Metadata and Cookie Statement
Version: 1.00 Contact Officer: Director, Information
Technology Management and
Last amendment: 31 May 2016 Support
INTRODUCTION
Charles Darwin University (CDU) provides its staff members, students and authorised visitors (collectively
known as ‘Users’) with access to information and communication technologies to enhance and support their
learning, teaching, research, administrative and service functions. In particular, access to information
communication technologies (ICT) and devices, is provided to enable networking and access to worldwide
information resources. W ith this access comes obligations, limitations, responsibility and accountability.
This statement is for users of CDU ICT services. It is intended to assist users of web technologies in
understanding CDU practice relating to metadata and cookies on CDU web sites and applications.
Relevant Definitions
In the context of this document
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) refers collectively to computers, printers, facsimiles,
telephones (both mobile and landlines), scanners, photocopiers, email, internet, intranet, web services, blogs,
twitter, wiki, social networking sites e.g. Facebook pages, portable electronic devices and any other similar
resources;
Cookies is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is
browsing that website. Cookies can be used as part of a web site to allow it to function and remember information
about you between page visits. They can also be used by web servers to store metadata about your site visits for
tracking purposes.
Metadata can be considered the properties of data. When you view a web page in a browser, information about
the content viewed is the metadata.
Examples of web page metadata may include the:
address (URL)
computer account used to access the page
date and time
internet address of the computer
type and version of browser
cookie content from the client browser
Many pages also have “meta” tags describing their content.
STATEMENT
The collection of information (Metadata)
When you visit CDU websites or web based applications, metadata is stored on the hosting server because it is
often required for the web site to function correctly. It is also recorded as part of standard server logging.
Although much metadata is generic and provides no information about you specifically, if the web site requires you
to log in to view content, it’s reasonable to assume that a record is kept of you accessing that site, as well as other
information about your visit (refer to the definitions section above). It is possible to link metadata from multiple
sources to gain personal information about your web usage.
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CDU does not use this information to obtain any personal data without your knowledge, nor do we use it for any
purpose other than to help us monitor and manage traffic and activity on our websites. In these cases the
metadata stored is generally analysed as a whole, not for individual users. The only time the data is extracted for
specific scrutiny is in the case of criminal activity or misuse of information or resources (to cooperate with law
enforcement agencies).
Other than that, if CDU decides to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will make it
clear what personal information we will be collecting and what we intend to do with it. CDU on occasion, uses
external service providers to provide specific online services which may result in metadata being stored on
systems outside of Australia. You should be aware that CDU has limited control over this.
The collection of information (Cookies)
Outlined below are a couple of different types of cookies that are used on CDU websites and the purpose for
which they are used:
First-party cookies
First-party cookies are cookies that are set by CDU websites directly.
Examples of these are Google Analytics cookies. These are used to collect information about visitor behaviour on
our website. Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how
you got there and what you click on. This data is collected via the pages of our site and is not tied to personally
identifiable information. We therefore do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address)
so this information cannot be used to identify who you are.
Third-party cookies
Third-party cookies are set on your machine by external websites whose services are used by our site.
Examples of these would include cookies from Twitter and Facebook that allow their “Like” and “share” buttons to
work. In order to implement these buttons, and connect them to the relevant social networks and external sites,
our pages include scripts from domains outside of our website. You should be aware that these sites are likely to
be collecting information about what you are doing on the internet, including on the CDU website. You should
check the respective policies of external sites to see how exactly they use your information and to find out how to
opt out or delete such information should you wish.
Terms of Use
CDU currently operates an ‘implied consent’ approach which means that we assume you agree to the use of
cookies and metadata collection by CDU web sites. If you do not agree, then you should either stop using our
sites, or delete cookies after having visited the site. Another option would be browsing the site using a browser’s
anonymous usage setting called “Incognito” in Chrome, “InPrivate” for Internet Explorer, “Private Browsing” in
Firefox and Safari. These will reduce the amount of metadata storage and stop cookies from persisting between
browser sessions. However, these anonymous browsing modes may reduce the quality of your user experience.
By using CDU web services, you signify your acceptance of this statement and accept CDU metadata and cookie
usage practices. If you do not agree to this statement, please do not use CDU web sites. Your continued use of
CDU sites following the posting of changes to these terms of use will be deemed as acceptance of those changes.
Disclaimer
The Internet is not a secure medium of communication and therefore CDU cannot guarantee the security of any
information which users input via the CDU website. CDU is not and will not be responsible for any damages a user
may suffer as a result of loss of confidentiality. Despite the non-secure nature of the Internet, CDU takes the
confidentiality and privacy of its users seriously and is committed to safeguarding their privacy and confidentiality.
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