Tracking Cookies For Your School Website

Securing your school website for GDPR and data privacy purposes is essential. Tracking users on your school website forms an integral part of this. In the following article we are going to outline exactly what cookies are, how tracking cookies for your school website can help and what new regulations have been put in place. We will also delve into the impact this has on your school’s website or multi academy trust, and most importantly, what changes (if any) are required on your school website.

Opening the Jar On Cookies

‘HTTP cookies’ or simply ‘cookies’, for most, are part of modern digital life. But do people actually know what they are and what they do? Ultimately, cookies are an essential part of the modern functionality of the internet and help developers provide you with more personalised website visits. Their ability to allow websites to remember you and your log-ins make cookies useful, but they can also be controversial and used by advertisers and potential cyber criminals to exploit your internet usage.

For some time privacy professionals have been investigating how best to deal with online security and privacy as you browse. As a result, the future of cookies is at risk (HTTP cookies luckily, not the chocolate kind). There is increasing talk about limiting profiling and behavioural advertising, however this poses a real problem for advertisers and marketers looking to navigate these parameters and has left many worrying whether they are compliant or not.

What is a Cookie?

We really appCookies are small blocks of data that a website places on a user’s device while they are browsing it. They are primarily used to serve critical website functions as well as to track, personalise and save information about a user’s website session.

There are two different types of cookies: essential cookies and non-essential cookies.

Essential cookies are required for a website to function properly. They store settings selected by a user on a website and cannot be deactivated by the user. Non-essential cookies can cover a range of operations that we have defined below.

• Performance and functionality cookies (gathering data for a website’s host)
• Web analytics and customisation cookies (for tracking activity and gathering data for platforms like Google Analytics)
• Advertising cookies (used to tailor a user’s ad experience on past browsing history)
• Social networking cookies (linking website activity with third party platforms)

Ultimately, HTTP cookies are a rather technical beast and a lot less enjoyable than their chocolate counterparts. If you have a particular interest in the technical information relating to them, this depository from the Information Commissioner’s Office is extremely helpful. 

By now, you may be wondering exactly where schools come into this? Let us explain below.

Cookies & Schools

Schools will be all too familiar with GDPR legislation. At present they must ensure that they have the correct policies and processes in place to remain GDPR compliant, protect personal data and be able to respond to any data breaches. They will also be aware of how critical it is to ensure they remain compliant – as they are so visible in the public eye. If anything were to be flagged, go wrong, or be non-compliant, they would be an obvious target for a complaint.

Now back to cookies… Cookies play a role in making sure your website remains GDPR compliant. Schools need to ensure they are being clear with website users about how they will use their data and need to obtain consent in the right way to remain GDPR compliant. So, how is it best to achieve this?

Firstly, you need to make sure website visitors are informed of the cookies that are active on your site in a way that they will see when they first visit your site. The most common way of achieving this is via a pop-up banner that is usually located at the bottom of the screen or sometimes in the centre as you arrive on the site. The banner will ask you to confirm your cookie preferences and ultimately if you want to allow cookies to be used or opt out by managing your preferences.

The final part of ensuring compliance is making sure you provide detailed information for the user about the cookies being used on your school website. This will include data being captured and the types of cookies that are in place. Typically in the pop-up form there will be a link to a page on your website such as the cookie policy or privacy policy that will give the user this more detailed information.

An Example Of A School Website Cookie Policy

An example of how cookies can be captured in a compliant way can be seen in a project we undertook for Haringey Sixth Form when designing their new school website. As shown below, when a user first arrives on the site the school website is ever so slightly faded. This draws attention to the cookie preference banner in the bottom left of the screen. This encourages users to read the cookie policy and provides a clear call to action so they can signify whether they would like to accept that cookies are used. The small banner is deliberately designed to be on-brand and also provides functionality to send users to the school’s cookie policy.

Example of a School Website Cookie Policy

How can Cleverbox help?

As the UK’s leader in school website design , marketing and branding for schools, we are well-versed in the requirements that schools must remain compliant with. We have 25+ years of experience working within the education sector and have partnered with thousands of schools to deliver powerful and impactful projects that adhere to the various policies and requirements of the education sector. Discover our school website design portfolio, school prospectuses portfolio, branding in education, school logos, school signage and more.

This Cookie Usage Policy below explains the way in which our clients’ websites use cookies as standard.

Have a question for one of our experts? Or maybe it’s time to explore a new website for your school? To learn about how we might be able to work with you and your school, get in touch today.