Privacy & Cookies
Privacy Policy
Colfe’s policy is intended to provide information about how the School will use (or “process”) personal data about individuals including: its staff, its current, past and prospective pupils and their parents, carers or guardians (referred to in this policy as “parents”). Please click here to view the full policy.
Cookies Policy
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. This website makes use of cookies to monitor visitor sessions. No personal information is stored in the cookie that is issued by the site. The value stored in the cookie is an anonymous identifier, which is not linked to any other personal information you may give us during your visit. If you do not wish to receive these cookies you can disable them in your browser, though doing so may affect the functionality of our website. Most web browsers allow some control of cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
There are two types of cookie you may encounter when using our website:
First party cookies: these are our own cookies, controlled by us and used to provide information about usage of our site.
Third party cookies: these are cookies found in other companies’ internet tools, which we are using to enhance our site, for example Facebook or Twitter have their own cookies, which are controlled by them.
First party cookies
We may collect technical data about the type of Internet browser and computer operating system that you use, and also which pages you visit and interact with. This information does not identify you as an individual and is used only for tracking site use so that we can improve your experience on the site. We might also place a “cookie” on your hard drive that will help us to identify you when you return to the site and allow us to tailor content to your personal preferences. If you do not wish to use “cookies” you may disable this option in your Internet browser settings. “Cookies” can be removed from your computer. Colfe’s School uses Google Analytics to collect this type of data.
About the Google Analytics Cookies
Google Analytics sets first party cookies via a piece of JavaScript code which must be added to every page that site owners want to track. It sets four cookies automatically, and a fifth via opt-in (this relates to sharing information about your traffic with Google).
Globally and in the European Union member states Google sets the following cookies:
__utma Cookie
A persistent cookie – remains on a computer, unless it expires or the cookie cache is cleared. It tracks visitors. Metrics associated with the Google __utma cookie include: first visit (unique visit), last visit (returning visit). This also includes Days and Visits to purchase calculations which afford ecommerce websites with data intelligence around purchasing sales funnels.
__utmb Cookie & __utmc Cookie
These cookies work in tandem to calculate visit length. Google __utmb cookie demarks the exact arrival time, then Google __utmc registers the precise exit time of the user.
Because __utmb counts entrance visits, it is a session cookie, and expires at the end of the session, e.g. when the user leaves the page. A timestamp of 30 minutes must pass before Google cookie __utmc expires. Given__utmc cannot tell if a browser or website session ends. Therefore, if no new page view is recorded in 30 minutes the cookie is expired.
This is a standard ‘grace period’ in web analytics. Ominture and WebTrends among many others follow the same procedure.
__utmz Cookie
Cookie __utmz monitors the HTTP Referrer and notes where a visitor arrived from, with the referrer siloed into type (Search engine (organic or cpc), direct, social and unaccounted). From the HTTP Referrer the __utmz Cookie also registers, what keyword generated the visit plus geolocation data.
This cookie lasts six months. In tracking terms this Cookie is perhaps the most important as it will tell you about your traffic and help with conversion information such as what source / medium / keyword to attribute for a Goal Conversion.
__utmv Cookie
Google __utmv Cookie lasts “forever”. It is a persistant cookie. It is used for segmentation, data experimentation and the __utmv works hand in hand with the __utmz cookie to improve cookie targeting capabilities.
Third party cookies
Throughout our website we have links to third party social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, and we also use Vimeo as a video platform. Pages with this embedded content may present cookies from these websites over which Colfe’s School has no control. You should check the relevant third party website for more information about how these cookies are controlled.