Cookie Policy

A cookie refers to a text file which is stored on a user's hard drive and is typically used to identify that user when they revisit a website. Another common use of cookies is to store information entered into a form so it does not need to be re-entered on subsequent visits

How do we use cookies?

• Understanding how you use our site

In the next section, we explain in more detail how we use cookies and similar technology on our sites and apps for a number of purposes.

Other organisations also collect user information on our sites through cookies, tags and pixels. Tags and pixels, also known as web beacons, are similar to cookies are collected through embedded images.

We use three types of cookies;

• Essential/Necessary – cookies that are essential to provide you with services you have requested. For example, these include the cookies that make it possible for you to stay logged into your account and make comments. If you set your browser to block these cookies, then these functions and services will not work for you. In particular, we won’t be able to save your preferences about cookies.
• Performance - cookies which measure how often you visit our site. We use this information to get a better sense of how our users engage and to improve our sites and apps, so that users have a better experience. For example, we collect information about which of our pages are most frequently visited, and by which types of users. We also use third-party cookies to help with performance. For example, the Google Analytics cookie gives us information such as your journey between pages and whether you have downloaded anything (details of how to opt out of it are below).
• Functionality – cookies that are used to recognise you and remember your preferences or settings when you return to our site, so that we can provide you with a more personalised experience. For example, if you are based in the United Kingdom, we will remember this and make sure that you receive the UK homepage when you visit our site, rather than the US or Australia homepage. A mix of first-party and third-party cookies are used.

How to refuse or delete cookies

You may refuse the use of cookies and delete any cookies that are already stored on your computer by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you use our site.

Instructions on how to delete and refuse cookies for various web browsers are available at: allaboutcookies.org. This is not part of our website we are not responsible for its content.

It is also possible to stop your browser from accepting cookies altogether by changing your browser’s cookie settings. You can usually find these settings in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser. The following links may be helpful, or you can use the “Help” option in your browser.

• Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
• Cookie settings in Firefox
• Cookie settings in Chrome
• Cookie settings in Safari weband iOS

Our website occasionally makes use of "embedded services" such as Facebook, AddThis and Twitter. These third party services may also save cookies on your computer whilst you use our website. We have no control over these cookies and you should seek advice from these services if you wish to understand more about how they use cookies.

 You may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to delete cookies from your computer as well as more general information about cookies. For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.

Cookies uses via tools it uses to provide a digital experience on https://onlinestudy.uclan.ac.uk/, Google, Facebook and associated platforms, Twitter, several of the below are specific to individual platforms and these are noted within each of the descriptions.

Cookie platform details:

Essential/necessary cookies

__hs_opt_out
This cookie is used by HubSpot Opt out policy

(Expires: 13 months)

hs_ab_test
This cookie is used to consistently serve visitors the same version of an A/B test you have seen before.
(Expires: end of session)

<id>_key
When visiting a password-protected page, this cookie is set so future visits to the page from the same browser do not require login again. The cookie name is unique for each password-protected page.   

hs-messages-is-open
This cookie is used to determine and save whether the chat widget is open for future visits. It resets to re-close the widget after 30 minutes of inactivity.
(Expires: 30 minutes) 

hs-messages-hide-welcome-message
This cookie is used to prevent the welcome message from appearing again for one day after it is dismissed.
(Expires: 1 day) 

__hsmem
This cookie is set when visitors log in to a HubSpot-hosted site.
(Expires: 1 year) 

Functionality cookies 

__hstc
The main cookie for tracking visitors. It contains the domain, utk, initial timestamp (first visit), last timestamp (last visit), current timestamp (this visit), and session number (increments for each subsequent session).
(Expires: 13 months) 

hubspotutk
This cookie is used to keep track of a visitor's identity. This cookie is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts.
(Expires: 13 months) 

__hssc
This cookie keeps track of sessions. This is used to determine if HubSpot should increment the session number and timestamps in the __hstc cookie. It contains the domain, viewCount (increments each pageView in a session), and session start timestamp. 
(Expires: 30 min) 

__hssrc
Whenever HubSpot changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set to determine if the visitor has restarted their browser. If this cookie does not exist when HubSpot manages cookies, it is considered a new session.
(Expires: end of session) 

messagesUtk
This cookie is used to recognize visitors who chat via the messages tool. If a visitor leaves the site before your added as a contact, a cookie is associated with the browser. If you chat and return to https://onlinestudy.uclan.ac.uk/ in the same cookied browser, the messages tool will load the prior conversation history.
(Expires: 13 months)

Performance Cookies

Ads tracking 

Google Analytics: _utma, _utmb, _utmc,_utmz 
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.

You opt out of Goggle Analytics tracking tools by visiting here :https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/181881

Google Ads : <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js)

Google - Global site tag used by Google AdWords to record when a visitor has completed a desired action on the website such as fill out a lead form. It is also used to retarget users that visit the landing page but did not submit a lead form with display and search ads.

Duration 540 days

Microsoft Ads : <script>(function(w,d,t,r,u){var f,n,i;w[u]=w[u]||[],f=function(){var o={ti:"26009461"};o.q=w[u],w[u]=new UET

UET - Universal event tracking tag used by Microsoft Ads to record when a visitor has completed a desired action on the website such as fill out a lead form. It is also used to retarget users that visit the landing page but did not submit a lead form with search ads.

Duration 540 days

Facebook Ads: _fbp

This counts the number of times that an ad is shown and to calculate the cost of those ads. We also use cookies to measure how often people do things, such as make a purchase following an ad impression

Duration 90 days

fr

This is used to deliver, measure and improve the relevancy of ads, with a lifespan of 90 days.

Duration 90 Days

Social Sharing: atuvc & uid
This cookie is set by the social media sharing service AddThis. AddThis allows you to share content via Social Networking web sites and email.