Cookies and Privacy

Cookie and Privacy Policy

This page describes our policy for handling the personal information (also known as personal data) collected when you visit this website (c2ad.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk). The policy is limited to the information collected and used by the MRC CBU from visitors to this website. Other policies will apply to other types of personal data, for example data collected from participants in scientific studies, or from job applicants. Details of our policy regarding data collected from participants in scientific studies will be provided to participants by the researcher running that study.

What data does this site collect and how is it used?

In common with most web sites, this site automatically logs certain information about every request made of it. Further details of the information that is logged are included below. This information is used for system administration, for bug tracking, and for producing usage statistics. The logged information is currently retained for no longer than 1 year.

We may use and disclose logged information as necessary in the event of a security concern or incident, or to ensure the proper operation of the site. For example:

• Subsets of the data may be passed to third parties as part of investigations of computer misuse involving this site or of other equipment belonging to the MRC CBU or its parent organisation.
• Data may be passed to the administrators of other computer systems to enable investigation of problems affecting this site.
• Data may also be included in information passed to contractors and computer maintenance organisations working for the MRC CBU or its parent organisation, in which case it will be covered by appropriate non-disclosure agreements.

We also use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to monitor the way the site is used, for example to track the number of visitors to particular parts of the site or to track the geographic location of visitors to the site. Google Analytics have their own policies describing how they will use the information that is sent to them. Further details are available here and here. This site has requested that Google Analytics anonymise the information we send to them about visitors’ IP addresses. This means that it will be impossible to identify the records associated with individual visitors to this site from the data held by Google.

Otherwise the logged information will not be passed to any third party except as required by law. Summary statistics are extracted from this data and some of these may be made publicly available, but these will not include information which would allow individual visitors to the site to be identified.

The use of your personal information in the above ways is necessary for the legitimate interests of the MRC CBU in operating and improving its websites, analysing their use, and ensuring their security. Our websites collect very little personal information and we use it in ways that are compatible with your individual rights and freedoms. Where you enter your personal information into an online form on any of our websites for any specified purpose, you will be told how we will use that information (e.g. to send you newsletters or to enable your attendance at an event).

Logged data

The following data is automatically logged for each request:

• The name or network address of the computer making the request. Note that under some (but not all) circumstances it may be possible to infer from this the identity of the person making the request. Note also that the data recorded may be that of a web proxy rather than that of the originating client
• The username, when known, during authenticated (logged in) access to the site
• The date and time of connection
• The HTTP request, which contains the identification of the document requested
• The status code of the request (success or failure etc.)
• The number of data bytes sent in response
• The contents of the HTTP Referrer header supplied by the browser
• The content of the HTTP User-Agent header supplied by the browser

Logging of additional data may be enabled temporarily from time to time for specific purposes. In addition, the computers on which the web site is hosted keep records of attempts (authorised and unauthorised) to use them for purposes other than access to the web server. This data typically includes the date and time of the attempt, the service to which access was attempted, and the name or network address of the computer making the connection.

About cookies

Cookies are information packets sent by web servers to web browsers, and stored by the web browsers.

The information is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. This enables a web server to identify and track web browsers.

There are two main kinds of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are deleted from your computer when you close your browser, whereas persistent cookies remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until they reach their expiry date.

Cookies on our website

The following applies only to cookies that are set by this website itself. The site contains links to many other external sites that may set their own cookies. For information about the cookies set by these external sites, please consult the policies on those sites themselves.

This site uses Google Analytics tracking cookies to collect information about individual visitors, including the time your visit occurred, whether you have visited previously, how you were referred to our site, and which pages you visited. This information is used to compile reports about how people are using the site, and to help us improve the site. The cookies contain no personally identifiable information. This site has requested that Google Analytics anonymise the information we send to them about visitors’ IP addresses. The way in which the anonymization is done (replacing the last octet with a zero) means that it will still be possible identify where in the world you are accessing the Internet from.

 
Google stores the information collected by these cookies on servers in the United States. Google may 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. More information about the Google’s privacy policy is available here

 
This site also contains embedded content from twitter.com, who will set their own tracking cookies. The privacy policy describing the cookies set by twitter can be found here.

 
Should you wish to, the privacy settings on most modern web browsers will let you block third party tracking cookies. The method of doing so will vary between browsers, but instructions for specific browsers can usually be found by typing a query such as “name of browser block tracking cookie” into an internet search engine (where name of browser is the name of the browser you are using, for example, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc).

Further Information

For more information about your rights under data protection legislation, please see https://www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/general-data.