic UK taxi landscape. We believe in fostering an informed and curious community around this vital mode of transport, from the iconic black cabs of London to the evolving landscape of ride-sharing services. Our content is crafted with meticulous research and a genuine love for the subject, aiming to demystify, educate, and entertain.

This policy details how cookies help us achieve our goals of being an indispensable informational resource, how they enhance your experience, and how you can manage them effectively.

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, tablet, or mobile device by websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. When you visit ICSPrivateHire.co.uk, our server sends a cookie to your device through your web browser. Your browser then stores this cookie. The next time you visit, your browser sends the cookie back to our server, allowing the website to "remember" you or your preferences, facilitating a smoother and more personalised browsing experience.

There are several types of cookies:

• Session Cookies: These are temporary cookies that remain in your browser's cookie file only until you leave the site. They are essential for enabling the website to keep track of your movement from page to page so that you do not get asked for the same information you have already given during your current visit. For a content-focused blog like ours, session cookies might ensure consistent navigation or temporary display preferences within a single visit.
• Persistent Cookies: These remain in your browser's cookie file even after you close your browser, for a set period of time or until you manually delete them. They are used to remember your preferences or actions across multiple site visits. For instance, a persistent cookie might remember your choice to accept or decline cookies, preventing repeated prompts.
• First-Party Cookies: These are cookies set by the website you are visiting (in this case, ICSPrivateHire.co.uk). They are typically used to remember your preferences for that specific site, ensuring a consistent and tailored experience on our blog.
• Third-Party Cookies: These are cookies set by a domain other than the one you are visiting. They are often used for web analytics, advertising, or embedding content from other sites. On ICSPrivateHire.co.uk, our use of third-party cookies is strictly limited, primarily to analytical purposes to help us understand how our content performs and how readers engage with our articles. We explicitly state that we do not use third-party cookies for targeted advertising, nor do we integrate with social media platforms that would set such cookies, aligning with our independent and content-focused operational model.

How ICSPrivateHire.co.uk Uses Cookies

Our use of cookies is meticulously designed to support our core mission: to provide the best possible independent and insightful resource on taxis and private hire. We use cookies for the following, clearly defined purposes:

1. Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are fundamental for you to browse our website and utilise its essential features. Without these cookies, crucial services such as remembering your cookie consent preferences or providing basic site security cannot be delivered, which would significantly impair your ability to use the site effectively.

• Cookie Consent: We employ a specific cookie to record and remember your preference regarding cookie usage. This means that once you have made a choice (e.g., accepted our cookie policy), you will not be asked to accept cookies every single time you visit, thereby respecting your decision and enhancing your user experience.
• Security: Certain cookies are absolutely vital for maintaining the security and integrity of our website. They play a crucial role in protecting against malicious activities, identifying potential threats, and ensuring a safe and secure browsing environment for all our dedicated readers.
• Session Management: While ICSPrivateHire.co.uk does not require user accounts or logins for access to our content, session cookies may be utilised to manage your anonymous browsing session. This ensures smooth navigation between different articles and consistent functionality during your visit. For example, if we were to implement a temporary search filter or a feature that requires maintaining state across pages within a single visit, a session cookie would facilitate this seamlessly.

2. Performance and Analytics Cookies

These cookies gather anonymised information about how visitors use our website. This includes data such as which pages visitors access most frequently, the duration of their visits, and if they encounter error messages from web pages. Critically, these cookies do not collect information that directly identifies an individual visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore entirely anonymous. It is solely used to help us understand overall usage patterns and consequently improve how our website functions and how our content is consumed.

• Google Analytics: We utilise Google Analytics, a widely recognised web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics employs cookies to assist us in analysing how users interact with our site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (which includes your anonymised IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers located in the United States. Google will then use this information for the express purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling comprehensive reports on website activity specifically for us, and providing other services related to website activity and internet usage. Please note that Google may also transfer this information to third parties where legally required to do so, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf.
• Purpose: Our primary objective with analytics is to gain a deeper understanding of what content resonates most effectively with our audience. This invaluable insight helps us to continually refine our editorial strategy, identify the most popular and engaging topics within the taxi industry, understand reading patterns, and ultimately, produce more valuable, relevant, and compelling articles. For example, if our analytics reveal a significant number of readers are particularly interested in articles about the history of black cabs in London, we can then dedicate more resources to researching and writing on that specific topic. This directly aligns with our overarching objective of being the definitive and most informative resource for taxi-related content in the UK.
• Data Collected: The data typically collected by these cookies includes information such as the specific pages you visit, the amount of time you spend on those pages, the links you click, the type of device you are using to access our site, and your approximate geographical location (which is derived from anonymised IP addresses to protect your privacy). We ensure that all IP addresses are anonymised as part of our commitment to safeguarding your privacy.

3. Functionality Cookies

These cookies enable our website to remember choices you make during your visit, such as your preferred text size or specific display preferences. They may also be used to provide enhanced, more personal features that improve your overall experience. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised, and importantly, they are not used to track your browsing activity on other websites.

• User Preferences: While ICSPrivateHire.co.uk is primarily a content-driven blog, we may use functionality cookies to remember certain display preferences or settings you choose during your visit. This could include, for example, remembering if you have dismissed a particular notification banner or if you have chosen a specific viewing mode for articles. Such functionality enhances your reading comfort and efficiency, making your visits more enjoyable and productive.

Our Commitment to Privacy and Data Minimisation

In line with our independent and content-focused nature, ICSPrivateHire.co.uk is deeply committed to the principle of data minimisation. This means we only collect and process data that is absolutely necessary for the effective operation of our blog and for achieving our stated objectives. We do not engage in practices that require extensive or intrusive personal data collection.

• No Targeted Advertising: As an independent blog solely focused on providing high-quality information about the taxi industry, we do not use cookies for targeted advertising or behavioural advertising campaigns. Our operational model, if any revenue is generated, comes from non-intrusive means, ensuring that your browsing experience remains entirely focused on our valuable content. We explicitly state that we do not use cookies to track your activity across other websites for the purpose of serving you advertisements.
• No Social Media Integration: Consistent with our stated lack of a social media presence, ICSPrivateHire.co.uk does not embed social media sharing buttons, feeds, or widgets that would set third-party social media cookies. This further significantly limits the tracking of your online activity by external platforms and reinforces our commitment to independent content delivery.
• Focus on Content Improvement: Any data collected via cookies is solely for the purpose of improving our blog's content and enhancing the user experience. This helps us achieve our overarching goal of being a truly valuable and comprehensive resource for the taxi community. We analyse aggregated, anonymised data to understand overall trends and preferences across our readership, not to track or profile individual user behaviour.

Your Choices Regarding Cookies - Managing Your Preferences

You retain full control and the right to decide whether to accept or reject cookies. You can exercise your cookie preferences by adjusting the settings on your web browser. Most web browsers provide options that allow some control over the majority of cookies through their settings. Please be aware that if you choose to refuse or block cookies, particularly strictly necessary ones, you may not be able to use the full functionality of ICSPrivateHire.co.uk, and your browsing experience may be affected.

Here’s how you can manage cookies through some of the most common web browsers:

1. Google Chrome:

• Open Chrome on your device.
• Click the three dots icon located in the top-right corner of the browser window.
• Navigate to "Settings" > "Privacy and security" > "Site Settings" > "Cookies and site data."
• From this menu, you have several options:
  • "Allow all cookies"
  • "Block third-party cookies in Incognito"
  • "Block third-party cookies"
  • "Block all cookies (not recommended)"
• You can also click on "See all site data and permissions" to manage cookies for specific websites or utilise "Clear browsing data" to delete existing cookies from your device.

2. Mozilla Firefox:

• Open Firefox on your device.
• Click the three horizontal lines icon in the top-right corner of the browser window.
• Go to "Options" (or "Preferences" on macOS).
• Select "Privacy & Security" from the left-hand sidebar.
• Under "Enhanced Tracking Protection," you can choose your preferred level of protection: "Standard," "Strict," or "Custom." The "Custom" option allows you to block specific types of trackers, including various categories of cookies.
• You can also manage your data by clicking "Manage Data…" under "Cookies and Site Data" to remove cookies for specific websites.

3. Microsoft Edge:

• Open Microsoft Edge on your device.
• Click the three dots icon in the top-right corner of the browser window.
• Navigate to "Settings" > "Privacy, search, and services."
• Under "Tracking prevention," you can select your desired level ("Basic," "Balanced," "Strict") and manage any exceptions you wish to make.
• Under "Clear browsing data," you can choose what data to clear every time you close the browser, or click "Choose what to clear now" to manually delete cookies and other browsing data.
• For more granular control, go to "Cookies and site permissions> "Manage and delete cookies and site data."

4. Apple Safari:

• Open Safari on your Apple device.
• Go to the "Safari" menu in the top-left corner of your screen, then select "Preferences."
• Click on the "Privacy" tab.
• You can select "Prevent cross-site tracking" to block third-party cookies, which are often used for tracking across different websites.
• You also have the option to select "Block all cookies," although this is generally not recommended as it can severely impact the functionality of many websites, including parts of our blog.
• To manage or remove specific cookies and website data, click "Manage Website Data…."

Opt-out of Google Analytics:

If you wish to opt-out of Google Analytics across all websites you visit, Google has developed a specific browser add-on. This add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about your visit activity. You can typically find this add-on by searching for "Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on" on Google's official website.

Consequences of Disabling Cookies:

While ICSPrivateHire.co.uk is designed to be functional with minimal cookies, disabling certain types of cookies may indeed impact your experience on our blog:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies: Blocking these essential cookies may prevent the site from functioning correctly. This could lead to security warnings, an inability to remember your cookie consent preferences (resulting in repeated prompts), or hindering basic navigation and access to content.
• Performance and Analytics Cookies: Disabling these will not directly affect the core functionality of the website for you as a reader. However, it will significantly limit our ability to understand how our content is performing, which articles are most popular, and how readers engage with our material. This, in turn, may hinder our ongoing efforts to improve the blog, tailor future content to our audience's evolving interests, and ultimately, impact the overall quality and relevance of the information we provide. By allowing these, you indirectly help us to refine our offering.
• Functionality Cookies: Disabling these might mean that some of your chosen preferences (such as specific display settings or temporary choices within a session) are not remembered between visits or even within a single visit, requiring you to set them each time you interact with a particular feature.

Our overarching objective is to provide an invaluable, well-researched, and engaging resource for the taxi community. When you allow us to use necessary and analytical cookies responsibly, you are indirectly helping us to achieve this goal by providing aggregated and anonymised data that guides our content strategy and enables us to continually enhance the value we offer.

Changes to This Cookie Policy

We may update our Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our operational practices, advancements in technology, or for other pertinent legal or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any significant changes by posting the new Cookie Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date at the very top of this policy. We strongly encourage you to review this Cookie Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are using cookies and protecting your privacy.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or require further clarification about our use of cookies or this Cookie Policy, please do not hesitate to contact us directly at: [email protected]. We are committed to transparency and are here to assist you.