Policies | Privacy and Cookies Statement | Information Systems & Services
DCU Privacy and Cookies Statement
For more information you can also visit DCU's Data Protection Unit site
General statement
Dublin City University fully respects your right to privacy, and will not collect any personal information about you on this website without your consent. Any personal information which you volunteer to the University will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, in accordance with the Data Protection Acts, 1988 & 2018.
Website visits
When someone visits www.dcu.ie we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. Some of the above information is used to create summary statistics, which allow us to assess the number of visitors to our site; identify what pages are visited most frequently and, ultimately, make the site more user friendly.
- We do not attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website
- We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source
- If we do intend to collect personal information we will make it clear and will explain what we intend to do with it
Certain pages on this site provide an option to request further information by email, or to provide feedback online. This information will only be recorded if you choose to send us a message and will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided it.
Use of Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
The majority of the cookies used on the DCU website are associated with the use of Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses code, provided by Google, to collect information about how visitors use our site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form that does not identify an individual. They provide information regarding the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. We use this information to compile reports and to help us improve the way our website works, for example by making sure users are finding what they need easily.
The remaining cookies are DCU generated cookies and are used to customise the content provided to you. Should you decide to disable cookies at any time, some functionality of our website may be impaired.
The following are a list of cookies used on our website. It is not comprehensive as cookies can change from time to time for example to stop a message being shown to a user who has already viewed it:
| Cookie Name | Placed By | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| __utma | Google Analytics | Usage Statistics - Identifies Unique Visitors | 2 years |
| __utmb | Google Analytics | Usage Statistics - Visitor Session | 30 minutes |
| __utmc | Google Analytics | Usage Statistics - Visitor Session | End of Session (deprecated) |
| __utmv | Google Analytics | Usage Statistics - Custom Variables | 2 years |
| __utmz | Google Analytics | Usage Statistics - Traffic Sources & Navigation | 6 months |
| template_style | DCU Website | This cookie is used in determining which DCU website template to displayed | End of Session |
| has_js | Drupal (DCU’s Web Content Management System) | This cookie records whether the user has javascript enabled which can help the site present information appropriately. | End of Session. |
| accept_cookies | DCU site cookie acceptance. | This cookie is used to record if a user has accepted the use of cookies on the DCU website. | To withdraw your consent after accepting this cookie, delete the accept cookies cookie. Details on how to manage cookies can be found here. |
Links to more Information:
- More information on Google’s Privacy Policy
- How Google Analytics uses Cookies
- To opt out of tracking by Google Analytics
Links to other websites
This privacy statement does not cover the links within this site linking to other websites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit.