Cookies are small files which are stored on a user's computer and hold data relating to a specific website. Cookies are placed on the user's computer by that website and accessed each time a user browses the site. The cookies used by Global Student Accommodation are fairly standard and harmless. We primarily use them to collect data to help us improve our website by seeing which parts of the site are being used, how users are navigating to each page and what items on each page they prefer to click on. Nonetheless we would like you to know which cookies Global Student Accommodation employs, why we use them, and give you the option to opt-out of us using them on your device if you wish.
Below we have listed each of the cookies that our site sets, with detail as to why we use them. For those that want a little more information, we've added information which details the exact purpose of every single cookie we create. Lastly, we've included information about the time the cookie is kept on your system (is it kept after you leave the site, to be used when you return ? persistent ? or deleted once your visit is completed and only used for that visit ? session).
You can use this page to opt-out of certain cookie types. Opting out will apply only to the browser or device that you are currently using, so you may need to change these settings again if you use other browsers or devices to browse the web.
We will make every effort to recognise and respect your choices; however there is a small chance that not all cookies and similar methods of data capture will be covered by these settings. If this is a concern to you then we recommend that you change the settings in your browser. If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.
Some cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features. Without these cookies, we will not be able to connect you to our site properly.
We spend a lot of time and effort ensuring that our site remains available all the time; to do that we have web servers running in many different locations. In order to ensure that your journey through the site works properly we like to keep you connected to the same locations. It also allows us to spread the load, meaning our site remains as performant as it can be.
For visitors to our professional users site Global Student Accommodation Plus, authentication cookies give the added reassurance of site security. These cookies ensure that only authenticated users have access to Global Student Accommodation Plus, thus keeping our site as safe as possible. If you have any queries or require more information on this please email enquiries@global-accommodation.co.uk
| Cookie | Purpose | Persistent or session |
|---|---|---|
| cks_policy | Stores your cookie preferences on Global Student Accommodation | Persistent - expires after 1 year |
| permuserid | Used to identify your browser and device across sessions | Persistent - expires after 1 year |
| svr | Keeps visitors to our site on the same set of infrastructure | Persistent - expires after 8 hours |
| svp | Keeps visitors to our professional users site, Global Student Accommodation Plus, on the same set of infrastructure | Persistent - expires after 8 hours |
| sva | Keeps visitors to our professional users site, Global Student Accommodation Plus, on the same set of infrastructure | Persistent - expires after 8 hours |
| sso2 | Allows log in to continue between these sites for agents | Session |
| JSESSIONID | Ensures Global Student Accommodation Plus login works across the various sections | Session |
| TS*family | Allows our network hardware to keep you in the right environment | Session |
| jsts | Secures data input by our professional users against corruption | Session |
| hsid | Used to maintain user sessions on our investor site | Session |
| cookieLevel | Used to control the display of the Cookie policy banner for the investor site | Session |
| sso2v | Authentication cookie to verify a visitor to our professional users site Global Student Accommodation Plus | Persistent - expires after 6 months |
| rmsessionid | Used to maintain user sessions across our site | Session |
| siteType | To remember your preference for viewing the Full site on your Mobile phone | Session |
In addition to cookies, local storage allows us to use a tiny bit of space on your machine to store information, in much the same way as cookies. We use this to store information which, we feel, enhances your journey through the site by remembering previous actions and making them default for the future. All local storage is persistent, with no expiry.
| Cookie | Purpose |
|---|---|
| typeAheadHist | Holds a history of locations typed into search, so that these appear first in the list when you start searching again |
| GLOBAL STUDENT ACCOMMODATION.UTIL.userPreferences | Stores the channel (lettings, sales etc) that you last searched in, for Draw a Search |
| pcrLocationList | Last 10 searched for postcodes across the site, used for Price Comparison report |
| RM.recentSearches_* family | Stores your recent searches |
| RMmobile.contactagent_channel | To hold the information you have provided when contacting an agent to pre populate the form for you next time around. |
| hiddenProperties | Used to remember if a user has chosen to hide a property or not. |
These cookies collect information about how visitors use our site, for instance which page is viewed most often, and if error messages are seen. These cookies don't collect information that identifies a visitor. All information that these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how our website works.
Like most websites, we use analytics software, such as Google Analytics. This software gathers anonymous data relating to how our site is being used and then provides us with aggregated visitor statistics, number of page views etc. We supplement this data with our own analytics, which allows us to do more in-depth analysis of how people use our site. We feel that this information is vital to us, helping us to make the site as easy to use and useful as possible.
We regularly add new features and change existing features to make the site work as well as possible, and to make the experience as helpful as possible to all parties (we care about the experience all of our users get!) To ensure that the changes we make are useful, we test variants of these changes across our site, reviewing data from our analytics system to see what works best. The cookies below allow us to do that.
| Cookie | Purpose | Persistent or Session |
|---|---|---|
| ki*family | Manages survey for House Prices | Persistent – expires after 6 months |
| _gaRM*family | Tracking cookies set by Google Analytics as detailed above | Persistent -expires after 2 years |
| _gcl*family | Cookie used by Google AdwordsConversion Linker | Session |
| __utm*family | Tracking cookies set by Google Analytics as detailed above | Persistent - expires after 2 years |
| UID | Tracks unique visits for ComScore, an industry standard metrics company | Persistent -expires after 1 year |
| rmmv*family | Allows us to show a different version of test pages to individual visitors | Persistent - expires after 90 days |
| rmtcj | Allows us to test whether or not we can run tests based on your computer settings | Session |
| UIDR | Tracks unique visits for ComScore, an industry standard metrics company | Persistent - expires after 1 year |
These cookies allow us to remember choices you have made to provide a more enhanced, personal service. The information these cookies collect relates only to our website.
We have a bunch of features which need to understand what you've been doing on the site recently, and to reduce the amount of times you have to do the same thing. For instance, you don't want to fill in the contact agent form again and again with the same data, so we store that information to reduce the time it takes and to make life easier. All the cookies below perform a similar function.
| Cookie | Purpose | Persistent or Session |
|---|---|---|
| splash_screen | Used to keep track of whether a user has seen the verification splash screen in Global Student Accommodation Plus | Persistent - expires after 2 hours |
| wcilCriteria | Remembers your last chosen criteria on the "Where can I live?" feature so we can apply that order automatically to your future searches | Persistent - expires after 30 days |
| iPadAd | Tracks if user has seen the iPad advert yet or not | Persistent - expires after 5 years |
| iphoneAppMentioned | Used to decide whether to show a link to download the app when accessing the Global Student Accommodation website from an iPhone device | Persistent - expires after 5 years |
| MobileRegionSortOrder | Remembers your last chosen sort order for a Region based search on the Mobile site, so we can apply that order automatically to your future searches | Persistent - expires after 30 days |
| MobileCurrentLocationSortOrder | Remembers your last chosen sort order for a current location based search on the Mobile site, so we can apply that order automatically to your future current location searches | Persistent - expires after 30 days |
| beta_optin | Records whether or not you have opted in to view the new Global Student Accommodation search results | Persistent - variable: 1 day or 1 year |
| TPC*family | Stores information about your search preferences to help us only show relevant promotions to you | Persistent - expires after 30 days |
| sb-closed | Stores if the user has dismissed the app ad banner | Persistent - expires after 3 months |
| sb-installed | Stores if the user has viewed the app in the app store from the app ad banner | Persistent - expires after 3 months |
| MobileSoldSortOrder | Remembers your last chosen sort order for a sold prices search on the Mobile site, so we can apply that order automatically to your future searches | Persistent - expires after 30 days |
| cdUserType | Use to tailor website content so that it is relevant to you | Session |
| cuid | Used to keep track of a user's consent preferences for contact from Global Student Accommodation | Persistent - expires after 1 year |
| hideKWFeedback | Used to keep track of whether a user has given feedback or dismissed the feedback bar for keywords sort feature | Persistent - expires after 1 month |
| iPhoneAd | Used to decide whether to show link to download app when accessing the Global Student Accommodation website from an iPhone device | Persistent - expires after 1 year |
| propertyDetailsResultsCarousel | Used to remember your preference on displaying the property details results carousel | Persistent - expires after 1 year |
| propertyHuntGameState | Tracks if user has the property hunt game activated | Persistent - expires after 1 month |
| seenMapFeedbackBar | Used to keep track of whether a user has given feedback or dismissed the feedback bars | Persistent - expires after 1 month |
| PDC*family | Remembers information you have provided about yourself so that you can fill in contact agent forms quickly and easily | Persistent - expires after 1 year |
| osLsId | Remembers the last overseas location you searched in, so that we can show you relevant hot properties | Persistent - expires after 30 days |
| cmS | Remembers the last commercial sales location you searched in, so that we can show you relevant hot properties | Persistent - expires after 30 days |
| cmL | Remembers the last commercial lettings location you searched in, so that we can show you relevant hot properties | Persistent - expires after 30 days |
| topPCRSearch | Used to store latest price comparison report search locations so that when you return you get the information you're likely to want | Persistent - expires after 14 days |
| rmrcm | Used to recognise that you have seen the "maximum 300 results" message so we don't bother you with it again | Session |
| loginnotes | Used to decide whether to show help information when you log in | Session |
| studentGridOrListView | Stores whether you have decided to view student results as a grid or a list, so that you get your preferred experience every time | Session |
| androidAppMentioned | Used to decide whether to show link to download app when accessing the Global Student Accommodation website from an Android device | Persistent - expires after 5 years |
| ghostrec-usability | Used to enable remote usability testing | Persistent - expires after 1 hour |
| ghost-sessionId | Used to keep ghostrec session | Persistent - expires after 1 hour |
| ghost-taskId | Used to keep track of the current ghostrec task | Persistent - expires after 1 hour |
| onetime_login | Used for tracking logins in datalayer | Session |
| onetime_register | Used for tracking registrations in datalayer | Session |
We use cookies from third party advertising partners to deliver relevant advertisements to you both on the Global Student Accommodation website and on other websites. Below is a list of our advertising partners. To opt-out of a third party's use of cookies and behavioural advertising you must visit its website and follow its specified opt-out procedures
You can learn how Google uses information from sites or apps that use their services by visiting their website.
If you don't want Google to use information based on your Global Student Accommodation activity for the purpose of showing you more relevant advertisements, you can opt out by following the instructions specified on their website.
For reference, Google operates the Google Display Network (comprising partner websites and some Google properties like YouTube), DoubleClick online ad serving products and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, and Invite Media. Note: Because Google uses DoubleClick and Invite technology, cookies placed by Google for behavioral advertising, including the opt-out cookie, will appear as DoubleClick and Invite cookies.
Google DoubleClick may delegate to another third-party agency, PubMatic, to deliver relevant advertisements to you on Global Student Accommodation.
If you don't want PubMatic to use information based on your activity on Global Student Accommodation sites for the purpose of showing you more relevant ads, you can follow their specified opt-out procedures shown on the PubMatic website.
For more information on how Facebook ads work, and to control the types of adverts shown to you, visit their website here. If you'd prefer that Facebook didn't use information based on your activity on Global Student Accommodation sites for the purpose of showing you more relevant ads, you can opt-out by accessing your Facebook settings.
Captify allows advertisers to retarget users who have searched on Yahoo, Google and Bing. Search Retargeting enables advertisers to focus on users who have expressed intent and match their desired audience with quality inventory. Learn more about Captify here.
To opt-out of Captify ads, please visit adchoices here.
Samba has integrated TV data from multiple sources -- from smart TVs to set-top boxes to TV apps -- to help advertisers and broadcasters understand the TV viewership habits of the modern consumer. Learn more about Samba here.
You can opt-out of having Samba use your web browsing information for interest-based advertisements by going here to the NAI website or accessing "Opt-out of Samba TV Ads" available on the Samba website here.
GroundTruth is a mobile advertising platform specializing in location powered mobile ads. Their services combine data, technology, and strategy to help advertisers reach the audiences most likely to be interested in their products or services. Find out more here.
To opt-out of Groundtruth advertising, you can do so via the YourAdChoices website here.
We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users' needs and to optimize this service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don't like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users' behaviour and their devices (in particular device's IP address (captured and stored only in anonymized form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), preferred language used to display our website). Hotjar stores this information in a pseudonymized user profile. Neither Hotjar nor we will ever use this information to identify individual users or to match it with further data on an individual user. For further details, please see Hotjar's privacy policy by clicking on this link.
You can opt-out to the creation of a user profile, Hotjar's storing of data about your usage of our site and Hotjar's use of tracking cookies on other websites by following this opt-out link.
MediaMath provides advertisers with the ability to run interest-based advertising. It tries to make the ads you see more interesting and relevant to you based on the types of sites you visit online and other information that does not personally identify you. Learn more about MediaMath here.
To opt-out of MediaMath ads, please visit adchoices here.
Some of our pages use a third-party software provider, Optimizely, to test variations in the content to help us improve your experience..