Help - WHSmith Blog

Help Subjects

– What are Cookies?

– What Cookies does this website use?

– Explaining these cookies

– Blog Usage Policy/House Rules

– Blog Moderation Process

– Privacy Policy

– Contact Us

What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files. Many websites place cookies on your computer when you visit. Cookies are used to make websites
work, or to make them work more efficiently, and to provide useful information to website operators. Below is a breakdown of the
cookies we use and why. Many web browsers allow users to control most cookies through their browser settings. More information
about cookies, including details on viewing what cookies have been set and how to delete them is available at
allaboutcookies.org.

What Cookies does this website use?

Name	Technical Name	Owner	Duration	Purpose
Google Analytics User	_utma	WHSmith.co.uk	Expires at the end of the session	Google Analytics (GA) tracking cookies are used to provide reports about our site visitors. These cookies do not collect any personal data about you. For Google Analytics: Each unique browser that visits a page on the site is provided with a unique ID therefore subsequent visits to the website via the same browser are recorded as belonging to the same (unique) visitor.
Google Analytics Session	_utmb, _utmc	WHSmith.co.uk	Expires at the end of the session	Google Analytics: These cookies establish that an anonymous user has started a session.
Google Analytics Origin	_utmz	WHSmith.co.uk	182 days (6 months)	Google Analytics: When visitors reach the site via a search engine result, a direct link, or an ad that links to the page, Google Analytics stores the type of referral information in a cookie.
Google Analytics Client ID	_ga	WHSmith.co.uk	2 years	Google Analytics: stores a unique client identifier (Client ID), which is a randomly generated number. Once the ID is generated it’s stored in the cookie and is included with each hit / request sent to Google Analytics. This ID is later used by Google Analytics servers
WordPress Test Cookie	wordpress_test_cookie	blog.WHSmith.co.uk	session	Used on sites built with WordPress. Tests whether or not the browser has cookies enabled
Site Software	wp-settings-1, wp-settings-time-1	blog.WHSmith.co.uk	1 Year	These cookies have no impact on your user experience, and store no personal information. They contain some information about your general geographic location. These cookies are automatically added by WordPress, but we do not use them in any way.

Explaining these cookies

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics helps website owners to understand how their visitors engage with their website. Google uses a set of cookies to
collect information anonymously and report website trends without identifying individual visitors. For more information on how Google use cookies and their privacy policy go here.

What is Lockerz?

Lockerz is the third party tool we use to facilitate the social network sharing icons that you see on the pages. It enables us to help you to share pages and comments with friends on your Twitter, Facebook and Google plus accounts amongst others. Lockerz use both session cookies and persistent cookies.

What are Persistent & Session cookies?

A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser. Your browser may use persistent cookies on subsequent visits to the Website. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser help file directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser.

Blog Usage Policy/House Rules

Welcome to the official site of the WHSmith Blog, we are here from 9am until 5pm Monday to Friday. We want to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy their visit, so please read and abide by our House Rules:

We’re unable to answer specific WHSmith or WHSmith.co.uk customer service queries here, so please contact our Customer Relations team who will be happy to assist you.

Keep comments on topic. Off-topic comments will be removed so we can keep discussions focused for all of our users. New discussions may be started on new topics and all relevant comments should be directed there.

Treat other people with respect and consideration.

Don’t use someone’s name, photos, audio or video without their express permission.

Ensure that your post is factually correct and legal, isn’t defamatory, threatening, abusive, discriminatory, offensive or invades a person’s privacy or infringes copyright or other intellectual property rights.

We do not allow explicitly adult content on the blog, including messages or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity

Do not use the blog comments section as a way to make money on adult content. For example, don’t create ads or links to commercial porn sites.

We have a zero tolerance policy towards content that exploits children.

We want you to use the Richard and Judy blog to express your opinions, even controversial ones. But, don’t cross the line by publishing hate speech. By this, we mean content that promotes hate or violence towards groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status or sexual orientation/gender identity.

Don’t post comments just to be shocking or graphic

Don’t threaten other people on the site

It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement.

Please don’t mislead or confuse readers by pretending to be someone else or pretending to represent an organisation when you don’t.

Don’t use the blog to engage in illegal activities or to promote dangerous and illegal activities.

Do not post comments that transmit viruses, cause pop- ups, attempt to install software without the reader’s consent or otherwise impact readers with malicious code.

Don’t use swear words or inappropriate language which may offend (this includes swear words with asterisks or other symbols replacing letters).

Content with overt religious or political bias intended to incite others will be removed. Aggressive lobbying that disrupts the community for others will be removed.

The rules on non-offensive content also extend to user’s avatars and uploaded rich content such as images and videos and usernames.

Don’t post any advertising spam, self promotional content or links to external (non-WHSmith) sites, blog or micro blogging pages.

Only post the same message once.

If you are a WHSmith employee, please read the social networking policy which can be found on the company’s intranet.

If you do come across a post that you feel is inappropriate, please use the ‘flag as inappropriate’ feature – the down arrow in the top right section of the post. This will temporarily remove the post from view and will move it into our retrospective moderation list. If we agree that the content is unsuitable then it will be permanently removed.

All material posted on the page must comply with Disqus’ house rules as well as our own. You can read the Disqus house rules here

WHSmith Blog will be using reactive moderation. Comments are usually only checked if a complaint is made about them. If you see a comment that you think may break one of the House Rules, please use the ‘flag as inappropriate’ link to alert a moderator.

We reserve the right to remove comments, and repeat offenders will be blocked from the blog and any other WHSmith channels we deem appropriate. WHSmith’s decision on moderation is final.

WHSmith is not responsible or liable for any content uploaded to this site or on any third party sites. User’s views are their own.

If we find that a comment does violate our content policies, we will take one or more of the following actions based on the severity of the violation: Delete the offending comment, Delete all recent comments by the user, Block the account of the user or Delete all posts the user has made on the site.

Blog Moderation Process

There are automatic filter rules on posts that mean any comments or usernames containing swear words or offensive terms will automatically be sent for moderation. If these are deemed by the moderator to contravene the Blog Usage Policy above they will be permanently deleted

Other than these filters all comments will go live as posted. As this is reactive blog, comments are usually only checked if they are complained about. The posts that have been flagged as inappropriate will then by reviewed against the blog moderation policy above. Flagged posts that are deemed to comply with the policy will be published. Posts that do not comply with the policy will be permanently deleted.

While moderation is being conducted the flagged comment will be hidden from the site.

Why has my comment been removed when other comments that break the House Rules in a similar way are allowed to remain? On a reactive blog, a comment is usually only checked if a complaint is made about it. As a result, the moderators see some comments but may not be alerted to other posts that also break the House Rules. Moderators also don’t read the entire discussion when checking a comment. This allows them to remain neutral in their judgement by assessing each comment individually. However, this may mean that one comment gets removed while other equally questionable posts in the thread are allowed to remain.

Why have all of a user’s comments disappeared? If a user has made frequent breeches of the house rules we may block them from further use of the blog. If these breeches are seen to be serious or persistent then their account may be deleted along with all previous comments they have left.

We will always attempt to be consistent in our moderation decisions. If you feel that a post you have left has been unfairly removed, or if you have any other feedback, please use the contact us form to raise your concerns.by the user, Block the account of the user or Delete all posts the user has made on the site.

Privacy Policy

Because your privacy is important to us, WHSmith.co.uk sites will operate by the following 5 principles.

1. How we ask for information that identifies you or allows us to contact you We explicitly ask when we need any Personal Data or other details that we use to contact you – for example, when you register for a site, request a particular service or enter a competition. Where possible, we will give you the chance to check that your personal information is correct and up to date.

2. What we use your personal information for WHSmith.co.uk and its necessary service partners use your personal information to: Operate the websites and services, let you know about new features, services, and products from WHSmith.co.uk and its partners

3. When we may need to disclose your personal information WHSmith.co.uk may disclose your personal information to fulfil our contracts with you, where you have consented to such disclosure (actual or deemed), if required to do so by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to: Conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on WHSmith.co.uk Protect and defend the rights or property of WHSmith.co.uk, you or any third party Resolve customer service issues

4. How we monitor your activity on the website We use Google Analytics to monitor your activity on the website for research and development purposes. All information will be treated as strictly confidential by WHSmith.