About our cookies
When you use our website, a number of cookies identified with our domain name (londonmet.ac.uk) are stored in your web browser. Previously, your consent as a user to have these cookies stored was assumed. The use of cookies in this way came under the terms of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (PECR) on 26 May 2011, although UK websites were given a period of twelve months to implement a response to the legislation. From 26 May 2012 therefore, to comply with the PECR regulations, we have to obtain your consent before cookies are set.
The PECR legislation identifies one type of cookie, which is described as "strictly necessary" for the operation of the website, for which your consent as a user is not required. By implication, all other cookies are not "strictly necessary," and your consent for these is required.
1. Cookies which are "strictly necessary"
The London Met website uses two cookies which are essential for its software (Coldfusion) to work properly: CFID and CFTOKEN. These are used as a pair to create a session ID for you, so that the system itself can identify you as a particular user, distinct from anyone else looking at our website. This information is not used or stored outside our systems. These cookies will also be set for non-Londonmet websites which are hosted by our content management system (eg: www.workinglives.org, www.intrweb.org).
| domain | name | validity | purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| londonmet.ac.uk | CFID | session | System - sessionID (with CFTOKEN) |
| londonmet.ac.uk | CFTOKEN | session | System - sessionID (with CFID) |
2. Other cookies
Use of our website will, at the moment, also result in a number of other cookies being set.
Google Analytics: When you first land on a page in our website, you are notified that the site will set Google Analytics cookies. These cookies are set and used by Google Analytics software, and all our webpages use them. We use Google Analytics to track how people use our website, and this helps us to make sure our content is relevant and up-to-date. We use a simple cookie called 'consent_google' which is set to either 'true' or 'false', to determine whether the Google Analytics tracking script appears in pages delivered to your browser. When the tracking script is be loaded, cookies with names beginning "__utm" are set by Google. The data they hold is sent to directly to Google. More information on this can be found at Google Privacy Center and Cookies & Google Analytics. If you want to opt out of Google Analytics, you should: (1) use the opt-out button below, to set the 'consent_google' cookie to 'false', and then (2) manually remove the existing Google Analytics cookies from your browser, using your browser options (see below).
Londonmet staff using a remote login can opt-out from within the remote access facility, rather than with the optout button above.
Google Analytics cookies:
| domain | name | validity | purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| londonmet.ac.uk | consent_google | 90 days | (true/false) - determines whether user has accepted or declined use of Google Analytics cookies. If set to true, utm cookies (below) will also be set by Google under our domain name. |
| londonmet.ac.uk | __utma | 2 years | Google Analytics - unique browser ID |
| londonmet.ac.uk | __utmb | 30 mins | Google Analytics - session ID (with __utmc) |
| londonmet.ac.uk | __utmc | session | Google Analytics - session ID (with __utmb) |
| londonmet.ac.uk | __utmv | 2 years | Google Analytics - visitor id |
| londonmet.ac.uk | __utmz | 6 months | Google Analytics - referral information |
Third party cookies: Google Analytics cookies aren't strictly 'third party' because they are set under our own domain name, 'londonmet.ac.uk'. Where other website applications (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) are included in our pages, these sites will usually install cookies in your browser, listed under their respective domain names. You might be able to opt out of receiving these altogether, depending on whether or not you web browser gives you the choice of accepting or blocking third party cookies. You will need to look in your browser settings to see if this is possible. Additional third party cookies are also set by inline advertisements.
Finding cookies in your browser
| PC | Mac |
|---|---|
| Firefox: Tools > Options > Privacy > Show Cookies... Chrome: Settings > Privacy > Content Settings > Cookies > All cookies and site data IE 8: Tools > Internet Options > General > Browsing history > Settings > View files (to see cookies and values). Tools > Internet Options > Privacy > Advanced (to override automatic cookie handling, accept/reject third party cookies, etc) |
Firefox: Preferences > Privacy > History > Use custom settings for history > Show cookies... Chrome: Settings > Under the Bonnet > Privacy > Content Settings > Cookies > All cookies and site data Safari: Preferences > Privacy > Cookies and other website data |
For more information on the new legistlation regarding cookies, see the Information Commisioner's Office guidelines (PDF).
For useful information on cookies, see AboutCookies.org
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