City Link Privacy Policy

We believe it is important to clearly state City Link's Privacy Policy. For this reason we have used plain english (with a minimum of "jargon"- IT or legal). If you require clarification of any of these points then please email webmaster@city-link.co.uk .

Our Privacy Principles are:

• We do not sell, rent or give your information to third parties.
• We will ask for specific permission from you before sharing any of your details with other Rentokil Initial Group companies. If you do agree to such information being shared we will ensure in advance that the other Group Companies involved have adopted a Privacy Policy at least as stringent as ours.
• We let you select how you may be contacted by us when you give us your contact details
• We give you the "option of using SSL secure encryption" technology to protect all the data you send or receive to our website.
• We clearly explain how and why we use "cookies" - but also why they contain no personal information.
• Whenever this policy changes we undertake to give advance notice to all users via our website.

Frequently Asked Questions about our Privacy Policy

Cookies

So what are They?

Cookies are small pieces of information "remembered" by your web browser. We use standard "session cookies" in our site solely to store a "session id" for your visit to our web site. A session ID contains no personal information at all and is just a value would be something like: sfbeb2a41f49fdb8b001ed9416e45b733. The image below shows the a sample of our cookie contents.

So why do City Link use Cookies?

Because of the way the World Wide Web "protocol" works if we didn't do this the server would think you are were a different visitor every time you asked for a page from our site. This would make some elements of the site - particularly job booking impossible to use.

It would be especially annoying to many of our customers who stay logged in throughout the day just so they can check the status of a job whenever they want.

The session ID also allows us to monitor which areas of the site are most popular with our customers.

Why should you be Concerned? (or even remotely Interested?)

The reason is simply that a cookie is a file just like all the others on your hard disk. If it contained personal information then it could theoretically be read by someone else if they could gain access to your computer. It is because of this risk that all web browsers give you the option to"Turn Off" cookies altogether or at least prompt before accepting a cookie from a site.

Whether you accept, reject or prompt before accepting cookies is a choice for you and you Organisation. City Link makes no recommendation about the settings you should use. We merely state that the cookie we send to your browser contains no personal information.

What happens if the City Link Cookie is Rejected?

If a cookie is rejected then our server will try to add the session ID to the address of each web page send to you. Unfortunately this may not be possible. Under those circumstances you would not be able to use our site.

If this is the case your local branch would be happy to assist you by phone or fax.

Secure SSL Encryption

What is SSL Encryption?

SSL Encryption is a public key encryption technology that encrypts all data sent to or from a website so that it cannot be read or changed by anyone else on the Internet. It is the established standard for high security transactions e.g. credit card payments via the Internet.

Does that mean it is unsafe to access sites without SSL?

This is a question which only you and your organisation can answer. There are some companies and organisations who would use encryption for all their data sent across the Internet and some who would use it very rarely (although most people would agree that credit card data should always be encrypted).

Accessing a normal website is no more risky (and in some ways safer) than sending information by Internet email.

So why is SSL only an option on the City Link Site?

Unfortunately there is no such thing as a free lunch and the trade off for having such a very heavily encrypted data exchange is performance.

Your computer has to encrypt all data before sending it. The server then decrypts it, processes the request, encrypts the reply and sends it back to you. Your browser then decrypts the reply and displays it to you. Depending on the speed of your computer the delay may be "quite noticeable".

By giving you the choice at logon time to use SSL or the unencrypted site we are allowing you to choose the option which best meets your needs and security policy of your business.

Whichever option you choose your password is always encrypted before it is sent.

Privacy Policy V2.1
30 March 2003