Cookies we use

Find out about the cookies we use and why we use them.

What are cookies?

A 'cookie' is a small text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device when you visit some websites. Cookies do lots of different jobs, such as letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and improving your experience of our website. They can’t harm your computer.

How we use cookies

The University of Sussex makes limited use of cookies while you are browsing the website. We generally only use session-based cookies, which are deleted when you close your browser. Our cookies are anonymous, containing no information that can identify you personally.

We do use some third-party widgets on the site, such as Google Analytics, Twitter and YouTube. These widgets may set cookies. However, the cookie information from each of these sites is usually anonymous, unless you are logged in to those third-party systems while you are on our site.

When you arrive on www.sussex.ac.uk, you can choose whether to accept or reject the use of non-essential cookies using the banner at the top of the page. We may also use some cookies that are not listed – these will contain no personal information about you.

You can opt out of or disable cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, although this means you might not be able to use the full functionality of our website.

We're working to prevent any unwanted cookies from being stored on users' devices unless they choose to accept, but there may be some we miss. We are also aware that some site sections and subdomains are still setting non-essential cookies and we are in the process of addressing these. If you find any services setting unwanted cookies, please contact us at dcm@sussex.ac.uk.

What cookies do we use?

  • Essential cookies

    There may be a number of cookies set via our website, depending on what part of our system you log in to. All of the following are considered essential cookies for the operation of the website and services staff and students log in to (such as Study Direct):

    NameLifePurpose
    PHPSESSID session Used by PHP to store the session ID (e.g. for Sussex Direct login)
    PastExamPaperSearchSID session Provides access to the Past Exam Papers search facility
    StudentdirectorySID session Provides access to the Student Directory lookup
    UUcm session Facilitate staff logging in to and using the Web Content Management system
    BroadcastUS session Facilitate staff logging in to and using the Broadcast system
  • Functionality cookies
    NameLifePurpose
    cookie_notice_status 365 days To facilitate display of the cookie notice banner
    cookie_choice 365 days To facilitate display of the cookie notice banner

    Google products

    This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc.

    Google Analytics uses cookies to help analyse how the website is used. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for us and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf.

    We also use separate Google products similar to Analytics. These are Optimize, which is used to carry out tests to improve user experience, Tag Manager, which tracks actions on our site, and Search Console, to analyse website performance.

    Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

    Twitter

    Parts of this website use Twitter feeds, a micro-blogging platform by Twitter, Inc.

    Twitter widgets may add third-party cookies – those not set directly by our site – to help analyse usage and remember your session if you are also logged in to the Twitter service. To that end, Twitter widgets may set all of the cookies that Google Analytics set and also:

    NameLifePurpose
    _twitter_sess session Remember your logged in Twitter session

    In addition, Twitter's Universal Website Tags allow us to specify actions you can take on our site (in the same way as AdWords Remarketing above).

    Read the Twitter Privacy Policy.

    YouTube

    Parts of this website contain embedded videos from YouTube. Where possible, we've set this to use YouTube's 'nocookie' domain so that it will not store any cookies.

    Read the YouTube Privacy Policy.

    Vimeo

    Parts of this website contain embedded videos from Vimeo. We have set these so that no cookies are stored, where possible.

    Further information:

  • Advertising cookies
    NameLifePurpose
    __utmz 182 days Stores where a visitor came from (search engine, search keyword, link)
    __utma 730 days Stores each user's amount of visits, and the time of the first visit, the previous visit, and the current visit (presumably partly for double checking of this information).
    __utmb less than a day Used to check approximately how long you stay on a site: when a visit starts, and approximately ends
    __utmc session based Same as __utmb
    __utmv 730 days Used for user-custom variables in Analytics

    This website uses Google Analytics Demographics and Interest reporting. Visitors can opt-out by using the Ads Settings.

    Visitors can also opt out using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

    Further information about Google products and cookies:

    DoubleClick

    Parts of this website use DoubleClick cookies.

    DoubleClick uses cookies to improve advertising. Some common applications are to target advertising based on what’s relevant to a user, to improve reporting on campaign performance and to avoid showing ads the user has already seen.

    DoubleClick Floodlight tags help us track conversions (where someone clicks on an advert) and your actions on our site once you've clicked on one of our adverts. These tags also compile lists of users for use in future marketing campaigns.

    Find out more about DoubleClick.

    AdWords Remarketing

    This is the technology we use to target audiences based on website behaviour across Google Search, the Google Display Network, Gmail and YouTube. It allows us to specify actions you can take on our website (such as viewing a category of page, watching a video or submitting a form) and then target advertising at either people who have completed these actions, have not completed these actions, or those whose demographic profile matches those who have completed a particular action.

    AdWords Remarketing is set up within JavaScript code on pages of our website. This code uses cookies to collect a user ID number and to collect, store and send other contextual information such as pages you have viewed, your device and the actions you've taken. Collecting personally-identifiable information (such as your name or email address), although possible, is forbidden by the AdWords terms of service and by data protection law.

    Facebook

    Parts of this website use Facebook cookies and pixels.

    Pixels are small blocks of code on webpages that do things like allow another server to measure viewing of a webpage and often are used in connection with cookies. Cookies and pixels are used to understand and deliver ads and make them more relevant to you. The user ID collected relates to your Facebook account and the data collected is used to advertise across Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. These pixels are also used to attribute website conversions back to advertising sources.The same privacy restrictions as AdWords Remarketing (above) apply.

    Further information can be found on the Facebook website.

    AppNexus

    Parts of this website use AppNexus cookies.

    AppNexus uses unique cookies to identify web browsers and to store data for advertising purposes, including interest-based advertising. AppNexus is designed to use only non-Personal Identifiable Information (PII), and AppNexus has contractual provisions that prohibit clients of the Platform from associating Platform cookies with PII. AppNexus uses cookies to associate non-PII with browsers and devices, so that clients can then use the information to select ads for delivery by the Platform.

    Further information can be found on the Appnexus website.

    Amazon Marketing Services

    The site uses cookies set by Amazon Marketing software. Amazon Marketing cookies are used to deliver targeted advertising based on your behaviour on the site. In addition to this, cookies are used to measure the results of advertising.

    These cookies will not be associated with personally identifiable information. Data is sent to the Amazon Marketing platform and is only accessible to authorised people.

    Read the Amazon Privacy Policy.

    LinkedIn

    We use a LinkedIn Insight Tag, through JavaScript, to analyse LinkedIn ad campaigns. We use it to track conversions, retarget website visitors and unlock additional insights about people interacting with our adverts.

    Bing

    We use a Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag to help track marketing campaign performance and conversions. We can retarget our search audience and track conversions.

    TikTok

    Parts of this website use TikTok cookies and Pixel.

    Cookies help the measurement, optimization and targeting of your campaigns. Performance is boosted when first and third party cookies are paired with Advanced Matching.

    Cookies save visitor's conversion events related to an advertising campaign. On the other hand, a session ID is generated on the advertiser’s site, which saves event information about a user's single visit, such as page views or conversions. Third-party cookies extend beyond individual sessions and collect campaign-related events across different sites and sessions.

    There are two types of cookies:

    • First-party cookies are created and owned by your website via the TikTok Pixel. This type of cookie can be enabled to use with your pixel.
    • Third-party cookies are created and owned by TikTok via TikTok's server. This type of cookie will always be on for your pixel.

    Further information can be found on the TikTok website.

    Snapchat

    Parts of this website use Snapchat cookies and Pixel.

    The Snap Pixel is a piece of JavaScript code that helps us measure the cross-device impact of our advertising campaigns. We will be able to see how many Snapchatters take action on our website after seeing our Ad. 

    HubSpot

    Parts of this website use HubSpot cookies. Some common uses are to target information, for example about research, events, and knowledge exchange, interest-based advertising and email marketing.

    HubSpot uses unique cookies to identify web browsers and to store data for such purposes, as well as for website analytics to help us better understand what information might be useful to individual users.

    These cookies will not be associated with personally identifiable information unless you opt-in during an optional email sign up or web form. Data is sent to the University Business School's HubSpot platform and is only accessible to authorised University of Sussex staff. All communications from the HubSpot platform contain an opt out/unsubscribe button so users can unsubscribe from further communications.

    Further information can be found on the HubSpot website.

    Other cookies

    We use this non-essential cookie to track users for analysis purposes.

    NameLifePurpose
    lastcampaign 365 days To track visits to marketing campaign pages for analytics

    We also use an agency called Anything is Possible to manage our advertising campaigns. These campaigns use cookies to monitor the effectiveness of our advertising.

Other sites

Sites linked to the University of Sussex that are not controlled by the central Digital Development team. These sites may set cookies and have their own cookie information pages.

Find out more

You can find out more about cookies on the Know Cookies website.

Alternatively, contact us if you have any other questions.