Use of cookies

What are cookies?

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) defines a cookie as “a small file of letters and numbers that is downloaded on to your computer when you visit a website. Cookies are used by many websites and can do a number of things e.g. remembering your preferences, recording what you have put in your shopping basket, and counting the number of people looking at a website”.

Current cookie legislation

On 26 May 2012, new European law relating to use of web cookies came into force in the UK that will affect most web sites. The rules on cookies are covered by The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 and ICO is responsible for enforcing these new rules.

The regulations also cover similar technologies for storing information, e.g. Flash cookies. The ICO and International Chamber of Commerce both provided guidance and advice on EU cookie directive and its implementation. Please refer to their detailed guides for more information:

General use of information collected, used and stored by Imperial College London (and NextCOMP project) is governed by Imperial College policies and is detailed specifically in our Privacy Notice.

Type of cookie used on NextCOMP website (Storage Preferences)

Essential cookies

These are required to enable basic website funcationality including formating. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Marketing cookies

These types of cookies are not used on nextcomp.ac.uk.

Personalisation cookies

These types of cookies are not used on nextcomp.ac.uk.

Analytics cookies

These contain a unique key that is able to distinguish individual users’ browsing habits or store a code that can be translated into a set of browsing habits or preferences using information stored elsewhere.

The NextCOMP website uses a 3rd party service, Google Analytics, who set cookies to collect information about website users and usage patterns – this information is helpful to plan and maintain the service. These cookies are not essential for providing the services your request from us and can be blocked. Google Analystics cookies are not active or implemented on viewing the NextCOMP website without consent being provided using the Osano Cookie Consent Banner.

The Google Analytics tracking tool uses a number of cookies to collect information and report website usage statistics and does so without personally identifying individual visitors to Google, NextCOMP, Imperial College London, University of Bristol, or trusted partners. If you wish to opt-out of Google Analytics tracking please visit and install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Google is responsible for the cookies that they place onto your device and have separate policy documents to highlight their use. More information on how Imperial College London (and NextCOMP project) uses Google Analytics and related services can be found in Imperial's privacy notice which is supplementary to our own privacy policy.

The Google Analytics cookies set when gtag.js (Google Analytics 4) is opted-in;

  • name: "_ga", 2 years expiration time, used to distinguish users,
  • name: "_gid", 24 hours expiration time, used to distinguish users,
  • name: "_ga_< container-id >", two years expiration time, used to persist session state.

Sharing information via social network sites

The NextCOMP website may have links embedded into pages to popular social networks like twitter.com, bbc.co.uk, flickr.com, facebook.com, youtube.com etc. Cookies generated by those sites are outside of the College’s, and NextCOMP's, control and may change without notice. When you share a page or link those sites may set cookies on your device or browser and can also make information about you publicly available or stored elsewhere. If you would like more information about privacy and the cookies used by these services, as well as information on how to opt-out, please visit their websites.

Clearing or restricting cookies

If you like keeping your browsing private, you may wish to clear history and cookies after the session. You can do so by using the browser, device settings, or 3rd party tools.

Contact us

For queries regarding privacy, use of cookies, or other information please contact us at info@nextcomp.ac.uk.

Last updated

This statement was prepared on 8 November 2021. It was last updated on 08 February 2022.