What are cookies?
Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information, often including a unique identifier, which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website – if your browser preferences allow it. Cookies are then accessed by the originating website on each subsequent visit. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device.
How are cookies used on the University of Birmingham | Conferences & events website?
The cookies we use on the University of Birmingham | Conferences & events website are there to allow you to perform the services you require and to assist us in providing a better website for our users. We do not use cookies to store information that identifies you as an individual. Details on cookies used are provided below.
We encourage you to accept the cookies we serve. However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our or any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. Please see How to control and delete cookies for more information.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics cookies to hold information about your visit to our site. This helps us better identify the use and popularity of our services and how successfully the website is functioning.
If you do not wish us to do this, you can opt out of the Analytics service by installing an add-on for your browser. This can be found at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Alternatively, you can delete/restrict the cookies as for any other cookie – see How to control and delete cookies for more information.
Types of Cookies
Session Cookies
Session cookies are created temporarily when a user visits a website. Once the user leaves the site/closes the browser, the session cookie is deleted.
Persistent Cookies
A persistent cookie file remains on the user’s device and is re-activated when the user visits the website that created that particular cookie. These cookies expire after a certain period (set in the file), or can be removed manually
| Name | Type | Description | Expiry |
| CookieControl | Necessary cookie | Retains cookie preferences | 1 year |
| __cf_bm | Necessary cookie | Cloudflare – Bot protection | 30 minutes |
| _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress | Analytics cookie | Hotjar – Used to detect the first pageview session of a user. | 30 minutes |
| _hjFirstSeen | Analytics cookie | Hotjar – Identifies a new user’s first session | 30 minutes |
| _hjIncludedInSessionSample_* | Analytics cookie | Hotjar – Determines if the current user is included in data sampling | 2 minutes (extended every 30 seconds) |
| _hjSessionUser_* | Analytics cookie | Hotjar – Assigns subsequent visits to the same user | 1 year |
| _hjSession_* | Analytics cookie | Hotjar – Holds current session data and ensures subsequent requests in the session window are attributed to the correct session | 30 minutes duration |
| _ga | Analytics cookie | Google Analytics | 2 years |
| _ga_ | Analytics cookie | Google Analytics | 2 years |
| _gid | Analytics cookie | Google Analytics | 24 hours |
| sbjs_current | Analytics cookie | Woocommerce – Sourcebuster traffic aquistion tracking | Session |
| sbjs_current_add | Analytics cookie | Woocommerce – Sourcebuster traffic aquistion tracking | Session |
| sbjs_first | Analytics cookie | Woocommerce – Sourcebuster traffic aquistion tracking | Session |
| sbjs_first_add | Analytics cookie | Woocommerce – Sourcebuster traffic aquistion tracking | Session |
| sbjs_migrations | Analytics cookie | Woocommerce – Sourcebuster traffic aquistion tracking | Session |
| sbjs_session | Analytics cookie | Woocommerce – Sourcebuster traffic aquistion tracking | Session |
| sbjs_udata | Analytics cookie | Woocommerce – Sourcebuster traffic aquistion tracking | Session |
| tk_lr | Analytics cookie | Jetpack analytics | 1 year |
| tk_or | Analytics cookie | Jetpack analytics | 1 year |
| tk_r3d | Analytics cookie | Jetpack analytics | 3 days |
Classification of Cookies
The cookies on this website have additionally been categorised based on the categories found in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) UK Cookie Guide.