Our cookie policy
Introduction
FutureLearn website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and allows us to improve our site. This document will inform you about how and why we use cookies. You’ll also find out which cookies we use and learn about third parties that place cookies on our website.
What is a cookie?
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device and help us make your experience better and more efficient. They help us recognise your device and browser, and store information we consider important for improving our services.
Types of cookies
Session Cookies and Persistent Cookies
- Session cookies are stored temporarily in the memory of your devices while you’re visiting the website and are erased once you close your browser.
- Persistent Cookies are stored for a predetermined amount of time, which varies from cookie to cookie. It’s longer than the session cookies; however, they also expire after a few months. They aid us in understanding whether you have previously visited our website or similar sites in the past.
First Party and Third Party Cookies
- First Party cookies are set directly by the website or by any of the subdomains of the website.
- Third Party cookies are set by websites not managed by us, such as our subprocessors or other technology partners.
How do we use cookies?
- Options for logging in that will authenticate you on the website, keep your login session active, and remember how you prefer to store your login information;
- Tabbed information that keeps track of the tab or specific part of the website you’re looking at;
- Regional content to deliver material specific to a region and keep track of time zone settings;
- Language preferences to choose and remember the language in which material is shown;
- The capability of the device to deliver various content depending on the browser device being used.
What cookies do we use?
Essential cookies
We may store cookies on your device if they are necessary to enable us to offer and provide our services. They’re also required for you to navigate through the website and web application and benefit from all the available functions. These cookies cannot be switched off and are set for very basic options on the website, such as logging in, forms and setting preferences, such as time zone or languages.
Analytical cookies
These cookies are placed to aid us in understanding how you interact with the available options on the website, which parts you use the most, and how you engage with our services. This helps us generate statistics on how the website is used and how much time you spend on it. These statistics will ultimately help us to improve our website and any services we offer on it.
Personalisation cookies
Personalisation cookies are a type of cookie used to personalise the user’s experience on a website or application. They’re designed to collect and store information about the user’s behaviour, preferences, and interests to provide a more tailored and relevant experience.
Marketing cookies
These cookies track your online activity to help advertisers deliver more relevant advertising or to limit how many times you see an ad. These cookies can share that information with other organisations or advertisers. These are persistent cookies and almost always of third-party provenance.
How to block cookies
You may stop or restrict the placement of cookies and other tracking technologies, such as pixel tags. You do this by blocking them on your device or by removing them and adjusting preferences on your browser. This may vary from device to device and from browser to browser. Please see the links below for guidance on how to modify your web browser’s settings on the most popular browsers:
Once you correctly block cookies on your browser, parts of the website may become unavailable to you or may otherwise not function properly.
How to opt out of third-party cookies and targeted ads
To opt out of tracking analytics placed by Google, you can opt out by using this form. This works for all websites that use Google’s services to track and gather analytics data.
To understand and responsibly manage cookies that enable interested-based ads we strongly recommend that you go to the website of the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) or to the website of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI).
To learn more, please visit https://youradchoices.com/. Many of our third-party service providers that serve interest-based advertisements to you across our services are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), or they follow the DAA’s Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising. You can choose to opt out directly from these third parties by visiting their opt-out pages on the NAI website (http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ ) and DAA website (http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ ). However, please note that if you “opt out” you will keep seeing links and online advertisements; however, they’ll not be specifically targeted to you or tailored to your interests.
Essential Cookies
Vendor: Osano
Description: Set by Osano, a consent management platform (CMP), to store a user's cookie consent preferences—such as accepted or denied categories (e.g., marketing). It ensures that the user's choices are respected across sessions.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Osano
Description: Used by Osano to store the expiration date of a user's consent, indicating when Osano should prompt the user again for consent. However, this cookie has been deprecated since October 2021. If still present, it gets converted during the next consent update.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Osano Inc
Description: Set by Osano to support its script and cookie discovery processes. It helps identify and classify cookies and scripts on a website to ensure proper consent management.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: –
Description: Used to track the origin of a user's visit to a website—such as the referring URL, campaign, or traffic source. Its purpose is to help site owners and marketers understand how users arrived at the site, enabling better attribution and analytics.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: DataDog
Description: Set by Datadog's Browser RUM SDK to test whether cookies are authorised in the user's browser. It is primarily used for internal diagnostics and debugging during SDK initialisation.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: DataDog
Description: Set by Datadog's Real User Monitoring (RUM) SDK to group all events from a unique user session across multiple pages. It stores the session ID, whether the session is excluded due to sampling, and the session expiration time.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: –
Description: Used in security-related contexts to assess whether a URL poses a potential risk—such as phishing, malware, or other threats. Its purpose is to support secure browsing by flagging or logging risky URLs during user interactions or automated scans.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Analytical Cookies
Vendor: Microsoft
Description: Set by Microsoft Clarity to store a unique user ID for tracking user behavior across sessions. It helps identify returning visitors, supports analytics without collecting personal data. This enhances website optimisation while maintaining user privacy.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Microsoft
Description: Set by Microsoft Clarity to connect multiple page views into a single session. It helps track user behaviour during a visit, enabling features like heatmaps and session recordings. The cookie does not store personal data and requires explicit user consent under privacy laws like GDPR.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google LLC
Description: Set by Google Analytics to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated client ID. It helps track user interactions across sessions for website analytics.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google LLC
Description: Set by Google Analytics to throttle request rates and limit data collection on high-traffic websites. It helps manage the volume of analytics data sent to Google servers.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google LLC
Description: Set by Google Analytics to distinguish users and track their behaviour across pages during a single session. It helps generate statistical data about website usage.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google LLC
Description: Set by Google Ads and Google Analytics to store campaign information about the user, such as the source, medium, and campaign name. It helps link conversions back to ad campaigns for accurate attribution.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google LLC
Description: Set by Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to store session-level data and uniquely identify users across different sessions and devices. It helps track user behavior, engagement, and traffic sources for analytics and marketing insights.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google
Description: Used by Google Analytics to identify the marketing campaign that referred traffic to a website. It helps track the effectiveness of specific campaigns by capturing parameters from URLs.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google
Description: Used to track the specific content a user interacted with in a marketing campaign—such as a particular ad or link variation. It helps measure the effectiveness of advertising efforts by identifying which content drives engagement.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: –
Description: Used to store the medium through which a user arrived at a website—such as email, social media, or paid search. It helps marketers identify and analyse traffic sources for campaign performance.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: –
Description: Used to store the search term or keyword a user entered before clicking on a campaign link. It helps marketers analyse which keywords are driving traffic and conversions. This cookie is typically set via UTM parameters in URLs.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Personalisation Cookies
Vendor: Pardot
Description: Set by Pardot (now Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) to store a visitor’s tracking consent preference. It records whether a user has opted in or out of tracking, using a true or false value.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Marketing Cookies
Vendor: Meta
Description: Set by Facebook to store the click ID from a user's last visit, helping track conversions from Facebook ads. It enables advertisers to measure campaign effectiveness by linking user actions to ad interactions.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Meta
Description: Set by Facebook to identify users for advertising and analytics purposes. It helps deliver personalised ads and track the effectiveness of Facebook campaigns. It does not store personal data directly, but works in conjunction with Facebook’s tracking systems.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google LLC
Description: Set by Google AdSense to store and track ad click information for conversion tracking. It helps advertisers understand how users interact with ads and whether those interactions lead to valuable actions.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Microsoft
Description: Set by Microsoft Bing Ads to store and track user visits across websites for advertising and marketing purposes. It helps determine which ads are relevant to users based on their browsing behaviour.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Microsoft Corporation
Descriptions: Set by Microsoft Ads to store a unique, anonymised visitor ID for tracking and personalising advertising across websites. It helps advertisers measure campaign performance and retarget users effectively.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: –
Description: Used to identify and track unique visitors to a website, often set by platforms like Pardot (Salesforce). It stores a unique ID to recognise returning users and personalise their experience.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google LLC
Description: Set by Google Ads to store information about ad clicks, helping link conversions back to specific ad interactions. It plays a key role in conversion tracking, allowing advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: Google
Description: Set by Google Ads as part of the Conversion Linker functionality. It stores information about ad clicks and helps associate conversions with the original ad interaction. This cookie is used to measure campaign performance and optimise ad targeting.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Vendor: LinkedIn
Description: Set by LinkedIn Insight Tag to store a first-party pseudonymous identifier that helps support conversion tracking. It acts as an additional signal alongside other cookies to link user actions back to LinkedIn ad interactions. This cookie is only applicable to traffic outside the EU, EEA, Quebec, and UK, and its expiration typically aligns with LinkedIn’s data retention policies.
State: Published
Disclosed: No
Changes to this Policy
More details on how we and/or other companies use cookies is available at www.cookiesandyou.com .
If you have any queries regarding this Cookie Policy please contact us, we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have about this Cookie Policy.