The following information will provide you with insight into how and why we collect cookies and what this means for you

When you visit our website (ram.ac.uk), with your consent, we use cookies to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns.

When we view this information in Google Analytics, we learn more about how many people are visiting our website and which pages and events are most popular, which in turn guides our decision making. The information is processed in a way that does not directly identify anyone, so you can explore our website without concern.

How to change your preferences

Click the cookie icon in the left-hand footer of the website and select you preferred settings.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that is downloaded on to your computer when you visit a website. Cookies enable us to recognise your device and see how you use our website, helping us to ensure its security and performance. They also allow us to see which pages are popular and make it easier for our users to find the information and products they’re looking for.

To comply with data protection and electronic marketing laws, we will inform you when we use cookies on our website, what they are, how they work, and seek your consent to use them where required. Consent is not required where the cookies are necessary for the essential running of the website.

This means we do not require consent for:

  • cookies used to remember the goods (including event tickets) a user wishes to buy when they add them to their online basket or proceed to the checkout on our website;
  • session cookies providing security that is essential to comply with data protection security requirements for an online service the user has requested – eg online payments processing; or
  • load-balancing cookies that ensure the content of the page loads quickly and effectively by distributing the workload across several computers.

Using our cookie tool

We use a tool on our website that asks users to opt in for cookies that are not considered necessary (please refer to the tables below for further information). This tool enables you to choose whether to accept all recommended settings and offers the options to opt in or out of marketing and analytics cookies. By accepting recommended settings, all marketing and analytics cookies will be switched on, and the cookie controller will close. You can change your settings at any time by visiting this page.

Our purpose for processing this information is to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective way for you and your device; to enable you to participate in interactive features on our website; to maintain and monitor the performance of our website; and to continually look to improve our website and your website experience. Our lawful basis for this processing is either your consent or our legitimate interests (for cookies that are deemed necessary).

Third-party cookies

We sometimes embed content from social media and other third-party websites into our website. As a result, when you visit a page containing such content, you may be presented with cookies from these websites and these third-party cookies may track your use of our website. We do not control these cookies, so we would recommend that you check the relevant third party's website for more information.

Who will have access to your data and who will we share it with?

The Royal Academy of Music may work with other companies that use cookies to collect information regarding your interaction with our website. This information may be used to serve you Royal Academy of Music advertisements that may be of interest to you when you visit other websites. For example, on Facebook.

Further information about the use of third-party cookies and the sharing of cookie data with third parties can be found in the tables below.

What cookies do we use?

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set optional marketing and analytics cookies to personalise your visit to the website and help us improve it. We won't set optional cookies unless you enable them or accept our recommended settings.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality on our website. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. 

Table 1: Necessary cookies

NamePurposeDuration

SimpleSAMLAuthToken

To enable efficient interaction with the website. It tracks the current session ID and assists with session-fixation protection for My Trust by identifying if user has already authorised or otherwise.

Session

SimpleSAMLSessionID

To enable efficient interaction with the website. It tracks the current session ID and assists with session-fixation protection for My Trust by creating an ID associated with the user session.

Session

CraftSessionId

To enable efficient interaction with the website. It is used to recognise the same user within a session as they navigate the site.

Session

CRAFT_CSRF_TOKEN

To improve security of the site by helping to prevent any cross-site request forgery i.e. malicious exploitation of website by users.

Session

PHPSESSID

To enable efficient interaction with the website. On the website it is used to establish a user session and to pass state data via a temporary cookie.

Session

Table 2: Necessary cookies (third party)

NamePurposeDuration

ApplicationGatewayAffinity

To improve website performance and route traffic to the website. It is set by Microsoft as it runs on the Windows Azure cloud platform.

Session

Marketing cookies

We use marketing cookies to personalise your visit to our website and show you tailored advertising based on your likes and interests. For example, showing you places to visit and events in your location.

Table 3: Marketing cookies

NamePurposeDuration

_aw_m_15472

To monitor successful conversions from other websites to nts.org.uk using Affiliate Window.

1 year

smart-pixel-session

To record membership conversions that have been driven by programmatic native activity run by AVID. It stores a random ID for the user session. It doesn't store or process personal data and is used to pass the fact traffic came from our ads.

Session

Table 4: Marketing cookies (third party)

NamePurposeDuration

1658863681009457

To help Meta identify relevant target audiences for Trust adverts and improve accuracy in reporting. The pixel fires when someone takes a specific action on the website. For example, purchasing a membership, leaving a donation, or purchasing something from the online shop. It is set by Meta.

90 days

Icu

uids

usersync

uuid2

To support ad personalisation, measurement and reporting. These cookies help to distinguish browsers and devices and matches this with information about advertising interests and histories of ads shown in the browser and device. They are set by AppNexus and shared with MiQ Digital Ltd and their subsidiaries.

90 days

nyx33

To collect audience data, track and optimise towards conversions. It is set by Twitter.

2 years

_fbp

To deliver a series of advertisement products such as real-time bidding from third party advertisers. It is set by Facebook.

1 day

anj

To enable targeted advertising through the App Nexus platform. Anonymous data is collected on advert views, IP address (for location), page views & hardware/software type. It is set by AppNexus.

3 months

fr

To deliver a series of advertisement products such as real-time bidding from third party advertisers. It is set by Facebook.

3 months

IDE

To serve advertising across the web. One of the main advertising cookies on non-Google sites is named ‘IDE‘ and is stored in browsers under the domain doubleclick.net. Another is stored in google.com and is called ANID. We use other cookies with names such as DSID, FLC, AID, TAID, and exchange_uid. Other Google properties, like YouTube, may also use these cookies to show you more relevant ads. It is set by Google.

1 year

SRT

ServerPool

TASession

To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. These cookies are also used by the website to determine if visitor's click on the advertisements. They are set by Tripadvisor.

Session

PMC

To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitor's click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor.

2 years

TACds

To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitor's click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor.

2 months

TART

To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitor's click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor.

4 days

TATravelInfo

To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitor's click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor.

13 days

Analytics cookies

We use analytics cookies to monitor visitor behaviour patterns and improve our website performance. For example, if we are running an advertisement on a third-party website, analytics cookies will help us to understand if this advertising has been successful in redirecting users to our website.

Table 5: Analytics cookies

NamePurposeDuration

_ga

To calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the website analytics reports. It uses a unique ID for users. The activity tracked for analytical reports includes pageviews, ecommerce (memberships, donations and online shop transactions), downloads, use of search functionality or when a user selects specific links on the website.

2 years

_gid

To generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website by registering a unique ID. The activity tracked for analytical reports includes pageviews, ecommerce (memberships, donations and online shop transactions), downloads, use of search functionality or when a user selects specific links on the website.

2 days

_gat

To throttle request rate and limit requests to Google Analytics.

1 minute

Table 6: Analytics cookies (third party)

NamePurposeDuration

_dc_gtm_ 

To improve website performance and limit data collection on high traffic websites. It is set by Google. 

1 minute   

1918296

1681349

_ga

To track on-site conversions and improve campaign performance and reporting. Google Marketing Platform advertising products and Google Ad Manager use cookies to improve advertising. In this case, the tag counts the number of conversions and the relevant value of each conversion. These are set by DoubleClick.

30 days

__adal_ca

To track user sessions and conversions so that they can be attributed accordingly to TV advertising campaigns. It is set by Adalyser.

6 months

__adal_cw

To track user sessions and conversions so that they can be attributed accordingly to TV advertising campaigns. It is set by Adalyser.

1 week

__adal_id 

To track user sessions and conversions so that they can be attributed accordingly to TV advertising campaigns. It is set by Adalyser.

2 years

__adal_ses

To track user sessions and conversions so that they can be attributed accordingly to TV advertising campaigns. It is set by Adalyser.

1 day

GPS

To enable tracking based on geographical GPS location by registering a unique ID on mobile devices. It is set by YouTube.

1 day

PREF

To help Google keep statistics of how the visitor uses YouTube videos across different websites by registering a unique ID. It is set by YouTube.

8 months

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

To estimate the users' bandwidth on pages with integrated YouTube videos. It is set by YouTube.

179 days

YSC

To keep statistics of which videos from YouTube the user has seen by registering a unique ID. It is set by YouTube.

Session

TASSK

To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitor's click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor.

179 days

TAUD

To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitor's click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor.

13 days

TAUnique

To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitor's click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor.

2 years

How will we protect your data?

Unfortunately, the transmission of information over the internet cannot be guaranteed to be fully secure, so we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us over the internet. Transmitting information over the internet is done at your own risk and you should bear this in mind when using our site, products and services online. To protect key account and financial information you provide us with online, we use a security measure known as Secure Server Layer (SSL). When you submit financial information to our site it is encrypted to provide protection.

Changing cookie preferences

You can update your cookie preferences on our website at any time, by visiting any page and clicking the cookie icon at the bottom left-hand corner.

Necessary

Necessary cookies enable core functionality on our website. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Analytics

We use analytics cookies to monitor visitor behaviour patterns and improve our website performance.

Marketing

We use marketing cookies to personalise your visit to our website and show you tailored advertising based on your likes and interests.

Save Preferences

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, you can use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on

You can use your web browser to:

  • delete all cookies;
  • block all cookies;
  • allow all cookies;
  • block ‘third-party’ cookies (i.e., cookies set by online services other than the one you are visiting);
  • clear all cookies when you close the browser;
  • open a ‘private browsing’ / ‘incognito’ session, which allows you to browse the web without recording your browsing history or storing local data such as cookies (you should however be aware of the limitations of this feature in a privacy context); and
  • install add-ons and plugins that extend browser functionality.

You can find information about controlling cookies across different browsers below:

Date of last update

15 November 2023