Privacy and Cookies Policy
University Centre Somerset is part of Bridgwater & Taunton College. Bridgwater & Taunton College (‘We’) are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy (together with our terms of use and any other documents referred to on it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.
Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 2018 (the ‘Act’), the data controller is Bridgwater & Taunton College of Bath Road, Bridgwater, Somerset TA6 4PZ.
Our full data protection policy and procedure is available to download and read here.
For more information regarding data protection, please click here.
Information we may collect from you
We may collect and process the following data about you:
- Information that you provide by filling in forms on our sites www.btc.ac.uk and www.somerset.ac.uk (‘our sites’). This includes information provided at the time of registering to use our site, subscribing to our service, posting material or requesting further services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our site.
- If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
- We may also ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
- Details of your visits to our site and the resources that you access.
IP addresses
We may collect information about your computer including, where available, your IP address, operating system and browser type for system administration. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.
Cookies
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.
What are cookies?
Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device. You can find more information about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org, or visit the government website or the Information Commissioners Office website.
Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improve the user experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.
A list of all the cookies used on this website by category is set out below.
Cookies used on our website
Performance cookies
These cookies collect information about how visitors use our website, for instance, they allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. They are only used to improve how our website works.
Google analytics
| Cookie | Name (duration) | Domain | Details |
| Google Analytics | _ga (6 months) _gid (2 years) _gat_gtag_UA_XXXXXXXX_X (session) |
.somerset.ac.uk |
These cookies enable us to estimate our audience size and usage pattern. For more information please see the Google Analytics cookie documentatio |
Cookies served from our site
| Cookie | Name (duration) | Domain | Details |
| e-commerce | checkout |
www.somerset.ac.uk |
Used to help you checkout on our online store. |
| Security | wfvt_xxxxxxxxc | www.somerset c.ac.uk |
Used by our security system. |
| Session | ASP.NET_SessionId | somerset.ac.uk | Anonymous session cookie. |
| Session | .ASPXANONYMOUS | somerset.ac.uk | Anonymous session cookie. |
| Course comparison | compare-course-xxxxxx | somerset.btc.ac.uk | Allows you to compare courses. |
| Security | wordfence_verifiedHuman | somerset.ac.uk | Used by our security system. |
Third party cookies
We use a number of third party tools to add functionality to our website and these may use cookies that we have no control over, for example embedded videos from Vimeo. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
| Cookie | Name (duration) | Domain | Details |
| YouTube | VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE (8 months) PREF (10 years) use_hitbox (session) |
youtube.com | We embed YouTube videos on certain pages and these may set cookies when viewed and when the video is played. For more information view Google’s Privacy Policy. |
| Vimeo | PREF (2 years) khcookie (session) NID (session) |
av.vimeo.com player.vimeo.com |
We embed Vimeo videos on certain pages and these may set cookies to monitor performance and gather statistics about video usage. For more information view Vimeo’s privacy policy. |
| Google maps | _PREF (2 years) khcookie (session) NID (session) |
google.co.uk | We use Google maps on certain pages and these may set cookies that detect your preferences and record usage of Google’s maps. For more information view Google’s Privacy Policy. |
Blocking or deleting cookies
Cookies are a widely used technology on the web and on the whole are used for reasons that benefit the user. However if you wanted to stop cookies being set on your computer this is entirely within your control. The browser you use will have settings that can be configured to refuse cookies. Instructions on how to do this will vary depending on the particular type and version of your browser but a good place to start is www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/. If you choose to block cookies through your browser, it may impact your ability to effectively use certain websites.
Where we store your personal data
The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (‘EEA’). It may also be processed by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
All information you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.
Uses made of the information
We use information held about you in the following ways:
- To ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.
- To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us or which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes.
- To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us.
- To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so.
- To notify you about changes to our service.
We may also use your data to provide you with information about goods and services which may be of interest to you and we may contact you about these by post or telephone.
If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you by electronic means (email or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale to you.
If you are a new customer, we will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this.
If you do not want us to use your data in this way, please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data (the registration form).
Disclosure of your information
We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties:
- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
- If Bridgwater & Taunton College or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Bridgwater & Taunton College, our students, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Your rights
You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at dpo@btc.ac.uk or on 01278 455464.
Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Access to information
The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act.
Changes to our privacy policy
Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to dpo@btc.ac.uk