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This cookies policy tells you what to expect when Storm uses cookies on this site.
- How we use cookies
- Strictly necessary cookies
- Preference cookies
- Performance cookies
- Third party cookies
- Advertising cookies
- Unclassified cookies
- How do I change my cookie settings
How we use cookies
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.
You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
The following tables list the cookies we use our website and explains why.
Strictly necessary cookies
Some cookies we place on your browser ensure that the website delivers you information and services securely and optimally.
You must accept these essential cookies to be able to make use of our online systems.
Session ID
Wikipedia page about Session IDs
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| UMB-XSRF-TOKEN, UMB-XSRF-V, UMB_UCONTEXT | Stores a GUID reference to the current logged in backend user. Randomly generated at login and stored in the database. | These are Umbraco backend specific cookies. They are only seen by site administrators accessing the back end of the website. They are used in maintaining the session state of the logged in user. | This expires at the end of your session. |
Load balancer
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| ARRAffinity | A unique identifier | Used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session. | This expires at the end of your session. |
Preference cookies
Preference cookies enable our website to remember what cookie preferences you have set.
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| CookiePreferences | A string for each preference set | Used to store information about a visitor’s cookie preference settings | After 1 year |
Performance cookies
We use a number of tools that monitor visitor behaviour on our website to help us improve our information and services.
Google Analytics
Google’s privacy policy</ br>
Opt out of Google Analytics
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| _ga, _dc_gtm_UA-401849-1, __gid | A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser, the times and dates that you interacted with the site recently and the marketing materials or referring pages that led you to the site. | Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google to help us see how our website is used. In doing so information about your use of our website, including your partial IP address, may be transmitted to Google and stored on servers in the United States. The data collected by Google Analytics is used to analyse how frequently the same people revisit the website, how the website is found (from advertising or referring websites), and which pages are most frequently viewed. This information is combined with data from thousands of other users to create an overall picture of website use, and is never identified individually or personally and is not linked to any other information we store about you. | The longest lasting cookie expires 2 years after your last visit to the website. Others are deleted 6 months, 24 hours, 30 minutes and the moment you close your browser. |
Microsoft Application Insights
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| ai_session, ai_user | A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser | We use Microsoft Application Insights software, which collects statistical usage and telemetry information for apps built on the Azure cloud platform. This is a unique anonymous session identifier cookie. | The longest lasting cookie expires after 1 year, the other expires on the same day. |
Mailchimp
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| MC_PLUMS_LOGIN MC_USER_INFO MC_USER_PROFILE OptanonAlertBoxClosed OptanonConsent TFA_REMEMBER _gcl_au _mcid optimizelyEndUserId _gat _AVESTA_ENVIRONMENT |
Unique identifiers that recognise when subscribers have opened an email or clicked certain links, and record each subscribers email address, IP address, date, and time associated with each open and click for a campaign. | Mailchimp is a email marketing system that we utilise to send our email newsletter and job alerts service. We use all data collected by Mailchimp to analyse and improve how our email campaigns performed and what actions subscribers took. These cookies are served from either mailchimp.com or stormid.us18.list-manage.com domains. | 1 month 1 month 1 month 1 year 1 year 2 weeks 2 months 1 year 6 months Session end Session end |
Third-party cookies
Some of our webpages use third-party services or software, such as maps, online videos or social networking features. Many of these services may set cookies on your device.
We will ask for consent for these cookies to be set, and you’ll need to accept these cookies if you wish to view the content.
Google API
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| ACCOUNT_CHOOSER, LSID, GAPS, SMSV, OTZ, 1P_JAR, NID, APISID, CONSENT, SSID, SIDCC, HSID, SID, SAPISID, NID, CONSENT, _ga, _gid | Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a Google account. | Google set a number of cookies on any page that includes a call to Google API services. While we have no control over the cookies set by Google, they appear to include a mixture of pieces of information to measure the usage of the Google API service, including information that links your visits to our website with your Google account if you are signed in to one. Information about your use of our website, including your IP address, may be transmitted to Google and stored on servers in the United States. This cookie does not identify you personally unless you are logged into Google, in which case it is linked to your Google account. | The longest lived of the cookies expire 10 years after your last visit to a page containing an API service call, although most expire sooner. |
YouTube
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| IDE, test_cookie, 1P_JAR, NID, GPS, PREF, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, YSC | Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a Google account. | Google set a number of cookies on any page that includes a YouTube video. While we have no control over the cookies set by Google, they appear to include a mixture of pieces of information to measure the number and behaviour of YouTube users, including information that links your visits to our website with your Google account if you are signed in to one. Information about your use of our website, including your IP address, may be transmitted to Google and stored on servers in the United States. This cookie does not identify you personally unless you are logged into Google, in which case it is linked to your Google account. | Most of the cookies expire 10 years after your last visit to a page containing a YouTube video, although some expire sooner. |
Disqus
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| __utmc, __utmb, intercom-id-x2byp8hg, __utmt, __utmz, _bti, _ga, G_ENABLED_IDPS, _gid, disqusauths, btIdentify, __utma, disqus_unique | Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a Google, Twitter, Facebook, or Disqus account. | Disqus set a number of cookies on any page that includes a Disqus enabled comments. While we have no control over the cookies set by Disqus, they appear to include a mixture of pieces of information to identify who is commenting, including information that links your comments with your Disqus or partner account. Information about your use of our website, including your IP address, may be transmitted to Disqus or their partners and stored on servers in the United States. | Most of the cookies expire 10 years after your last visit to a page containing a Disqus comments, although some expire sooner. One cookie is persistent. |
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| lang, _lipt, liap, _ga, __utma, bcookie, lidc | Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a LinkedIn account. | We use social sharing buttons on many webpages of our blog. The social sharing features for LinkedIn may set these cookies to track the content you are sharing. Information about your use of our website, including your IP address, may be transmitted to and stored on servers in the United States. | Most of the cookies expire 2 years after your last visit to a page containing a sharing functions, although some expire sooner. One cookie is persistent. |
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| xs, c_user, fr, act, presence, wd, sb, datr | Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a Facebook account. | We use social sharing buttons on many webpages of our blog. The social sharing features for Facebook may set these cookies to track the content you are sharing. Information about your use of our website, including your IP address, may be transmitted to Facebook and stored on servers in the United States. | Most of the cookies expire 3 months after your last visit to a page containing a sharing functions, although some expire sooner. Two cookies are persistent. |
Advertising cookies
We sometimes use tracking pixels that set cookies to assist with delivering online advertising.
Cookies are widely used in online advertising. Storm ID and our advertising partners can’t gain personally identifiable information from these cookies.
Learn more about online advertising
Remarketing cookies
We sometimes use tracking pixels to assist with our marketing and delivery of online advertising.
By better understanding what our audiences are interested in, we can more efficiently promote the University. For example if you have looked at certain pages on our website we might want to highlight our open days or give information about a particular course to you.
The technology to do this is made possible by cookies and as such we may place a ‘remarketing cookie’ during your visit. We are unable to proactively reach out to you personally as the process is anonymized, but you can opt out of these cookies at any time.
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| c_user, datr, fr, pl, presence, sb, wd, xs, act | Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a Facebook account. | We sometimes use Facebook to advertise our careers to users we think would be interested. Facebook set these cookies to help us to advertise to people who have looked at our careers website before, and also to help us understand how successful our advertising has been. If you do not log out of Facebook before you visit our site, Facebook may be able to identify you, although we can not. | Most of the cookies expire within a few days of your last visit, although one expires after three months, another after two years, and another persists. |
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| UserMatchHistory, BizoUserMatchHistory, BizoData, BizoID | Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a LinkedIn account. | We sometimes use LinkedIn to advertise our services and content to users we think would be interested. LinkedIn set these cookies to help us to advertise to people who have looked at our website before, and also to help us understand how successful our advertising has been. If you do not log out of LinkedIn before you visit our site, LinkedIn may be able to identify you, although we can not. | Most of the cookies expire within a six months of your last visit, the others after three months. |
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| SSID, SID, CONSENT, AID, HSID, APISID, SIDCC, 1P_JAR, NID, AID, UULE | Various unique identifiers, as well as login information that may relate to a Google account. | We sometimes use Google AdWords to advertise our services and content to users we think would be interested. Google set these cookies to help us to advertise to people who have looked at our website before, and also to help us understand how successful our advertising has been. If you do not log out of Google before you visit our site, Google may be able to identify you, although we can not. | Most of the cookies expire within a year of your last visit, the others after a shorter period, except one cookie, which persists. |
Disqus
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| permutive-session, permutive-id, usersync, icu, uuid2, sess, _psegs, anj, cpSess, xs, wd, fr, c_user, presence, datr, act, sb, 1P_JAR, APISID, SSID, SIDCC, SID, SAPISID, NID, HSID, CONSENT, btv3.pARbQDG, bt3, btv3.TYqishp, btv3.an, btv3.fXUHTN5, OTZ, __jid, io.narrative.guid.v2, s.rttrcnt, ssion, bku, bkdc, DSTJS, dextp, demdex, DST, dpm, did, nnls, pxrc, didts, rtn1-z, rlas3, zync-uuid, sd-session-id | Various unique identifiers. | Disqus is ad-supported, meaning that they set cookies on behalf of their advertising partners. Storm do not control which partners Disqus choose to set cookies on behalf of. These cookies typically link to an anonymous ID that collects information about the websites you visit to enable advertisers to better serve ads that are relevant to you. Information about your use of our website, including your IP address, may be transmitted to Disqus or their partners and stored on servers in the United States. | Most of the cookies expire 2 years after your last visit to a page containing a Disqus comments, although some expire sooner. One cookie is persistent. |
The tracking pixels we currently use are for Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Remarketing and Disqus.
How to control online ads from Facebook
How to opt out of online ads from LinkedIn
How to opt out of control preferences of Google Remarketing
How to opt out of online ads from Disqus
Opt out of advertising cookies
You can opt out of almost all advertising cookies by updating your preferences on the ‘Your Online Choices’ website. It is worth noting that opting out of advertising cookies won’t stop you seeing adverts, just that they won’t be tailored specifically to you.
Opt out of advertising cookies on Your Online Choices website
Unclassified cookies
Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of individual cookies.
Cookies are widely by third-party services and plug-ins. We are working hard to identify all the cookies used by plug-in services on our websites.
| Name | Data stored | Purpose | Expires |
| DSID, IDE, permutive-session, __gads, permutive-id, _psegs | A random unique number or string of letters and numbers to identify your browser | These cookies relate to DoubleClick, a common advertising platform. It is likely these cookies pass identify your browser to DoubleClick to help them identify some websites you are visiting. | The longest lived of these cookies is 20 months. |
How do I change my cookie settings?
Most web browsers allow some control of most 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.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.