Summary
We are changing how we handle cookies on the Mosaic platform, and separating specific information about Cookies from the general Privacy Policy.
You will need to:
- Link to your new Cookies page, which we will automatically create for you in an upcoming release (see below for details)
- Update your Privacy policy link to point to the main University Privacy Policy page at https://www.ox.ac.uk/privacy-policy
If you have set custom cookies on your website, you will also need to:
- Register your custom cookies with the platform to allow your users to consent
- Add information about your custom cookies to your new Cookies page
Further details of all these changes are given below.
Why we are doing this
We are making these changes to ensure the Mosaic platform complies with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), which require organisations to provide clear and comprehensive information about the way their websites use cookies.
For any cookie which is not strictly necessary, website users must be given the means to consent to the cookie being set on their device before it can be enabled.
How we are doing this
We are using the CivicUK Cookie Control module, which allows users to choose what type of cookies they want to enable when browsing your site.
Platform cookies
All platform-level Mosaic cookies have been accounted for and categorised as one of the following: 'Essential', 'Analytical', 'Functional', and 'Other'. Each of the three non-essential categories will only be enabled if a user consents to that category.
We will create a Cookies page for your site which provides your users with details of all platform-level cookies.
If your site also sets its own cookies
We are also providing Site Owners and Administrators with the ability to define custom cookies on their own sites when they add third-party tools which set cookies. Custom cookies can be grouped into categories and enabled/disabled with the correct code. You can add, change or remove these custom cookies via a Service Request to the Mosaic Team, and you must add details of them to your Cookies page.
What you need to do
All sites:
- In a Mosaic release on March 7th 2024 we will automatically create a Cookies page for your site at /cookies which will contain details of all platform-level cookies (maintained centrally by the Mosaic Team).
- You are advised to add a link to this page from your Footer. It will also be linked from the Cookies popup which is shown to users, but it will not automatically be added to any of your site menus.
- You cannot remove the reusable content or delete the page.
- You can add details of your site’s custom cookies to this page if required. If your site does not add any extra cookies, you do not need to edit it.
- We will unpublish the platform Privacy page which is shared with all sites (https://oxfordmosaic.web.ox.ac.uk/platform-privacy, appearing by default on all Mosaic sites at /privacy), so you will need to update any links to it (e.g. in your Footer) to point to the main www.ox.ac.uk Privacy page (https://www.ox.ac.uk/privacy-policy).
Sites with custom cookies:
If your Mosaic site also sets its own cookies, you must register them with us: please see our documentation on Managing custom cookies.
Please note: any custom cookies not registered through our Cookie Management process will be in breach of cookie compliance, as they will have been set without the consent of the user.
