What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device that allow us to collect certain information whenever you visit our website or interact with our services. They are used in order to make our websites work properly or more efficiently, as well as recognize you when you return to a website later.
How We Use Cookies
George Mason and authorized third-party service providers collect information about users’ activities and experiences while visiting a George Mason website. Examples of tools that collect such information include but are not exclusive to: browser cookies, web beacons, flash cookies, tracking pixels, and similar technologies.
We use cookies to recognize new visitors to George Mason websites, recognize past users, better understand the interests of users and website visitors, and improve the website to enhance the visitor experience. Cookies and other tracking technologies may be used to collect personal data, or collect information that becomes personal data if combined with other information. The information gathered may include demographic data, browser type, pages visited, the day and time of visit. The only personal data that may be collected is IP address. George Mason takes data privacy seriously and is committed to protecting your personal data appropriately.
Types of Cookies
Some cookies are required for technical reasons to allow our websites to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” cookies. Other cookies enable us and the third parties we work with to track and target the interests of visitors to our website, and we refer to these as “performance” or “functionality” cookies. Third parties also use cookies through our website for advertising, analytics, and other purposes.
- Essential Cookies: Used strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features, such as accessing secure areas. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver services, you cannot refuse them without affecting how our website functions.
- Performance and Functionality Cookies: Used to enhance the performance and functionality of our website but are non-essential to its use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality may become unavailable.
- Analytics and Customization Cookies: Used to collect information that is used to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are. They can help us customize our website for you in order to enhance your experience.
- Advertising (Targeting) Cookies: Used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They also perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.
Marketing Technologies
George Mason and our third-party partners may use technologies such as web beacons, pixels (or “clear gifs”) and other marketing technologies. These tiny graphics files containing unique identifiers that enable us to recognize when someone has visited our website, or opened an email that we have sent. This allows us, for example, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our website to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have reached our website from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to serve targeted advertisements to you and others like you, to improve site performance, and to measure the success of marketing campaigns.
Managing Cookies
Most web browsers you the ability to control cookies through the browser settings. For more information about how to reject, disable or delete cookies, please review your browser’s help menu. To learn more, refer to the support instructions for each browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Internet Explorer). If you choose to reject cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of certain features, services, applications or tools available through the website that are only available using these technologies.