Background and objectives

This cookie policy explains what electronic cookies are, how our customer portal, Connect (connect.alliancehomes.org.uk) uses them, and how all visitors to our portal can manage cookies. 

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device (computer, smartphone, tablet, etc.) when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently and to provide information to website owners.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

How do we use cookies?

Cookies such as Google Analytics help us to collect information on how people use our website, including the number of visitors, and which parts of the site they visit. This information helps us to make improvements to our website and make sure it is meeting your needs.

What cookies are present on Connect and why?

You can view the cookies used on Connect in section 4.2 (as at 13 February 2026). These cookies are set either by Alliance Homes or by third parties, such as YouTube or Microsoft, when content or software from those third parties are used on the site. 

Necessary cookies

These are essential to enable you to move around the website and use its features.

Name	Purpose	Expires
SSESSaa45adef4e789c49 0d38ce3919695324	A session cookie used to maintain your login or session state while browsing the site.	Session
cookie-agreed	Stores whether a user has consented to cookie usage.	1 year
cookie-agreed-categories	Records which categories of cookies the user has chosen to accept.	1 year
cookie-agreed-version	Tracks the version of the cookie consent message accepted by the user.	1 year

Analytics cookies

We use analytics cookies to understand how visitors interact with our website. These cookies collect information such as pages visited, time spent on the site and how users navigate between pages. The information is used to improve the performance and usability of our website. Analytics cookies may collect a unique identifier and where possible this data is anonymised and does not directly identify you. 

Name	Purpose	Expires
_ga	ID used to identify users.	1 year
_ga_Z3B38WTJ1H	Google Analytics cookie used to maintain session state within the analytics property.	2 years
_clck	This cookie is installed by Microsoft Clarity to store information of how visitors use a website and help in creating an analytics report of how the website is doing. The data collected includes the number of visitors, the source where they have come from, and the pages visited in an anonymous form.	1 year

Marketing cookies

We do not use marketing or advertising cookies and do not carry out any profiling for marketing purposes. However third party providers such as social media platforms or video providers may set their own cookies when you interact with our content. We do not control these cookies and we do not store them. 

Name	Purpose	Expires
MUID	Microsoft cookie used by Bing and other Microsoft services to track user behaviour across websites for advertising and analytics.	2 years
wc_cust_guid	Used to assign a unique identifier to a visitor for marketing and customer experience purposes.	1 year

How to change cookie preferences

Each time you start a new Connect session you will be prompted to review cookie preferences. You can control, accept and decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of Connect , and any preferences will be lost if you delete cookies. You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking on the privacy settings tab at the bottom of the screen. It will bring up a pop-up box allowing you to define cookie preferences.

Alternatively, most web browsers allow users to control most cookies through the browser settings. Find out how to manage cookies on popular browsers:

To find information relating to other browsers, visit the browser developer's website. 

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

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Opera
• Apple Safari

Monitoring, consultation, and review

The Head of Communications is responsible for the implementation, monitoring and review of this policy.

Customers, colleagues, and service users may be involved in giving feedback on this policy, leading to amendments where appropriate.

The Data Protection implications of the policy have been considered, including but not limited to:

• IAR amendments/updates

• ROPA amendments/updates

• New or updated Data Protection Impact Assessment

• Privacy Notice amendments

• Retention periods for any new data and method of archiving or deletion.

This policy will be reviewed within two years of its approval date.

This policy will be signed off by the Strategic Leadership Team.

This policy will be published externally on the Alliance Homes Connect Portal.

Equality and diversity

This policy is subject to a periodic Equality Impact Assessment (EIA).

The purpose of such an assessment is to consider the effect of the policy regarding the recognised protected characteristics of equality ad ensure that it does not unfairly impact any individual or group. The protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity or other grounds set out in our Equality and Diversity Strategy and Single Equality Scheme. Remedial action will be undertaken if a detrimental effect is identified.

The EIA also requires the policy author to consider whether the policy is likely to negatively impact on a person’s Human Rights.

This policy and any other related Alliance Homes publications can be provided in other formats for those with visual, literacy or language difficulties.

Complaints

If you would like to raise a complaint in relation to this policy, you can do this by calling us on calling us on 03000 120 120 or emailing us at act@alliancehomes.org.uk.

All complaints will be handled in line with the latest Alliance Homes Complaint Handling Policy.

Associated documents

• Alliance Homes Privacy Notice

• The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003

• The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Version control and approval dates 

Approval stage	Date completed
Equality Impact Assessment completed	7/4/2026
SLT review / approval	21/05/2026
Next review date	May 2028