COOKIES SETTINGS
WHAT IS A COOKIE?
A cookie is a small file which includes a unique reference code that a website transfers to your device to store and sometimes track information about you. It is downloaded by your Internet browser on the first visit to a website. A number of cookies we use last only for the duration of your web session ("session cookies") and expire when you close your browser. Other cookies are used, for example, to remember you when you return to the site and will last for longer ("persistent cookies"). Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. They are uniquely assigned to your device and are sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit (if they last longer than a web session) or to another website that recognises that cookie.
Some cookies are extremely useful, as they can improve the user experience on opening a website that you have already visited a number of times. Provided you use the same user device and the same browser as before, cookies remember for example your preferences, how you use a site, and adapt the displayed offerings to be more relevant to your personal interest and needs.
Depending on their function and intended purpose, cookies can be divided into four categories: essential cookies, performance cookies, functional cookies, cookies for marketing purposes.
CATEGORIES
Essential cookies
Essential cookies are required so that you can navigate on a website and use its features. Without these cookies, functionalities cannot be ensured, for example that actions performed during a visit (e.g. text input) are preserved, also when navigating between individual pages of the website.
Performance cookies
Performance cookies collect information on how a website is used – for example which pages a visitor opens most frequently and whether they receive error messages from a page. These cookies do not save any information that permits identification of the user. The collected information will be aggregated and thus will be analysed in a non-attributable way to a specific person. These cookies are used exclusively to improve the performance of a website and thus the user experience.
Functional cookies
Functional cookies enable a website to save details that have already been provided (e.g. user name, language choices or your location) and offer the user improved, more personal functions. Functional cookies are used, for example, to enable requested functions such as the playback of videos. These cookies collect anonymised information; they cannot track your movement on other websites.
Cookies for marketing purposes
Cookies for marketing purposes are used to extract advertisements that are relevant to specific users and adapted to their interests. They are also used to limit the frequency of appearance of an advertisement and to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. They register whether you have visited a website or not. This information can be shared with third parties, for example advertisers. Cookies to improve target group contact and advertising are often linked with page functionalities of third parties.
WHAT TYPES OF COOKIES DO WE USE?
Essential cookies
Our website uses first-party cookies to collect session information to ensure incoming network traffics or requests are efficiently distributed across our servers, to maintain the state of the session, and to diagnose any technical problems.
Performance cookies
Our website uses Google Analytics to collect information as to how users interact with the website and its content. Hong Kong Football Club uses this information to ensure that the website creates added value for its visitors, for example with content adapted to your personal needs. Within the framework of the application of Google, the data are collected by means of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager and are anonymised, processed, and stored in Google data centres. If you wish to object to the complete data acquisition by Google, you can do so by using the button provided in the cookies banner or installing Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/181881?hl=en
An overview of relevant cookies used on the website are set out in the following table
| Name | First Party or Third Party? | Duration | Purpose | Types of data collected |
| _ga | Third party (Google) | 2 years | Performance (Site Analytics) | User ID data used in identify unique visitor |
| _gat_gtag_UA-117685072_2 | Third party (Google) | 1 minute | Performance (Events Tracking) | Event data used to distinguish specific action from users |
| _gid | Third party (Google) | 1 day | Performance (Site Analytics) | Anonymous data used to distinguish visitor geographical data, source, and site page visit |
| Performance-cookie | First party (HKFC) | Session | Performance (Cookies Control) | Cookies data used to identify user’s consent |
| _RequestVerificationToken | First party (HKFC) | Session | Essential (Session Management) | Session data used to identify the user session |
| yourAuthCookie | First party (HKFC) | Session | Essential (Session Management) | Session data used to identify the user log-in authentication. |
| ASP.Net_SessionId | First party (HKFC) | Session | Essential (Session Management) | Session data used to identify the user log-in data. |
Managing and deleting cookies
You can block and delete cookies by changing your browsers. To manage cookies, most browsers allow you to refuse or accept all cookies or only to accept certain types of cookies. The process for the management and deletion of cookies can be found in the help function integrated in the browser.
If you wish to limit the use of cookies, you will not be able to use all the interactive functions of our website.