Cookie Policy

Cookie Policy - Talk Business UK

Effective Date: July 29, 2025

This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are, how Talk Business UK (the trading name of Business Forums and Training Ltd, "we", "us", "our") uses them on our website www.talkbusinessuk.com (the "Website"), and what choices you have regarding their use.

By continuing to use our Website, you are agreeing to the use of cookies and similar technologies for the purposes described in this policy, unless you have adjusted your browser settings or provided specific consent through our cookie consent tool.

1. What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.

Cookies can be categorised based on their duration and purpose:

Session Cookies: These are temporary cookies that remain on your device until you close your web browser. They are often used for essential functions, like remembering items in a shopping basket or maintaining a logged-in session.
Persistent Cookies: These cookies remain on your device for a set period (which can range from minutes to years) or until you manually delete them. They are used to remember your preferences or actions across multiple visits to a website.

Cookies can also be categorised by who sets them:

First-Party Cookies: These are set by the website you are visiting directly (i.e., by talkbusinessuk.com).
Third-Party Cookies: These are set by a domain other than the one you are visiting. This often happens when a website incorporates elements from other sites, such as social media plugins, embedded videos, or advertising networks.

2. How Talk Business UK Uses Cookies

We use cookies for various purposes to enhance your experience on our Website and to understand how our services are used:

Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are essential for the operation of our Website and enable you to navigate around it and use its features, such as accessing secure areas, remembering your login status, or maintaining your preferences for our cookie consent tool. Our Website cannot function properly without these cookies.
- Lawful Basis: Necessary for the performance of a contract with the user or for our legitimate interests in providing a functional website. Consent is generally not required for these, as they are essential to provide the service you have requested.
Performance/Analytical Cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors use our Website, for instance, which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don't collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.
- Lawful Basis: Your consent.
Functionality Cookies: These cookies allow our Website to remember choices you make (such as your username, language, or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. They can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts, and other parts of web pages that you can customise.
- Lawful Basis: Your consent.
Targeting/Advertising Cookies: These cookies are used to deliver advertisements more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement and help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator's permission.
- Lawful Basis: Your consent.

3. Specific Cookies Used on www.talkbusinessuk.com

Below is a list of the types of cookies we use on our Website. Please note that this list may be updated periodically as we review our cookie usage.

A. Strictly Necessary Cookies (Always Active - No Consent Required): These cookies are essential for the operation of our Website and enable core functionalities. Our Website cannot function properly without these cookies.

session_id: Used to maintain your login session when you access the Members' Area, allowing you to navigate securely without re-entering credentials. (Session duration)
cookie_consent_preferences: Used to remember your cookie preferences, ensuring the cookie banner doesn't reappear unnecessarily once you've made a choice. (1 year duration)
PHPSESSID: Standard PHP session identifier to enable basic website functionality. (Session duration)

B. Performance/Analytical Cookies (Requires Your Consent): These cookies collect anonymous information about how visitors use our Website, such as which pages are visited most often, and if they encounter error messages. This information is used solely to improve how our Website works.

_ga, _gid: Google Analytics cookies to collect anonymous information about how visitors use our site, such as page visits and time on site. (Provider: Google; Durations: 2 years, 24 hours respectively)
_gat: Google Analytics cookie to throttle the request rate. (Provider: Google; Duration: 1 minute)
(If applicable, add details for other analytical cookies here, e.g., Hotjar, Crazy Egg, specifying name, purpose, duration, and provider).

C. Functionality Cookies (Requires Your Consent): These cookies allow our Website to remember choices you make (such as your username or preferences) and provide enhanced, more personalised features.

_remember_me: Used to remember your login details for future visits, if you select the "Remember Me" option. (Provider: Talk Business UK; Duration: 30 days)
(If applicable, add details for other functionality cookies here, e.g., video player preferences, specifying name, purpose, duration, and provider).

D. Targeting/Advertising Cookies (Requires Your Consent): These cookies are used to deliver advertisements more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement and help measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

_fbp: Facebook Pixel cookie used to deliver ads and measure ad performance for Facebook advertising campaigns. (Provider: Facebook; Duration: 3 months)
_tr: LinkedIn Insight Tag cookie used for website analytics, ad targeting, and retargeting on LinkedIn. (Provider: LinkedIn; Duration: 1 year)
(If applicable, add details for other advertising/tracking cookies here, e.g., Google Ads, Criteo, specifying name, purpose, duration, and provider).

4. Your Cookie Choices and How to Manage Them

Under UK law (specifically PECR and UK GDPR), we must obtain your consent to set any cookies that aren't strictly necessary for the operation of our Website.

We use a cookie consent banner/tool that appears when you first visit our Website. This tool allows you to:

Accept All Cookies: Consent to all categories of cookies.
Reject All Non-Essential Cookies: Decline all cookies except those strictly necessary.
Manage Preferences/Customise: Select which categories of non-essential cookies you wish to allow.

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on the "Cookie Settings" or "Manage Cookies" link, usually found in the footer of our Website.

In addition to our cookie consent tool, most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. You can typically:

See what cookies you've got and delete them on an individual basis.
Block third-party cookies.
Block cookies from particular sites.
Block all cookies from being set.
Delete all cookies when you close your browser.

Please be aware that if you block all cookies (including strictly necessary cookies), parts of our Website may not function correctly or may be inaccessible.

For more information on how to manage cookies in popular browsers, please refer to the following links:

Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647
Mozilla Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences
Microsoft Edge: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/delete-cookies-in-microsoft-edge-63947406-4197-937b-823d-ad2850d53909
Safari (desktop): https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac
Safari (mobile): https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201265

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

5. Changes to Our Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will post any changes on this page and update the "Effective Date" at the top of the policy. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we use cookies.