A website cookie is a piece of text that a web server can store on a user's system for later retrieval. For example, a web site might generate a unique ID number for each visitor and store the ID number on each user's machine using a cookie file.
Your web browser will have options to show you all the cookies stored and will allow you to delete some/all of them as you wish.
Cookies may be
- fundamentally necessary for the delivery of the web service you are using, e.g. enable tracking of items in an online shopping basket or to enable session tracking for a service that you log in to,
- may be necessary to benefit from the full functionality of the service, but not essential for some level of service,
- may be for the benefit of the service provider or to allow the service provider to better understand its users and hence provide a better service, e.g. analytical tools so a site can produce statistics on the types of users it has or the sections of its site that are most popular
but could equally be for a wide range of other purposes.
This page aims to outline where and why cookies are used on web services provided by the Mathematical Institute.
Cookies set by this website
- Drupal (SESS...) - this temporary session cookie is set by the departmental website system (which uses the Drupal content management system). This cookie is deleted as soon as you close your browser. In June 2012, European data protection authorities (as part of the Article 29 Working Party) adopted an opinion which clarifies that this type of cookie might be exempt from the requirement to gain consent.
- Google Analytics (__utma, __umtb, __utmc, __utmv, __utmz) - these cookies are created by the departmental sites for use with google analytics. The cookies record information about the first visit to the site, the last visit to the site, the number of visits to the site, duration of site visits, the link or search terms used to get to the site.