Cookies and re-marketing policy
We seek to be transparent in all of our activities as a College and therefore want to be clear about how we use cookies and digital re-marketing tools to improve our visitors’ experience when using our websites and to promote our courses and events. This policy sets out the reasons we use cookies, the types of cookies we use and how long these cookies are operational on your computer or device.
This policy relates to The Bedford College Group (registered Bedford College) and includes the brands Bedford College, National College for Motorsport, Shuttleworth College, The Bedford Sixth Form and Tresham College. It also includes any other brands we add to this group in the future.
This policy applies to any person or group or people who visit our website and social media.
what are cookies?
We use the term cookie to describe cookies and similar technologies such as tags and pixels. Cookies are small data files that websites place on your computer, laptop or mobile device.
our use of cookies
We use Cookies for the following purposes:
- To improve the performance of our websites by understanding which parts work well, and which don’t.
- To deliver relevant online advertising to you both on our websites and elsewhere. This is sometimes done by combining data that we already have about you with the data collected through Cookies. These Cookies are placed by us and selected third parties and enable adverts to be presented to you on ours and third party websites.
- To measure how effective our online advertising and marketing communications are.
- To enable us to collect information about how you and other people use our websites.
- To improve your experience on our websites, for example we use Cookies to remember the subject areas that you have looked at and to personalise your experience.
what cookies do we use?
We use the following Cookies:
Strictly necessary Cookies
These are Cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They are necessary for the safety, security and integrity of the site. For example they help support the structure of the pages that are displayed to you, help to improve navigation and allow you to return to pages you have previously visited. This type of Cookie only lasts for the duration of the time you are visiting the website. When you leave the website they are deleted automatically.
Performance Cookies or analytical Cookies
They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. The data is aggregated and anonymised, which means we cannot identify you as an individual.
Targeting Cookies
These Cookies will collect information about your browsing habits and allow us to show you adverts while you are browsing our site and other sites on the internet. They are set by us or by carefully selected third parties. They help us to understand the performance of our marketing activities and improve the relevance of the adverts that you see. These cookies will remain active for a maximum of four weeks after you have visited our website.
Blocking or restricting Cookies
You can stop Cookies being used on your device by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to block the deployment of all or some Cookies. Please note, if you use your browser settings to block Cookies you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
| Cookie | Cookie Name | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Cookie Consent | CookieConsent | This will remember that you are happy to allow cookies on our website. This cookie is set to expire after 14 days if accepted, or 7 days if declined (no other GA Cookies are stored, if this is declined). |
| Google Analytics | _ga | Used to distinguish users and expires in 2 years |
| Google Analytics | _gid | Used to distinguish users and expires in 24 hours |
| Google Analytics | _gat | Used to throttle request rate and expires in 1 minute |
| Google Analytics | -utma | This allows Google Analytics to determine unique visitors to our site. The cookie expires 2 years from initial creation or from update of cookie |
| Google Analytics | -utmb | This cookie is used to establish and continue a user session on our site. The cookie will expire 30 minutes from initial creation of from update of the cookie |
| Google Analytics | -utmc | This is used in conjunction with the -utmb cookie to determine whether or not to establish a new session for the user. This cookie will expire once you have closed your session with our website (once you have closed your browser) |
| Google Analytics | -utmz | This cookie is used by google to store where a visitor came from (search engine, search keyword, link). This cookie will expire 6 months from its initial creation or from update of cookie. |
| AddThis | _atuvs / _atuvc | This is a third-party cookie from AddThis service and will expire in 2 years. This will share Standard Chartered content via social media share buttons. Also monitors user activity on the site and on other AddThis sites. |
| AddThis | s_sq / ouid / notice_gdpr_prefs / s_nr / na_id / loc / s_fid / ssc / na_tc / notice_preferences / mus / gpw_e24 / sshs / s_cc / uvc / uid | This is a third-party cookie from AddThis service. Up to 5 years expiry dates, with some session based. This will share Standard Chartered content via social media share buttons. Also monitors user activity on the site and on other AddThis sites. |