Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Ensuring the privacy of our visitors is a top priority for us. This Privacy Policy governs how our website collects, uses, maintains, and discloses information obtained from users of our site.

The following terminology applies to these Terms and Conditions, Privacy Statement and Disclaimer Notice, and any or all Agreements: ‘Client’, “You” and “Your” refers to you, the person accessing this website and accepting the Company’s terms and conditions. ‘The Company’, “Ourselves”, “We” and ‘Us’, refer to our Company. “Party”, “Parties”, or “Us”, refers to both the Client and ourselves, or either the Client or ourselves. All terms refer to the offer, acceptance, and consideration of payment necessary to undertake the process of our assistance to the Client in the most appropriate manner, whether by formal meetings of a fixed duration or any other means, for the express purpose of meeting the Client’s needs in respect of the provision of the Company’s stated services/products, in accordance with and subject to, prevailing English Law. Any use of the above terminology or other words in the singular, plural, capitalization and/or he/she or they, are taken as interchangeable and therefore as referring to same.

Collection of Information

We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information. Additionally, for systems administration, detecting usage patterns and troubleshooting purposes, our web servers automatically log standard access information including browser type, access times/open mail, URL requested, and referral URL.

Data Sharing Information with third party

Information Collected is not shared with third parties and is used only by this website on a need-to-know basis. Any individually identifiable information related to this data will never be used in any way different to that stated above without your explicit permission.

Personal Information  handling

We handle your personal information through a secured networks which is only access by limited number of people who have special access rights to such systems. These people are mandated to keep the information private.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Cookies, the GDPR, and the ePrivacy Directive

Cookies are an important tool that can give businesses a great deal of insight into their users’ online activity. Despite their importance, the regulations governing cookies are split between the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive.

Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device as you are browsing. They are processed and stored by your web browser. In and of themselves, cookies are harmless and serve crucial functions for websites. Cookies can also generally be easily viewed and deleted.

However, cookies can store a wealth of data, enough to potentially identify you without your consent. Cookies are the primary tool that advertisers use to track your online activity so that they can target you with highly specific ads. Given the amount of data that cookies can contain, they can be considered personal data in certain circumstances and, therefore, subject to the GDPR.

Before analyzing what the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive have to say about cookies, it is essential to have a basic understanding of the different types of cookies.

Types of Cookies

In general, there are three different ways to classify cookies: what purpose they serve, how long they endure, and their provenance.

Duration

  • Session cookies – These cookies are temporary and expire once you close your browser (or once your session ends).
  • Persistent cookies — This category encompasses all cookies that remain on your hard drive until you erase them or your browser does, depending on the cookie’s expiration date. All persistent cookies have an expiration date written into their code, but their duration can vary. According to the ePrivacy Directive, they should not last longer than 12 months, but in practice, they could remain on your device much longer if you do not take action.

Provenance

  • First-party cookies — As the name implies, first-party cookies are put on your device directly by the website you are visiting.
  • Third-party cookies — These are the cookies that are placed on your device, not by the website you are visiting, but by a third party like an advertiser or an analytic system.

Purpose

  • Strictly necessary cookies — These cookies are essential for you to browse the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the site. Cookies that allow web shops to hold your items in your cart while you are shopping online are an example of strictly necessary cookies. These cookies will generally be first-party session cookies. While it is not required to obtain consent for these cookies, what they do and why they are necessary should be explained to the user.
  • Preferences cookies — Also known as “functionality cookies,” these cookies allow a website to remember choices you have made in the past, like what language you prefer, what region you would like weather reports for, or what your user name and password are so you can automatically log in.
  • Statistics cookies — Also known as “performance cookies,” these cookies collect information about how you use a website, like which pages you visited and which links you clicked on. None of this information can be used to identify you. It is all aggregated and, therefore, anonymized. Their sole purpose is to improve website functions. This includes cookies from third-party analytics services as long as the cookies are for the exclusive use of the owner of the website visited.
  • Marketing cookies — These cookies track your online activity to help advertisers deliver more relevant advertising or to limit how many times you see an ad. These cookies can share that information with other organizations or advertisers. These are persistent cookies and almost always of third-party provenance.

These are the main ways of classifying cookies, although there are cookies that will not fit neatly into these categories or may qualify for multiple categories. When people complain about the privacy risks presented by cookies, they are generally speaking about third-party, persistent, marketing cookies. These cookies can contain significant amounts of information about your online activity, preferences, and location. The chain of responsibility (who can access a cookies’ data) for a third-party cookie can get complicated as well, only heightening their potential for abuse. Perhaps because of this, the use of third-party cookies has been in decline since the passage of the GDPR

Cookies and the GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most comprehensive data protection legislation that has been passed by any governing body to this point. However, throughout its’ 88 pages, it only mentions cookies directly once, in Recital 30.

Natural persons may be associated with online identifiers provided by their devices, applications, tools and protocols, such as internet protocol addresses, cookie identifiers or other identifiers such as radio frequency identification tags. This may leave traces which, in particular when combined with unique identifiers and other information received by the servers, may be used to create profiles of the natural persons and identify them.

What these two lines are stating is that cookies, insofar as they are used to identify users, qualify as personal data and are therefore subject to the GDPR. Companies do have a right to process their users’ data as long as they receive consent or if they have a legitimate interest.

Cookies and ePrivacy Directive

Passed in the 2002 and amended in 2009, the ePrivacy Directive (EPD) has become known as the “cookie law” since its most notable effect was the proliferation of cookie consent pop-ups after it was passed. It supplements (and in some cases, overrides) the GDPR, addressing crucial aspects about the confidentiality of electronic communications and the tracking of Internet users more broadly.

Cookie compliance

To comply with the regulations governing cookies under the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive you must:

  • Receive users’ consent before you use any cookies except strictly necessary cookies.
  • Provide accurate and specific information about the data each cookie tracks and its purpose in plain language before consent is received.
  • Document and store consent received from users.
  • Allow users to access your service even if they refuse to allow the use of certain cookies
  • Make it as easy for users to withdraw their consent as it was for them to give their consent in the first place.

ePrivacy Regulation

The EPD’s eventual replacement, the ePrivacy Regulation (EPR), will build upon the EPD and expand its definitions. (In the EU, a directive must be incorporated into national law by EU countries while a regulation becomes legally binding throughout the EU the date it comes into effect.)

The EPR was supposed to be passed in 2018 at the same time as the GDPR came into force. The EU obviously missed that goal, but there are drafts of the document online, and it is scheduled to be finalized sometime this year even though there is no still date for when it will be implemented. The EPR promises to address browser fingerprinting in ways that are similar to cookies, create more robust protections for metadata, and take into account new methods of communication, like WhatsApp.

The rules regulating cookies are still being set, and cookies themselves are continually evolving, which means maintaining a current cookie policy will be a continuous job. However, properly informing your users about the cookies your site is using and, when necessary, receiving their consent will keep your users happy and keep you GDPR-compliant.

Advertising

Ads appearing on our site may be delivered to users by advertising partners, who may set cookies. These cookies allow the ad server to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement to compile non-personal identification information about you or others who use your computer. This information allows ad networks to, among other things, deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you. This privacy policy does not cover the use of cookies by any advertisers.

Google Adsense

Some of the ads may be served by Google. Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on https://universitiesline.com. Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to universitiesline.com and other sites on the Internet. DART uses “non personally identifiable information” and does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, etc. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL – http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html. This site  has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

This site has the discretion to update this privacy policy at any time. When we do, we will revise the updated date at the bottom of this page. We encourage users to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this privacy policy periodically and become aware of modifications.

These terms and conditions form part of the Agreement between the Client and ourselves. Accessing this website and/or undertaking of a booking or Agreement indicates your understanding, agreement to and acceptance, of the Disclaimer Notice and the full Terms and Conditions contained herein.

Your Acceptance of These Terms

By using this Site, you signify your acceptance of this policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our Site. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes to this policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.

Contacting Us

If you require any more information or have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us using the information below. Email: universitiesline.com@gmail.com