Effective 25 May 2018
PEARonline believes in being transparent about how we collect and use data related to you. We have created this document in a manner which we hope makes clear what cookies we use, why we use them and how we use them. This Cookie Policy applies to any PEARonline product or service that links to this Policy or incorporates it by reference.
This Cookie Policy applies to the automated information collected on the PEARonline website.
Does PEARonline Use Cookies?
Yes. PEARonline uses cookies to help identify and track visitors, their usage of the PEARonline website, and their website access preferences. Cookies help us keep your account safe. We also use cookies to ensure that everyone who uses PEARonline has the best possible experience. By continuing to use PEARonline you are agreeing to the use of cookies or similar technologies for the purposes we describe in this policy.
What is a Cookie?
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by online service providers in order to (for example) make their websites or services work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
Cookies set by the website owner or service provider (in this case, PEARonline) are called “first party cookies”. Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third-party cookies”. Third-party cookies enable third-party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website or service you are using (such as advertising, interactive content and analytics). The third-parties that set these third-party cookies can recognise your computer both when it visits the website or service in question and also when it visits certain other websites or services. Examples of third-party cookies include those set by Google Analytics and Vimeo.
What Type of Cookies Does PEARonline use?
We use several types of cookies on PEARonline:
Strictly Necessary Cookies. These cookies are essential to provide you with services available through our site. For example, when you sign in to PEARonline, we may send cookies to your device so that we can identify you as a user.
Analytics and Performance Cookies. These cookies are used to collect information about traffic to PEARonline and how users use the site. The information is aggregated and anonymous and does not identify any individual visitor. It includes the number of visitors to our site, the pages they visited, and other similar information. We use this information to help operate, maintain, and improve PEARonline.
PEARonline visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using the PEARonline website, with the drawback that certain features of the PEARonline website may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Please see below for an overview of the cookies we use and why we use them.
PEARonline uses the following cookies on its public website:
| Category of Use | Cookie Name | Purpose | |
| Authentication | Comment_author Comment_author_email Comment_author_url |
Set for blog commenters, these cookies are used so that the visitors will not have to re-type their information again when they want to leave another comment. These cookies expire after 1 year. | |
| Analytical/Performance | _UTMA | Used to distinguish users and sessions. This persistent cookie is placed by Google Analytics on behalf of PEARonline for web statistics purposes. It expires after 2 years. | |
| Analytical/Performance | _UTMB | Used to determine new sessions/visits. This cookie is placed by Google Analytics on behalf of PEARonline for web statistics purposes. It expires after 30 minutes. | |
| Analytical/Performance | _UTMC | This session cookie is placed by Google Analytics on behalf of PEARonline for web statistics purposes. It expires at the end of the browser session. | |
| Analytical/Performance | _UTMZ | Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached our site. This persistent cookie is placed by Google Analytics on behalf of PEARonline for web statistics purposes. It expires after 6 months. | |
| Analytical/Performance | __ga | Used to distinguish users and sessions. This persistent cookie is placed by Google Analytics on behalf of PEARonline for web statistics purposes. It expires after 2 years. | |
| Analytical/Performance | _gat | Used to throttle request rate. It expires after 1 minute. | |
| Analytical/Performance | _gid | Used to distinguish users and sessions. This persistent cookie is placed by Google Analytics on behalf of PEARonline for web statistics purposes. It expires after 24 hours. | |
| Analytical/Performance | vuid | Vimeo Analytics unique id. Supports the video functionality on our web pages and tracks views | |
| Analytical/Performance | cookie_notice_accepted | Used to show that you accepted our cookie policy so that we do not show you the cookie notice bar again | |
| Analytical/Performance | wordpress_test_cookie | Tests for cookie setting permissions for Wordpress Analytics. This cookie expires when the user ends their session by closing the tab or browser they are using to interact with PEARonline. | |
PEARonline uses the following cookies on its secure, permissions based website:
| Category of Use | Cookie Name | Purpose |
| Strictly Necessary Authentication | user_session | Secure application session – Used to track and authenticate the user’s session on the secure site. This cookie expires when the user ends their session by closing the tab or browser they are using to interact with PEARonline. |
| Strictly Necessary Authentication | lastMessage | Stores a message to be displayed to the user when the page loads again (e.g. ‘You have successfully changed your password.’) This is cleared once the message is displayed. It expires after 1 hour. |
| Strictly Necessary Authentication | passwordEmail | Stores the user’s email address so it can be filled into the password reset form. It expires after 1 hour. |
| Strictly Necessary Usability | isAuthCodeToResetPassword | Stores a code used during password resets to confirm the user received a reset email. It expires after 1 hour. |
| Strictly Necessary Usability | lastURLRedirect | Stores a timestamp. This indicates how long it’s been since the user was redirected to a different page. Used to avoid “redirect loops” where a user is endlessly redirected to a new URL. This cookie expires when the user ends their session by closing the tab or browser they are using to interact with PEARonline. |
| Strictly Necessary Usability | lastError | Stores an error message to be displayed on the next page load. (e.g. Invalid username and password.) It expires after 1 hour |
For more information on Google Analytics cookies, please read Google’s Cookie Policy at http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/, for developer information, please read Google’s Developer information at https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage. Cookie: SESS7bc09c6e72096f569322a3aae0c966d9