Introduction
This page explains how and why we collect, and use, your personal information when you visit the University of Cambridge’s admissions website (www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk).
Who will process my personal information?
When you view or use www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk, the University of Cambridge (‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘the University’) is the data controller.
This notice applies to the use of your personal information (also known as ‘personal data’) by the University of Cambridge, including its Departments, Faculties, Institutes and Research Centres/Units. Each of the 31 Colleges of the University is a separate legal entity for these purposes and each College's website will supply you with its own information.
If you follow a link from this website to another site, we recommend that you read the privacy policy on that website to find out what it does with your information.
What personal information is collected and why?
For site security and performance
When you visit our website, we use cookies and page-tagging techniques to collect the request made by your browser to the server hosting the website. This includes your IP address, the date and time of connection, the version of the web browser you are using, and the page you ask for. We use this information to ensure the security of our websites and we delete it after a maximum of three months. We may need to use and disclose it as necessary in the event of a security concern or incident.
To allow you to use additional functionality
On our pages for international students, we use the third-party Unibuddy service to allow you to chat to our student ambassadors. When you use the 'Chat with our students' feature, Unibuddy will use cookies to establish a secure connection to your device, to remember your chat preferences and to enable the service.
Should you use one of our forms to register an interest in, or sign up for, pre-admissions events, activities or updates, your personal information will be processed for the purposes of fulfilling your request. See further details about how we will use personal information collected for the performance of tasks we carry out in the public interest.
To improve our service to you
When you visit our website, we use the third-party Google Analytics service to collect standard internet log information, which includes your IP address. We do this to find out how visitors use our website and to improve its usability. The data is anonymised before it is stored and before we see or use it for analytics processing. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our site. If you have changed your web browser settings to reject cookies we will not collect analytics data. For more information about how Google Analytics uses this information, please see the Google privacy policy.
At times, we use a third-party service, Qualtrics, to gather answers to survey questions that we may ask about how you use our website. We collect your IP address if you submit a response, or if you do not wish to reply and ask us not to ask you again. For more information about how Qualtrics uses your personal information, please see Qualtrics’ privacy statement.
At times, we use a third-party service, Crazy Egg, to identify which parts of our website are not working well for our users. We use Crazy Egg to run split tests at scale on different ways of displaying information on our website and to review in aggregate whether there are areas on web pages that are not required by our users. Crazy Egg may use your browser's local and session storage, or place cookies on your device, to enable this functionality. We use your IP address but no other personally identifiable information. For more information about how Crazy Egg uses your personal information, please see Crazy Egg's cookie notice.
To remember marketing preferences
Third-party services that we embed on some of our webpages – such as YouTube videos – may set cookies to measure how you use their services and record what advertising you see during your use of their service when you play the embedded media.
We may use tracking pixels provided by social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram and TikTok – to measure how many people who use those platforms subsequently visit our admissions websites. This helps to reduce the University's social media advertising costs by allowing us to show ads only to those users for whom they would be most relevant. This will only happen if you opt-in to receiving ‘Social marketing preferences’ cookies.
What should you expect to happen with the information?
We are committed to respecting the information you trust us with and to making sure that we keep it safe. Our websites collect very little personal information and we use it in ways that are compatible with your individual rights and freedoms.
The use of your personal information in the ways described above is necessary for the legitimate interests of the University in operating and improving its websites, analysing their use and ensuring their security, or is carried out with your consent when you accept certain cookies.
Where we do need to collect any additional personal data not listed above via our website, you will be told at that time about the use we will make of that information. For example, you may need to complete an online form in order for us to send you newsletters or to book to attend a University event.
Our services are not designed for, or intentionally targeted at, children 13 years of age or younger. We do not intentionally collect or maintain data about anyone under the age of 13.
Transferring your information outside the United Kingdom or European Economic Area (EEA)
We may need to transfer your personal information outside of the UK or EEA in order to provide you with the services and products you require or as necessary for our legitimate interests. This will most likely occur when our third-party providers are based outside the EEA. Any such transfers are carried out with appropriate safeguards in place to ensure the confidentiality and security of your personal information.
How do I get further information?
For full details of how we use cookies on our website, including those that do not collect personal data, please see our cookie notice.
For more information about how we handle your personal information, for contact details and to understand your rights under data protection legislation, please see our general data protection notice.
Page last updated: 11 May 2022