This Cookie Notice is dated 28 April 2021.
This Cookie Notice explains how the QA group of companies (“QA”, “we”, “our” or “us”) use cookies and similar technologies to recognise you when you visit any of our websites, portals or online learning environment (“Website”). It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them.
Why do we use cookies?
We use cookies to provide easier navigation around the sites and gather anonymous analytics information. In some cases, cookies are used to provide functionality within sessions, such as within portals or learning environments. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Websites to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” or “strictly necessary” cookies. Other cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our Websites. For example, we may use Google Analytics (a third-party cookie) within our Websites to monitor how visitors have landed on our Website, and how they consequently navigate it. This is done so that we can see aggregated (not individual) statistics about which content our users access most frequently.
We categorise cookies as follows:
- Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
- Preference cookies enable a website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.
- Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.
- Marketing cookies are used by publishers and third-party advertisers to track visitors across websites based on your browser and device, to build a profile of your interests and provide adverts that are more relevant and engaging. Disabling these cookies will not prevent or reduce advertising, just make it less relevant.
- Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of individual cookies.
From time to time we may have links to other services such as social media or video services on our Website. These third-party services may set cookies on your device when you use them. Due to the nature of how cookies work, we cannot access these cookies nor control their use. Likewise, these third-party services cannot access our session or analytics cookies.
How can you control cookies?
The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site. For all other types of cookies we need your permission. You have the right, therefore, to choose whether or not to accept non-essential cookies and to set your own cookie preferences on your device.
QA has implemented a cookie management tool on its websites that allows you to select which of the optional cookie classifications can be set. By choosing not to set some of these cookies certain features of the Website cannot be provided and you may not be able to enjoy the Website to its fullest. When cookie retention settings expire, you will be presented with the cookie management interface to refresh your selection.
Where you wish to review the settings of the cookies on subsequent visits, you can clear the cookies from your browser and the management tool will reappear to allow you to review and select appropriate cookies. All web browsers are different and to learn how to change your cookie preferences, check the “Help” menu of your browser. For the remaining QA sites not currently operating the cookie management tool, settings should be managed in line with browser instructions.
For more information about cookies, cookie management and how to control cookies within your browser, please see the allaboutcookies.org website.
Unless the user’s browser has been configured so that it will refuse cookies, our Websites notify the user that the site makes use of cookies and allows the user to customise their browser to configure their preferences.
Cookies notification and control
On our Websites that utilise the cookie management tool, this provides real-time information of the cookies used by the site and presents the user with a tool giving granular control.
On websites where we have not yet deployed the cookie management tool, a list of cookies is available on request, and settings should be managed in line with browser instructions.
Updates to this Cookie Notice
We may update this Cookie Notice from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Notice regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.
The date at the top of this Cookie Notice indicates when it was last updated.
Contacting Us
If you have any questions about our use of cookies, please do not hesitate to contact us, or our DPO, via email at privacy@qa.com.