Policies
MRIKPA Cookie Policy
Information about cookie use
Last updated: April 2026
Manchester Royal Infirmary Kidney Patients’ Association (MRIKPA),
Registered Charity No. 516871
This website, mrikpa.org.uk , is run by MRIKPA. We want to be open and honest about how our website works and what information it stores on your device.
This page explains what cookies are, exactly which cookies and tracking technologies this site uses, which plugins and services set them, and how you can control them.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file placed on your computer, phone or tablet when you visit a website. Cookies help websites work properly, remember your preferences, and give website owners information about how their site is used.
Cookies do not contain personal information such as your name or bank details, and they are not harmful to your device.
Alongside cookies, some of the services below also use local storage, a similar browser technology that stores small amounts of data locally rather than sending it back to a server on every request.
Cookie categories we use
We group the cookies and tracking technologies on this site into four categories:
| Category | Description | Consent required? |
|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Required for the website to function. Cannot be switched off. | No — always active |
| Functional | Remember your preferences and enable interactive features. | Yes |
| Analytics | Help us understand how visitors use the site (anonymised data). | Yes |
| Third-party / embedded | Set by external services such as Vimeo or social sharing tools. | Yes |
1. Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are essential for the website to work and cannot be disabled. They do not track you or store any personally identifiable information.
WordPress (website platform)
MRIKPA’s website runs on WordPress. WordPress may set the following cookies for technical operation:
| Cookie name | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
wordpress_test_cookie | Tests whether your browser accepts cookies. Set on login attempts. Not set for ordinary visitors. | Session |
wordpress_logged_in_* | Keeps committee members/admins logged in while managing the site. Not set for ordinary visitors. | Session / 14 days |
wp-settings-* | Stores admin interface preferences. Only set for logged-in admins. | 1 year |
Cookie consent preference
| Cookie name | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
mrikpa_cookie_consent | Saves your cookie consent choice (accept/decline) so we don’t ask on every page visit. | 6 months |
2. Functional cookies
Elementor (page builder)
Our pages are built using the Elementor page builder plugin (free and Pro editions), together with the ElementsKit Lite and Essential Addons for Elementor Lite add-ons. These may store information in your browser’s local storage to render pages correctly and support interactive features such as popup menus and sliders. No personal data is collected by these tools.
Formidable Forms
Our membership application and contact forms are powered by Formidable Forms. When you submit a form, a session token may be stored temporarily to prevent duplicate submissions and to verify your request. This is cleared when you close your browser.
Google reCAPTCHA v2
Our membership form uses Google reCAPTCHA (the “I’m not a robot” tick-box) to protect against automated spam. reCAPTCHA is provided by Google and sets cookies and uses browser fingerprinting to assess whether you are a human user. This involves data being sent to Google’s servers.
| Cookie / technology | Set by | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
_GRECAPTCHA | google.com | Risk analysis to distinguish human users from bots. | 6 months |
| Browser fingerprint data | google.com | Behaviour analysis (mouse movement, timing) to assess human interaction. | Session |
Google’s privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy
3D FlipBook (dFlip Lite)
Our newsletter archive uses a 3D FlipBook viewer (dFlip Lite plugin) to display PDFs in an interactive page-turning format. This plugin may use browser local storage to remember your position within a document. No data is sent to external servers by this plugin.
3. Analytics cookies
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
We use Google Analytics, loaded through Google Tag Manager (container ID: GT-P8RC94X), to understand how visitors find and use our website. This helps us improve the information and support we offer to kidney patients and carers.
The data collected is anonymous and aggregated – we cannot use it to identify you personally. Google Analytics records things like which pages were visited, how long visitors spent on each page, and which country they came from.
Google Analytics only runs if you have given consent. If you decline analytics cookies, Google Tag Manager will not fire the Analytics tag.
| Cookie name | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
_ga | Registers a unique ID to distinguish visitors and generate statistical reports on site usage. | 2 years |
_ga_XXXXXXXX | Used to persist session state across page requests. | 2 years |
_gid | Registers a unique ID to distinguish visitors, used to generate statistical reports. Refreshed daily. | 24 hours |
_gat | Used to throttle the request rate to Google Analytics servers. | 1 minute |
Google’s privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy
Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Jetpack Stats (WordPress.com)
Our site uses Jetpack, a plugin from Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com). Jetpack Stats provides basic, privacy-friendly visitor counts directly within our WordPress dashboard. It loads a script from stats.wp.com and may set a cookie.
| Cookie name | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
stj / tk_* | Tracks page views for Jetpack Stats. Data is associated with your IP address but not with a named identity. | Session / 1 year |
Automattic’s privacy policy: automattic.com/privacy
Rank Math SEO Pro
We use Rank Math SEO Pro to manage how our pages appear in search engine results. Rank Math itself does not set cookies for site visitors. It generates structured data (Schema markup) embedded in the page code to help search engines understand our content.
4. Third-party and embedded content cookies
Vimeo (embedded videos)
Some of our pages include video content hosted by Vimeo. Where we embed Vimeo videos, we use Vimeo’s privacy-enhanced mode (dnt=true parameter), which is designed to prevent Vimeo from setting tracking cookies unless you choose to interact with the video.
If you press play on an embedded video, Vimeo may then set its own cookies. These are outside our control.
| Cookie name | Set by | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
vuid | vimeo.com | Assigns a unique ID to track video viewing behaviour across Vimeo’s platform. | 2 years |
player | vimeo.com | Stores video player preferences (e.g., volume level). | 1 year |
continuous_play_v3 | vimeo.com | Saves auto-play preference across Vimeo sessions. | 1 year |
Vimeo’s privacy policy: vimeo.com/privacy
Jetpack CDN and image serving (c0.wp.com / i0.wp.com)
Jetpack serves some JavaScript files and images through Automattic’s global content delivery network (CDN), hosted at c0.wp.com and i0.wp.com. This speeds up page loading. Your browser makes requests to these domains when loading pages, which may involve your IP address being recorded in standard server logs. No tracking cookies are set by the CDN itself.
Jetpack Sharing Buttons
Some pages include social sharing buttons provided by Jetpack. If you click a sharing button to share content on a social network (such as Facebook or Twitter/X), that platform’s own cookies and tracking will apply. We do not control third-party platform cookies activated through sharing. We recommend reviewing the privacy policies of any platform you choose to share content on.
Sassy Social Share
We also use the Sassy Social Share plugin for social sharing buttons. This plugin is served from our own server and does not itself set any cookies. However, clicking a share button will direct you to a third-party social network where their own cookies and tracking policies apply.
Gravatar (WordPress user avatars)
WordPress uses Gravatar (gravatar.com, operated by Automattic) to display profile images for MRIKPA’s content authors. When a page loads that includes an author avatar, your browser makes a request to secure.gravatar.com. This involves sending your IP address to Automattic’s servers but does not set cookies for ordinary visitors.
Google Fonts
Our site uses the Poppins typeface, loaded from fonts.googleapis.com. When your browser requests this font, Google’s servers receive your IP address and browser information. Other fonts used on this site (Roboto Slab, Roboto, Nunito, Montserrat, Lato) are served directly from our own hosting and do not involve any external request to Google.
Google’s privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy
MailPoet (email newsletters)
We use MailPoet to manage and send our email newsletter to members who have subscribed. MailPoet does not set cookies on our website for ordinary visitors. When you receive an email from us and click a link, MailPoet may track whether the email was opened or a link was clicked — but only for subscribers who have opted in to receive our newsletter. This tracking helps us understand which topics are most useful to members.
MailPoet’s privacy policy: mailpoet.com/privacy-notice
Your choices
When you first visit our site, a banner will appear giving you the choice to accept or decline non-essential cookies (analytics, functional, and third-party). Strictly necessary cookies are always active and cannot be turned off.
You can change your preferences at any time by clicking the “Cookie Settings” link in the footer of any page.
You can also control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers let you:
- See what cookies have been set
- Block cookies from specific websites
- Delete cookies already stored on your device
- Set your browser to block third-party cookies by default
Please note that blocking all cookies may affect how some websites — including this one — work. Your browser’s Help section will guide you through its specific settings.
Useful links for common browsers:
- Google Chrome cookie settings
- Mozilla Firefox cookie settings
- Apple Safari cookie settings
- Microsoft Edge cookie settings
To opt out of Google Analytics tracking across all websites, you can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
More information
For general guidance on cookies and your rights under UK law, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) publishes helpful information at ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies.
If you have any questions about how we use cookies, please contact us:
- Email: support@mrikpa.org.uk
- Post: MRIKPA, 12 Carrington Lane, Sale, M33 5ND
This Cookie Policy should be read alongside our Data Protection & Privacy Policy, which covers how we collect and use personal data more broadly. Both policies are reviewed annually.
