Cookie Statement

What are Cookies?

A cookie is a small text-based file placed on your device after you visit a website.

We use different types of cookies to:

  • Help us learn more about how people use our websites, so we can make our sites more useful
  • Deliver content that is meaningful to you while you are on our website
  • Deliver advertising about Ohio State to you after you leave our website
  • Discover if the links provided in our emails are useful to you
  • Transfer information you’ve selected from one page to another page you visit on our site
  • Operate the functionality of our website as planned
  • Conduct other similar or related activities

 

Types of cookies

First party cookies

These are cookies that Ohio State sets when you visit our website. We use these to make your experience on our website better and to ensure our website functions as expected. Only Ohio State can access this data.

 

Third party cookies

These are cookies from third parties that we place on our website. We use these to track our advertising effectiveness, improve advertising we may deliver to you after you leave our site and support your experience on our site. The third parties do have access to this data, often the pages you visited on our website and your location.

 

Session Cookies

A session cookie is temporarily stored in your browser on your computer, phone or other device. It is deleted after you leave the website or when you close the browser.

 

Persistent Cookies

A persistent cookie is stored in your browser on your computer, phone or other device.  It is active until you delete it or it expires.  

 

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are necessary for our website and services to work as you’d expect.

 

Performance cookies

We use these to ensure our site is working and fix errors. We also use these to try new ideas.

 

Functional cookies

These help us customize your site experience using your previous behavior and choices as our guide.

 

Targeting or Advertising cookies

We place advertising cookies on our site on behalf of third parties we work with. These send information about your behavior on our site to advertisers so we can provide Ohio State ads to you on other websites. Some third parties may pair this with your behaviors outside of the Ohio State website to further personalize the ads you receive. These are third party, persistent cookies. If you’ve already deployed an ad blocker on your browser, you will not receive these cookies.

 

Examples

Example of a first party, session cookie that is functional

You come to our site because you want to make a donation. You find an interesting fund and click a button to donate to that fund. When you go to the form to enter your information, the form contains the fund information you selected. A cookie allows us to take information from one page to the next so you don’t have to re-enter it.

Example of a third party, persistent cookie that is functional

You come to our website on Monday and spend time researching how to become a student. You leave our site and return later that week.  You see a box on the homepage that points you back to the application resources you were researching earlier in the week.

Example of a third party, persistent cookie that is functional

You come to our website on Monday and log-in to Buckeyelink from your desktop. You access resources on BuckeyeLink that are intended for faculty and staff. When you return to the Ohio State homepage later that week, you notice that you no longer see messages intended for prospective students, but instead news and information for faculty and staff.

Example of a third party, persistent cookie that is an advertising cookie

You are browsing our website and find information about attending an event. You aren’t sure you want to register yet, so you leave our site. Later that day, while you’re browsing Facebook, you see an ad about that event.  

 

Ways to Manage Cookies

Internet browsers have privacy settings where you may opt out of cookies across all the sites you visit. Visit your browsers’ help section to learn more. If you disable all cookies, the Ohio State site may not function as you expect.

 

Updates to Cookie Statement

If our cookie practices change, we will update our cookie statement.

If we make a material change, we’ll post the changes right here and notify you before we make the change.

 

 

Date: August 1, 2020

Ohio State Privacy Team
privacy@osu.edu