Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website without storing any personally identifiable information about you.

Last updated 20 September 2019

Our website uses cookies to differentiate between distinct users who access it. A cookie is a small alpha-numeric archive which is stored on the hard drive or in the browser of a computer, tablet, smartphone or similar device when it browses the internet. Cookies allow us to offer relevant information on our products and services and to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website.

The majority of the cookies we use are of the analytic type, which count number of users, help us to understand how they navigate our site and improve the way it works, for instance by making search results more accurate.

None of our cookies store any personal information such as your name or address. Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of the British Council website(s).

What kind of cookies do we use?

According to the type of organisation which administers them:

• First party cookies: reside on British Council domains.
• Third party cookies: installed by websites which don’t belong to us and do not reside on British Council domains. For instance, where we include content from YouTube, a user accessing such content from our own website may have cookies added from these third parties. The British Council doesn’t control these third party cookies and so the user must review the cookie policies of these other websites for further information.

According to the length of time they remain active in the user’s system:

• Session cookies: collect and store data only whilst the user is visiting the website.
• Persistent cookies: remain stored in a computer and may be accessed and managed by the organisation responsible for the cookie for a specific length of time, or until the user deletes it.

According to the purpose for which data are collected through the cookies:

• Technical cookies: allow the user to make use of the different options they facilitate: for example controlling data traffic and communication, identifying a session, accessing restricted areas, carrying out a purchase, requesting a subscription or participating in an event etc.
• Analytical cookies: allow website managers to follow and analyse the behaviour of users on a website so that they can make improvements informed by data analysis on the use of the website by users of its services.

The following information details the type of cookies that we use on our website along with their purpose:

First party cookies

Cookies placed on a British Council domain.

• Cookie source: Akami. Cookie name: AKA_ - A first party cookie used to manage the Advanced Acceleration feature, which enables DNS Prefetch and HTTP2 Push to improve performance. The cookie expires after an hour.
• Cookie source: British Council. Cookie name: www-britishcouncil-....-eu-cookie - A first party British Council cookie set by this site to record that a notice has been shown to site users stating the British Council's cookie policy. The cookie expires after three months.
• Cookie source: British Council. Cookie name: has_js - A first party cookie used by this site to detect whether javascript is enabled in order to provide a richer user experience using AJAX. The cookie expires after the session ends.
• Cookie source: Google Adsense. Cookie name: _gcl_au - First party cookie used by Google AdSense for advertisement across websites using their services.
• Cookie source: Google Analytics. Cookie name: _ga, _gid, _dc_gtm_UA...._gat_ua... - First party cookies. We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. on some of our websites to count visitors to our websites and analyse their usage of the site to help us determine the value of our content to our users. The cookies' expiration date varies, some expire after the session ends, others after two years.
• Cookie source: My Research. Cookie name: workmatrix - First party cookies used by the site to save your research to the My Research area of the site. The cookie expires after the session ends.
• Cookie source: Optimizely. Cookie name: OptimizelyBuckets, OptimizelyEndUserId, OptimizelySegments, optimizelyPendingLogEvents - First party cookies set by Optimizely on some of our websites to enable the British Council to display alternate content or presentations to users based on device type, previous interactions or randomly. This is used to test new designs and approaches to improve the experience for our users. The cookies expire after ten years.
• Cookie source: Qualaroo. Cookie name: ki_r, ki_t - First party cookie set by Qualaroo on some of our websites to enable our users to optionally partake in surveys on the site. The cookie expires after five years.

Third party cookies

Cookies placed on a third party domain.

• Cookie source: Atlas Solutions. Cookie name: AA0.., ATN - Third party cookies set by Atlas Solutions and used on some of our websites to manage offsite advertising. The cookies expire after two years.
• Cookie source: Bing. Cookie name: MUIDB, MUID - Third party cookies set by Bing to identify and measure how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting this site. The cookies expire after one year.
• Cookie source: The Guardian. Cookie name: bwid, vsid, _gat_allEditorialPropertyTracker - Third party cookies to enable the embedding of The Guardian video player. The cookies expire after one year.
• Cookie source: Scorecard Research. Cookie name: UID, UIDR, sc_anonymous_id - Third party cookies to measure the number and behaviour of website visitors. The cookies expire after two years.
• Cookie source: Soundcloud. Cookie name: sc_anonymous_id - Third party cookie to enable the embedding of Soundcloud video player. The cookie expires after up to ten years.
• Cookie source: Twitter. Cookie name: lang - Third party cookie which sets the Twitter advert language to your language preference. The cookie expires after the session ends.
• Cookie source: YouTube. Cookie name: Visitor_Info_1_live, APISID, CONSENT, HSID, LOGIN_INFO, PREF, SAPISID, SID, SSID, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE, YSC, GPS - Third party cookies. Cookies are used by a third party, YouTube, to enable our users view Video on the website. The cookies' expiration date varies, some expire after the session ends, others after twenty years.
• Cookie source: Vimeo. Cookie name: vuid - Third party cookie to enable the embedding of Vimeo video player. The cookie expires after two years.

Turning off cookies

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. Below are links to the 'Help' pages of major browsers which explain how you can do this. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site or any other websites that you visit.

Internet Explorer | Firefox | Chrome | Safari (macOS) | Opera | Safari iOS

You can opt out of Optimizely variant testing by following these instructions.