Website Cookie Policy

WBS Website Cookie Policy

1. What is a cookie?

Most websites use cookies to remember information about you and your preferences, either for the duration of your visit or for repeat visits. A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website, that website can then retrieve the contents of that cookie when required whether that be during the visit or on subsequent visits.

If we didn't use cookies, our website would think you are a new visitor every time you move to a new page on the site. For example, if you were to enter your login details and then move to another page, our site wouldn't be able to remember that you'd previously signed in.

There are two types of cookies - session cookies and persistent cookies. A cookie without an expiration date, is a session cookie. Session cookies are stored in memory and are not written to disk. When the browser is closed, the cookie is permanently lost. Persistent cookies contain an expiration date. On the date specified in the expiration, the cookie will be removed from the disk. These cookies may be set by our website ('first party cookies') or by other websites which provide content on the page you are viewing ('third party cookies').

2. Do we just use cookies?

No, in addition to cookies we use - Web beacons, such as clear GIFs, web bugs, or pixel tags, are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, are used to track the online movements of our users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user's computer hard drive, web beacons are embedded invisibly on web pages and are about the size of the full stop at the end of this sentence. Web beacons are used in combination with cookies to help us and our advertisers understand the behaviour of our users.

3. How does Warwick Business School use the information we collect?

Strictly Necessary

Essential for the website to function. These cookies enable core features such as security, session management, network management and accessibility. You cannot opt out of these cookies as the site would not work properly without them. They do not store any personally identifiable information.

Analytics & Performance

We use analytics cookies to measure how visitors use our website, understand which pages are most popular, how visitors navigate the site, and to identify areas for improvement. These cookies help us analyse site usage, understand our audiences, and improve our content and services. Under the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework, these map to Purposes 5 (content measurement), 6 (audience insights), 8 (content performance), 9 (audience research) and 10 (product development).

We use technologies such as Google Analytics, Mouseflow and Hotjar to gather this information. Should you wish to opt out of Google Analytics you can use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Advertising & Marketing

We use marketing cookies to select and deliver advertisements, create advertising profiles, measure advertisement performance, and apply market research to generate audience insights. Under the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework, these map to Purposes 2 (basic ad selection), 3 (ad profiling), 4 (personalised ads) and 7 (ad performance measurement).

We use pixel tags and cookies from services including Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads, DoubleClick, The Trade Desk, Xandr, ShareThis and Dotdigital. These tags help us understand the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns and enable campaign performance comparison across platforms. Some of these services may receive information when you visit our website, including device information and activity data, whether or not you have an account with them.

We also use interest-based advertising (remarketing) to serve adverts to visitors who have previously visited our website. Our adverts appear across the Google Display Network, triggered by cookies added to your browser. The data collected is non-personally identifiable information based on cookie information and browsing history.

We don't sell the information collected, nor do we disclose the information to third parties, except where required by law (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies).

4. Cookies we use

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Analytics & Performance Cookies

These cookies collect information about how visitors use our website, for instance how visitors arrive on our site, which pages they visit most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don't collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how our website works.

The University's Data Protection webpages provide further information on your rights and how the University processes personal data. If you wish to submit a data subjects rights request, make a complaint or report a suspected personal data breach, please contact the University's Data Protection Officer by email at infocompliance@warwick.ac.uk.

Advertising & Marketing Cookies

These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. Marketing cookies track your online activity to help advertisers deliver more relevant advertising or to limit how many times you see an advertisement. These cookies can share that information with other organisations or advertisers.

If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Additional Marketing Technologies

Email Campaign Tracking (Dotdigital): Our marketing emails may contain tracking pixels and unique web beacons to tell us whether emails are opened and verify clicks through to links within the email. We use Dotdigital site tracking which tracks your browsing activity on our website pages after clicking through from an email campaign.

Interest-Based Advertising (Remarketing): We use remarketing cookies to serve our adverts to visitors who have previously loaded pages on our website. Our adverts appear across the Google Display Network and Microsoft Media Network, triggered by cookies added to your browser upon loading certain pages. The data we collect is non-personally identifiable information based on cookie information and browsing history. Membership duration can be up to 365 days or until the cookie is manually deleted.

Social Media Pixels: We use pixel tags from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. These tags help us understand the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns and enable us to compare campaign performance across different platforms. The tags also allow social media sites to receive information when you visit our website, including device information and activity data, whether or not you have an account with them or are logged in.

5. What to do if you don't want cookies to be set

When you first visit our website, a consent banner will appear giving you the option to Accept All, Reject All, or Manage Preferences. If you click Reject All, only strictly necessary cookies will be set. You can change your preferences at any time by clicking the "Cookies Preferences" link in the footer of this website.

You can also delete cookies that have already been set by opening the cookie preferences panel and rejecting non-essential cookies.

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how.

For Google Analytics cookies, Google provide a Google Analytics opt-out tool which allows you to specify that you don't want to accept their cookies, not just for our site, but for all sites which use Google Analytics.