Cookies Policy
We use data collected with cookies to report on how our visitors find and use our website, and to create a more personalised experience. We use those reports to understand overall visitor behaviour, and we use that understanding to update and improve our website. For instance, we use cookies to calculate the amount of ‘traffic’ to our site and to look at navigation through the site, so that we can see the most popular pages and routes to information.
A cookie is a small file of information which a web server stores on a user's computer to record their preferences and other pieces of information. The cookie is set through a request by a web server to a web browser such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox. A cookie is composed of two parts, its name and its content.
A marketing pixel is a snippet of code or tiny invisible images that are placed on web pages and used to gather information about website visitors and track their activity. When a user visits a web page, a pixel loads and sends information to a third-party server. That information enables us to create a more personalised experience, measure campaign performance, track conversions, and build audiences based on behaviour.
A cookie contains information linked from the user to a specific website. If you access the same website again, the web server can read from and react to the information that it has stored to provide a more user-friendly and personalised experience. Cookies are used to store information relating to your website navigation, your language preferences or privacy settings, so that you receive more relevant information in a form that is suitable to you.
The cookies we use do not store any personal or sensitive information, or anything that makes you personally identifiable. Our cookies are used to record information such as: how you found our website, which pages you viewed, and how long you spent on the site.
We do need personal details for some services, for instance if you complete one of our forms to book your place for an open day or request a copy of our prospectus.
Different cookies are stored for different lengths of time. For instance, cookies designed to track how you found us expire after six months. Cookies used to establish and continue a unique user session are updated each time you request another page from the website, and the cookie is set to expire after 30 minutes. Cookies which allow us to identify subsequent visits to our website as belonging to the same (unique) visitor expire after two years.
No, only the web server that sent the cookie can access it again when a user returns to a website associated with that web server.
If you prefer not to receive cookies from our website, you can opt to decline them by modifying your browser configurations. Typically, the 'help' section of the browser's toolbar provides guidance on safeguarding your browser against accepting new cookies, receiving notifications upon receiving a new cookie, or disabling cookies entirely.
Alternatively, for more granular control, you can manage your specific cookie preferences at any time by clicking on the cookie icon located on our website.
Nevertheless, disabling cookies may limit your access to certain efficiency-enhancing website features, potentially affecting the proper functioning of our services.
If you do not accept cookies, you will be prompted to opt-in every time you visit the website. If you accept all cookies, you will not be asked again, provided you are using the same computer. If you use a different device, computer profile or browser you will have to tell us your preferences again.
Yes, you can opt out of any/all cookies at any time. You may also choose to delete the cookies from your computer between visits to our website.
If you have any further questions, please email: dpofficer@bnu.ac.uk
Except for essential cookies (which we need to make the site function properly), you can manage your preferences or withdraw your consent via the cookie icon at the bottom left corner of the screen.
You may need to refresh your page for these changes to be implemented.
Types of cookies we use
These cookies serve the purpose of safeguarding our website against potential attackers or facilitating specific functions on the site. Their presence is essential and they must remain activated at all times.
Fortinet
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
cookiesession1 | This cookie is set by a third-party web application firewall from Fortinet to help maintain the security of our website and your data. The cookie enables the web application firewall to monitor session traffic to identify attacks. | 1 year |
Unibuddy
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress | The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information. | 30 minutes |
_hjFirstSeen | The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information. | 30 minutes |
Spotify
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
sp_landing | Required to ensure the functionality of the integrated Spotify plugin. This does not result in any cross-site functionality. | 1 year and 1 month |
sp_t | Required to ensure the functionality of the integrated Spotify plugin. This does not result in any cross-site functionality. | 1 year |
YouTube
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
YSC | This cookie is set by YouTube to track views of embedded videos. | When you close your browser |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites; it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface. | 6 months |
PREF | Stores user’s preferred page configuration and playback preferences like autoplay, shuffle content, and player size. | 8 months |
Other cookies
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
Cookie-agreed | We utilise this cookie to retain your choice of cookie settings. | 40 days |
We use tools to collect statistical information about the way you navigate our website, aiming to consistently enhance its performance. For instance, we track how you get to our site, the specific pages you explore, and the elements you interact with during your visit.
The information gathered is anonymous and will not be used to identity users. We do not grant permission to Google or other similar services to utilize or distribute data regarding your interactions with our website.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
_ga_JZYYN497MW | This cookie is used by Google Analytics to persist session state. | 2 years |
_ga | This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites’ analytics reports. | 2 years |
_gcl_au | Google Tag Manager sets the cookie to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services. | 3 months |
_gid | This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites’ analytics reports. | 24 hours |
__utma | Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | 2 years |
__utmb | Used to establish and continue a unique user session. Each time you request another page from the website the cookie is updated to expire after 30minutes. | 30 minutes |
__utmc | Works with __utmb to determine when to create a new session for a website visitor. This is a session cookie and expires when you exit the browser. | End of browser session |
__utmz | Tracks how you found us and is used to calculate traffic and navigation within the website. It is updated with every new page view. | 6 months |
Visual Website Optimizer (VWO)
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
_vwo_consent | This cookie independently tracks the visitor's consent status for VWO to ensure compliance. It can store essential testing campaign data when VWO is partially blocked, allowing for accurate tracking once consent is given. | 1 year |
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_ goal_{GOALID} | This cookie is created when a campaign goal is triggered. This cookie, when created, will always have a value of 1. | 100 days |
_vis_opt_test_cookie | This cookie is created to detect if the cookies are enabled on the visitor’s browser or not. It also helps in tracking the number of browser sessions a visitor has gone through. The value of this cookie is always 1. | Expires on browser close |
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_combi | This cookie is created when a visitor is chosen for a particular variation for a test. This cookie makes sure that visitors see the same variation when they revisit the page in the future. Here the Control has a value of 1, Variation #1 has a value of 2, Variation #2 has a value of 3, and so on. | 100 days |
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_exclude | This cookie is created when a visitor has been excluded from a Test Campaign due to the traffic percentage specifications. The value is always 1. | 100 days |
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_split | This cookie is created when one of the variations is chosen for the visitor, but the visitor is not yet redirected to the variation page. It exists so that VWO can verify that the variation page corresponds to the chosen variation after landing on the page. The value is >=2 (as 1 corresponds to Control and it’s not created in case the Control is chosen). | 100 days |
_vis_opt_s | This cookie tracks session created for a visitor, i.e., the number of times the browser was closed and reopened. The value is >=1, followed by a pipe sign. For example, the value of 2 indicates that the visitor restarted the browser once while 3 means twice. | 100 days |
_vis_opt_out | This cookie indicates that the visitor should not be made part of any campaign. Its value is 1. | 10 years |
_vwo_uuid | This cookie generates a unique id for every visitor and is used for the report segmentation feature in VWO, and it also allows you to view data in a more refined manner. | 1 year |
_vwo_uuid_{CAMPAIGNID} | This cookie is created for each cross-domain campaign. It generates a unique id for every visitor and is used for the report segmentation feature in VWO, and it also allows you to view data in a more refined manner. | 1 year |
_vwo_ds | This cookie stores persistent visitor-level data for VWO Insights. | Depends on the retention period of the account |
_vwo_sn | This cookie stores session-level information. | 30 mins and reset again to 30 mins on visitor activity |
_vwo_uuid_v2 | This cookie calculates unique traffic on a website. | 366 Days |
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID} | This cookie stores the chosen combination. It’s a temporary cookie that gets deleted when the campaign changes are applied. | Persists until campaign changes are applied |
_vwo_referrer | This cookie stores referral info allowing VWO to identify the original Traffic source in case of the Split URL campaign | 15 secs |
_vwo | This cookie is a jar of all the cookies. It is currently created only for the Safari browser. In the future, it would replace all the cookies. The actual expiry of a cookie doesn’t matter as it stores the expiry of cookies set in it and keeps on expiring them | 1 Year |
wingify_push_db_status | This cookie stores the subscription sync status of the subscriber with VWO Engage’s Server | 10000 Days |
wingify_push_subscription_id | This cookie stores the subscription ID to uniquely identify the subscriber generated by the browser | 10000 Days |
wingify_push_subscription | This cookie stores the subscription endpoint of the subscription object specific to the browser(Chrome/Firefox) | 10000 Days |
pushcrew_opt_out | This cookie is used for opting-out | 10000 Days |
wingify_push_do_not_show | This cookie stores the information if the first-step opt-in should show up or not. Valid only for 2 Step Opt-in | 14 Days |
pshcrw_update_subId | This cookie is used for retrying the storage of subscriptions with VWO Engage’s Server. Used only in cases when the server is not reachable due to network issues | 10000 Days |
| wingify_push_subscription _status | This cookie stores the information if the visitor is subscribed or unsubscribed to VWO Engage | 10000 Days |
| wingify_push_subscriber _lang | This cookie stores the subscriber's browser language | 10000 Days |
| wingify_donot_track _actions | This cookie persists the information that subscriber actions should be tracked | 10000 Days |
| wingify_do_not_show_chicklet | This cookie is used to decide if the chicklet for opting to notifications should be shown or not | 10000 Days |
| _wingify_pc_uuid | This cookie stores the subscriber ID to uniquely identify the subscriber. VWO generates this randomly | 10000 Days |
| wingifyEcomData-* | This cookie is persisted when the subscriber becomes part of Shopify segments created through VWO Engage App | 10000 Days |
| wingify_push_gcm_id | This cookie stores the FCM ID of the customer to identify which FCM key was used for subscribing | 10000 Days |
| wingifyRetrySegment-* | This cookie is persisted when wingifySegment-* cookie cannot be synced with VWO Engage Server | 10000 Days |
| wingifySegment-* | This cookie is persisted only when the subscriber is part of a segment that the visitor creates from the VWO Engage App | 10000 Days |
| pshcrw_v_k | This cookie stores the public VAPID Key of the customer to identify which VAPID key was used for subscribing | 10000 Days |
| wingify_push_subscriber _id | This cookie stores the subscriber ID to uniquely identify the subscriber. VWO generates this randomly | 10000 days |
| _vwo_global_opt_out | This cookie is persisted when a visitor opts out of vwo on all websites in a given browser. | 100 days |
| _vwo_ssm | This cookie is used for testing and is created only on sites that use the HTTP protocol. This is used to check if VWO can create cookies on them, post which this cookie is deleted. | 1 Year |
Marketing cookies help us understand your navigation across the website in order to serve the ads and personalised experiences that are more relevant to you. The information collected by these cookies is anonymous and won’t be used to identify users.
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
_gads | Enables sites to show Google ads, including personalised ads. | 13 months |
_gcl_au | Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services | 3 months |
IDE | This cookie is set by Doubleclick and carries out information about how you use the website and any advertising you may have seen before visiting the site. | 1 year |
test_cookie | doubleclick.net sets this cookie to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. | 15 minutes |
NID | These cookies are used to remember your preferences and other information, such as your preferred language, how many results you prefer to have shown on a search results page (for example, 10 or 20), and whether you want to have Google’s SafeSearch filter turned on. | 6 months |
ENID | These cookies are used to remember your preferences and other information, such as your preferred language, how many results you prefer to have shown on a search results page (for example, 10 or 20), and whether you want to have Google’s SafeSearch filter turned on. | 13 months |
IDE/ANID | These cookies to show Google ads on non-Google sites. If you have personalised ads enabled, the ‘ANID’ cookie is used to remember this setting. | 13 months |
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
_fbp | This cookie helps measure the performance of ad campaigns for businesses that use the Meta (Facebook) Products. | When session ends |
fr | Depending on your choices, this cookie is used to deliver, measure and improve the relevancy of the ads. | 3 months |
TikTok
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
_ttp | This cookie allows us to measure and improve the performance of our advertising campaigns and to personalise your experience on TikTok. | 13 months |
Personalisation
Name | Purpose | Expiration |
tc_ptid | Cookie used to associate a visitor with their profile on Acquia Lift personalisation platform | 2 years |
tc_ptidexpiry | Tracking tc_ptid cookie expiration value | 2 years |
tc_q | Local queue to store page views, clicks, or other captures when events do not have time to be submitted to the server, due to user or client actions | 2 years |
tc_ttid | Touch identifier—a logical grouping of interactions a web visitor may have with the website. | 30 minutes after the last view |
tc_dnt | Set if a visitor has opted out of tracking and personalization. | 10 years |
tc_3dnt | Third-party cookie for do not track. | 10 years |
tc_trackenabledtest | Testing cookie used to ensure browser accepts cookies. | Immediately deleted |
lift_access | Contains the temporary token’s access and secret keys. | When the user signs out of Personalization |