Cookies policy
Structure and governance
Information about our use of cookies
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer or device. It gets stored if you agree to our Cookie’s policy when first visiting our website. Cookies contain information that is transferred to and from your computer's hard drive. First-party cookies are set by the port.ac.uk domain. Third-party cookies are set via the domain of a product partner. Each cookie includes a duration - this is how long the cookie will remain active on your computer. You can use your browser’s “clear history” tool to remove cookies before their expiration date.
We use the following cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies
These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASP.NET_SessionId | Session only | 1st | Used by our servers to create an anonymised user session |
| __RequestVerificationToken | Session only | 1st | An anti-forgery cookie set by web applications built using ASP.NET MVC technologies |
Functionality cookies
These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alert | Session only | 1st | Used to determine whether or not you have dismissed a homepage alert |
Tracking cookies
These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the below:
Google Analytics/Google Tag Manager/Google Signals tracking cookie
Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google. Google sets cookies to be able to identify unique users and sessions so that we are able to track behaviour and usage of visitors to our website. We use Google Tag Manager to help us load these tags and scripts on our website pages and Google Signals to track the behaviour of signed-in users across devices.
These cookies conform to Google’s privacy policy.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _dc_gtm_UA-265018-20 | 2 minutes | 1st | Associated with Google Tag Manager - a tool used for launching scripts and code on a web page |
| _gat_UA--265018-20 | 1 minute | 1st | Used to throttle the request rate |
| _ga_L13S650EX5 | 2 years | 1st | Used to enable Google Universal Analytics |
| _ga | 2 years | 1st | Used to enable Google Universal Analytics |
| _gid | 24 hours | 1st | A unique user ID used by Google Universal Analytics |
Hotjar Tracking cookie
Hotjar is a behaviour analytics and user feedback service that helps the University understand the behaviour of our website users and get their feedback through tools such as heatmaps, session recordings, and surveys. We use it to improve our website’s content and usability. Hotjar stores first-party cookies on your browser and these are set by the Hotjar script, or by visiting Hotjar's website. These cookies do not personally identify anyone. If you want to opt-out of being tracked by Hotjar, read how to do this here.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _hjid | 12 months | 1st | A unique user ID that enables Hotjar heatmaps, session recording and user feedback popups |
Advertising and re-marketing on third party websites tracking cookies and pixels
As part of our marketing activity, we place adverts on third party sites and use technologies to track and retarget traffic that these adverts generate to our website. This includes the use of:
- Snapchat
- YouTube
- Amazon
- DoubleClick
- Adwords
- Quora
- Oribi
To find out more about cookies, visit allaboutcookies.org.
You can opt out of cookie-based advertisements from many advertising platforms by visiting Your Online Choices and switching off behavioural advertising from the organisations of your choice.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _gcl_au | 3 months | 1st | Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services |
| oribi_user_guid | 12 months | 1st | A unique user ID used by Oribi |
| oribi_session | 24 hours | 1st | A unique session ID used by Oribi |
| _fbp | 3 months | 1st | Used to enable Facebook marketing products |
| MUID | 24 months | 3rd | A widely used tracking cookie set by Microsoft. Contains a unique user ID that can be used to track your movement between microsoft apps and services. |
| sc_at | 12 months | 3rd | Used to enable Snapchat marketing products |
| vuid | 2 years | 3rd | Used by Vimeo to provide analytics on video consumption |
| bridge_sid_XzExODU1MDE4NTk | 2 hours | 3rd | A unique user ID used by Oribi |
| bridge_uid_XzExODU1MDE4NTk | 1 minute | 3rd | Used to throttle Oribi request rates |
| tuuid | 12 months | 3rd | Used to optimise programmatic advertising |
| c | 12 months | 3rd | Unique ID associated with Admedo programmatic advertising |
| tuuid_lu | 12 months | 3rd | Used to optimise programmatic advertising |
Sitecore functionality, performance and analytics
Our website uses Sitecore cookies for the operation of our websites, for example, to enable you to move around the website and use its features, including giving you the right information and personalising your experience.
We have Sitecore cookies that enable us to anonymously analyse users’ activity on our sites so we can improve the way they work.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| _scid | 12 months | 1st | A unique user ID used by Sitecore |
| SC_ANALYTICS_GLOBAL_COOKIE | 10 years | 1st | Used to enable Sitecore Experience Analytics |
Additional cookie information
Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
Except for some essential cookies, all cookies will expire after 36 months at the most.
Additional miscellaneous cookies are listed below:
H5P
We use H5P for interactive quizzes, games and other content on our website.
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| XSRF-TOKEN | 7 days | 3rd | Used to enable H5P interactive widgets |
| h5pcomsession | 7 days | 3rd | Used to remember your H5P preferences |
| CloudFront-Created-At | Session only | 3rd | Used to ensure only verified users can access H5P widgets |
| CloudFront-Region | Session only | 3rd | Used to ensure only verified users can access H5P widgets |
| CloudFront-Policy | Session only | 3rd | Used to ensure only verified users can access H5P widgets |
| CloudFront-Signature | Session only | 3rd | Used to ensure only verified users can access H5P widgets |
VWO
VWO is used to help improve our users' experience by testing different types of content in-page for different users.
First-party Cookies in VWO
The list of First-party cookies is present in the following table.
|
Cookie name |
Cookie type |
Purpose |
Duration |
Applicable for product(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_ goal_{GOALID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created when a campaign goal is triggered. This cookie, when created, will always have a value of 1 |
100 Days |
Testing, Personalize |
|
_vis_opt_test_cookie |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_ combi |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights (Surveys) |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_ exclude |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created when a user has been excluded from a Test Campaign due to the traffic percentage specifications. The value is always 1 |
100 days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights (Surveys) |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID}_ split |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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) NOTE:This cookie is created only for Split URL campaigns.
|
100 days |
Testing |
|
_vis_opt_s |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
_vis_opt_out |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie indicates that the visitor should not be made part of any campaign. Its value is 1 |
10 years |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
_vwo_uuid |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie generates a unique id for every visitor and is used for thereport segmentationfeature in VWO, and it also allows you to view data in a more refined manner |
10 Years |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights, Engage |
|
_vwo_uuid_{CAMPAIGNID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created for each cross-domain campaign. It generates a unique id for every visitor and is used for thereport segmentationfeature in VWO, and it also allows you to view data in a more refined manner |
10 Years |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
_vwo_ds |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores persistent user-level data for VWO Insights |
Depends on the retention period of the account |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
_vwo_sn |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores session-level information |
30 mins and reset again to 30 mins on user activity |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
_vwo_uuid_v2 |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie calculates unique traffic on a website |
366 Days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID} _combi_choose |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
_vwo_referrer |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores referral info allowing VWO to identify the original Traffic source in case of the Split URL campaign NOTE:This cookie is created only for Split URL campaigns but can be read by all campaign types.
|
15 secs |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
_vwo |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Expires in 2096 Years
|
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
wingify_push_db_status |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the subscription sync status of the subscriber with VWO Engage’s Server |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingify_push_subscription _id |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the subscription ID to uniquely identify the subscriber generated by the browser |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingify_push_subscription _endpoint |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the subscription endpoint of the subscription object specific to the browser(Chrome/Firefox) |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
pushcrew_opt_out |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is used for opting-out |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingify_push_do_not_show _notification_popup |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Engage |
|
pshcrw_update_subId |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Engage |
|
wingify_push_subscription _status |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the information if the visitor is subscribed or unsubscribed to VWO Engage |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingify_push_subscriber _lang |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the subscriber's browser language |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingify_donot_track _actions |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie persists the information that subscriber actions should be tracked |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingify_do_not_show _chicklet |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is used to decide if the chicklet for opting to notifications should be shown or not |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
_wingify_pc_uuid |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the subscriber ID to uniquely identify the subscriber. VWO generates this randomly |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingifyEcomData-* |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is persisted when the subscriber becomes part of Shopify segments created through VWO Engage App |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingify_push_gcm_id |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the FCM ID of the customer to identify which FCM key was used for subscribing |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingifyRetrySegment-* |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is persisted when wingifySegment-* cookie cannot be synced with VWO Engage Server |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingifySegment-* |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is persisted only when the subscriber is part of a segment that the user creates from the VWO Engage App |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
pshcrw_v_k |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the public VAPID Key of the customer to identify which VAPID key was used for subscribing |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
_pc_fb
|
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores Facebook messenger-specific information. Page ID, Count of times the messenger opt-in was shown, and the state of FB Messenger subscription is stored |
10000 Days |
Engage |
|
wingify_push_subscriber _id |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores the subscriber ID to uniquely identify the subscriber. VWO generates this randomly |
10000 days |
Engage |
Third-party Cookies in VWO
The list of Third-party cookies is present in the following table.
|
Cookie Name |
Cookie Type |
Purpose |
Duration |
Applicable for Product(s) |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID} _goal_{GOALID}_{ACCID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created when a campaign goal is triggered. When created, this cookie always has a value of 1 |
100 Days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID} _combi_{ACCID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created when a visitor is chosen for a particular variation of a test. It ensures that visitors see the same variation when they revisit the page. Here the Control always has the value of 1, Variation #1 always has the value of 2, Variation #2 has the value of 3, and so on |
100 Days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID} _exclude_{ACCID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created when a visitor has been excluded from a campaign due to the traffic percentage specifications. The value of this cookie is always 1 |
100 days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID} _split_{ACCID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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. Using this, VWO verifies that the variation page corresponds to the chosen variation after landing on the page. The value will always be >=2 as it won’t be created in case the control is chosen |
100 days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
_vwo_uuid_{CAMPAIGNID} _{ACCID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created for each cross-domain campaign. It generates a unique id for every visitor and is used for thereport segmentationfeature in VWO. It also allows you to view data in a refined manner |
10 Years |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID} _combi_choose_{ACCID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
Cookies Created While Previewing or Viewing Heatmaps
The list of cookies created while previewing or viewing heatmaps is present in the following table.
|
Cookie Name |
Cookie Type |
Purpose |
Duration |
Applicable for Product(s) |
|
debug_vis_opt_exp_ {CAMPAIGNID}_goal _{GOALID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created when a Test Campaign goal is triggered. This cookie, when created, will always have a value of 1 |
100 Days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
debug_vis_opt_test _cookie |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, |
|
debug_vis_opt_exp _{CAMPAIGNID}_combi |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie is created when a visitor is chosen for a particular variation for a test. This cookie ensures that visitors see the same variation when they revisit the page in the future. Here the Control always has the value of 1, Variation #1 always has the value of 2, and Variation #2 has a value of 3, and so on |
100 Days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights (Surveys) |
|
debug_vis_opt_exp_ {CAMPAIGNID}_exclude |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, |
|
debug_vis_opt_exp_ {CAMPAIGNID}_split |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 if control is chosen |
100 days |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
|
debug_vwo_uuid |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie generates a unique id for every visitor and is used for thereport segmentationfeature in VWO, and it also allows you to view data in a more refined manner |
10 Years |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, |
|
debug_vwo_ds |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores persistent user-level data for VWO Insights |
Depends on the retention period of the account |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, |
|
debug_vwo_sn |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores session-level information |
30 mins and reset again to 30 mins on user activity |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
_vis_opt_exp_{CAMPAIGNID} _combi_choose_{ACCID} |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
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 |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, Insights |
|
debug_vwo_referrer |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie stores referral info allowing VWO to identify the original Traffic source in case of the Split URL campaign |
15 secs |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize, |
|
debug_vis_opt_variation _page |
Strictly Necessary Cookies |
This cookie persists the selection by the person using previews |
Expires on browser close |
Testing, Deploy, Personalize |
Admedo
| Cookie | Duration | 1st or 3rd party? | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| pool.admedo.com | 3 months | 3rd | The cookie is used by IDP Connect to record user behavior (such as the number (and types) of interactions by user) and share this information with our advertising partners |
Microsoft Clarity
Heatmaps are visual representations of how our users are engaging with our webpages and help us to prioritise the most important for our site visitors.
| Cookie | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| _click | 1 year | Used by Microsoft Clarity to identify the browser session while it happens. You can use Microsoft's Privacy Dashboard to see what data they hold. |
| _CLID | 1 year | Stored on Clarity domain and expires after 1 year |