Cookie Policy

What are Cookies?

A cookie is a small file and holds a certain amount of data, which our website can send to your browser. It may then be stored on your computer’s hard drive and can be accessed by our web server. This cookie data can then be retrieved and can allow us to customise our web pages and services accordingly. It’s important to clarify that cookies do not collect any personal data stored on your hard drive or computer.

To find out more about cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

How does Keele University use cookies?

Cookies enable us to identify your device, or you when you have logged in. We use cookies that are strictly necessary to enable you to move around the site or to provide certain basic features. We use cookies to enhance the functionality of the website by storing your preferences, for example. We also use cookies to help us to improve the performance of our website to provide you with a better user experience.

Our website uses both persistent and session cookies:

• Persistent cookies are used to allow the website to recognise users when they return to the site and to remember certain information about their preferences. These cookies are cookies which stay on your computer permanently, until you “manually” delete them.
• Session cookies are used in order to allow customers to carry information across pages of the website, without having to re-enter such information. These cookies delete themselves automatically when you leave a website and go to another, or when you shut down your browser.
• Third-party cookies that are used by our partners, or are used by external content from other third-party websites within our website. These include sites such as Facebook and Twitter, whose cookie usage policy you can view on their own websites.
• Google Analytics to track which pages on the site are most commonly used, the number of visitors to the site, page views, which browsers are used, entry pages etc. We use the information provided to help us improve our site and identify the most popular pages. Cookies last between one month and one year. For more information on Google analytics we recommend you visit the Google analytics website.We use Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting to better understand who is visiting the Keele University website and develop new content around our user’ interests. You can opt-out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customise Google Display Network ads using the Ads Settings. In addition, you can use the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on to disable tracking by Google Analytics.

Types of cookie that may be used during your visit to our other websites are:

• Session cookies
• Session and permanent cookies
• Anonymous permanent cookies
• Cookie to individually identify users who have logged in
• Third party cookies
• First party cookies

Social Media and Third Party cookies

To enrich our website content, sometimes we may embed video content from other social media websites such as YouTube or Facebook. As a result, when you visit a page with content embedded, you may be presented with cookies from these websites. Keele University has no control or liability over these cookies set, so you should check the relevant third party’s cookie policy for more information.

We also offer a ‘share page’ widget on some of our web pages, where content can be shared easily on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Delicious and Digg. These sites may set a cookie when you are logged into their service.  Keele University has no control or liability over these cookies set, so you should check the relevant third party’s cookie policy for more information.

Our ‘share page’ widget is provided by AddThis. You can opt out of AddThis cookies on the AddThis Privacy page.

Keele University are working with third parties to collect user data for conversion tracking and serving ads targeted to users’ interests. None of the technologies used are able to collect personally identifiable information (PII) and in most cases the data collected is stored securely on a provider’s server permitting no direct access. Use can opt out of interest-based advertising through methods detailed at www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices and www.hotjar.com/opt-out. Another useful tool to opt out is http://optout.aboutads.info.

How to control and delete cookies

Keele University will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. However, should you choose to disable, reject or block our cookies, some parts of our website may not function fully.

For more information on how to control your cookie settings and browser settings, or how to delete cookies on your hard drive, please visit www.aboutcookies.org.

A useful tool that will enable you to control many third party tracking cookies can be found at the Network Advertising Initiative.

Browser settings can be configured to control cookies. See AllAboutCookies.org.