Privacy policy and cookies

For the purposes of this privacy notice, the University of York is the data controller as defined in the UK GDPR. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and our ICO entry can be found here. Our registration number is: Z4855807.

Thank you for using our guidance website. We do not ask you for any personal information when you use this website, but some information is automatically collected (e.g. usage data). The site also uses cookies and tracking technologies to improve your experience of using the site. We also use Google Analytics to analyse website usage. Find out more below.

Types of data collected

Usage data

Usage data is automatically collected when using the website. This includes information such as:

your device's Internet Protocol (IP) address
browser type and version
the pages of the website that you visit
the time and date of your visit
the time spent on pages
unique device identifiers
other diagnostic data

We may also collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit the website or when you access it by or through a mobile device.

Tracking technologies and cookies

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (e.g. beacons) to track activity on the website, store certain information, and improve and analyse the website. The technologies we use may include:

Cookies or browser cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on your device. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some parts of the website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our website may use them.
Web beacons. Certain sections of our website may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit us to, for example, count users who have visited those pages and for other related website statistics (e.g. recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).

Cookies can be "persistent" or "session" cookies. Persistent cookies remain on your personal computer or mobile device when you go offline. Session cookies are deleted as soon as you close your web browser. We use both session and persistent cookies for the purposes set out below.

Necessary / essential cookies

Essential cookies we set: none.

Cookies policy/notice acceptance cookies

Type: Persistent
Purpose: These cookies identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the website.
Notice acceptance cookies we set: -- Cookie to identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the website.

Functionality cookies

Type: Persistent
Purpose: These cookies allow us to remember your choices when you use the website. They help to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you use the website.
Functionality cookies we set: -- Cookie to keep track of your bookmarked pages. -- Cookie to keep track of your recently viewed pages. -- Cookies set by Google Analytics to anonymously track your journey through, and interactions with, our website (see below for more information).

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics on this website. Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our website. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualise and personalise the ads of its own advertising network. Data collected by Google Analytics may be kept indefinitely, however, this data is anonymised and is not personally identifiable. This data is stored securely on Google’s own systems and is subject to the terms and conditions of the Google Analytics service.

You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on (Google Analytics opt-out. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy and Terms web page (Google Analytics privacy policy).

Use of your personal data

We may use your personal data (e.g. from usage data) for the following purposes:

To provide and maintain our service, including to monitor the usage of the website.
For other purposes: e.g. data analysis, identifying usage trends, and to evaluate and improve our website and your experience.

We may share your personal information in the following situations:

With service providers: we may share your usage data with service providers to monitor and analyse the use of the website.

Retention of your personal data

We will retain your personal data (e.g. from usage data) only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy policy. We will retain and use your personal data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

We will retain your personal data (e.g. from usage data) for internal analysis purposes for up to 12 months, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our service, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Data collected by Google Analytics may be kept indefinitely, however, this data is anonymised and is not personally identifiable.

Transfer of your personal data

Your information, including personal data (e.g. usage data), may be processed by us, our hosting company and our website service providers. These servers may not be your country of location. This means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside your country, where the data protection laws may differ from those in your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this privacy policy followed by the collection of such usage data and tracking technologies represents your agreement to that transfer.

Links to other websites

This website contains links to other websites that are not operated by us. We advise you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

If you have requested to join our mailing list we keep details of your name, organisation, job title and email address for the purpose of sending you the requested newsletters. This data is stored on the MailJet system, which we use for sending newsletters. Mailjet is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant. You can unsubscribe using a link in the newsletters or by emailing assuring-autonomy@york.ac.uk.

Changes to this privacy policy

We may update our privacy policy occasionally. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new privacy policy on this page.

Last updated: 18 February 2022

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