Cookies
COOKIES AND WEBSITE TECHNOLOGIES
How this website uses cookies
This page explains what cookies are, how Robust Digital Expert Limited may use them and the choices available to you.
Last updated: 25 October 2026
UNDERSTANDING COOKIES
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file that a website places on your computer, telephone, tablet or other device. Cookies allow websites to recognise a device, maintain secure sessions, remember choices and understand how services are being used.
Some cookies last only until you close your browser. Others remain on your device for a specified period or until you delete them.
Similar technologies
Websites may also use local storage, pixels, tags and similar technologies. References to cookies on this page include these technologies where appropriate.
COOKIE CATEGORIES
Types of cookies that may be used
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies support essential website functions such as security, page navigation, account authentication, session management and access to protected areas.
The website cannot operate properly without them. Consent is not normally required for cookies that are genuinely necessary to provide a service you have requested.
Preference cookies
These cookies remember choices such as display settings, language or other preferences so that the website can provide a more consistent experience.
Where a preference cookie is not strictly necessary, we will request consent before using it.
Analytics cookies
We offer optional Google Analytics 4 on selected public information and catalogue pages to measure visits, selected clicks towards enquiry pages and newly saved Contact Us, Register interest or organisation enquiries. Successful-enquiry events send only a fixed category after acceptance at submission and confirmation; they do not send form answers, submission IDs or report links. Analytics notice version 3 requires a fresh choice after earlier acceptance; an unexpired earlier rejection remains respected. Clicks do not confirm a submitted enquiry. It starts only after you select Accept analytics. Rejecting it does not prevent you from using the website.
Read Analytics cookies and settings for the information sent to Google and to change your choice.
Marketing cookies
The optional website analytics integration does not enable advertising personalisation, Google signals or remarketing.
Accepting analytics does not authorise advertising trackers or marketing emails. Email marketing has a separate optional choice on relevant enquiry forms.
OUR CURRENT APPROACH
Cookies used to operate the RDE website
The website may place strictly necessary cookies when they are required to provide core Drupal functions, maintain security, manage sessions, support account access or remember privacy choices.
Optional Google Analytics is now available after consent. It uses _ga and _ga_ZQPX2REX6G cookies with a configured maximum duration of 180 days and no automatic renewal by this integration. Your browser may shorten their lifetime. The analytics choice is stored separately in this browser under rde-site-analytics-consent-v1 for 180 days. If browser storage is unavailable, the choice applies only to the current page.
The integration excludes signed-in visits, form interaction tracking, assessments and downloads. Form pages do not load the Google tag. Public page-view measurement excludes URLs with queries or fragments. One limited exception measures a newly saved enquiry on its confirmation, using a generic page identifier instead of the actual URL or token, without an explicit page-view event. A five-minute one-use website-session receipt and a random receipt remembered in this tab prevent repeated measurement; they are not sent to Google. PDF downloads and repeat report views are not measured. Accepting only after submitting does not count that past enquiry. GA4 totals exclude rejected or blocked measurement and are not the complete enquiry register. See Analytics cookies and settings for the full scope, Google privacy information and controls. Cookie expiry is separate from Google Analytics property retention.
Essential website functions may include
- Maintaining a secure website session
- Supporting account authentication and sign-in
- Protecting forms and services against misuse
- Remembering privacy or cookie choices
- Supporting essential website administration
THIRD-PARTY SERVICES
External content and service providers
Some pages may link to or include services supplied by other organisations, such as video platforms, social networks, payment providers, identity providers or communication services.
These organisations may place their own cookies when you use their services or follow a link to their websites. Their cookies are controlled by their own policies.
Where third-party content would place non-essential cookies, we will take appropriate steps to obtain consent before that content or technology is activated.
Review the privacy and cookie information supplied by the relevant provider before using an external service.
YOUR COOKIE CHOICES
Managing cookies in your browser
Most browsers allow you to view, delete or block cookies. You can normally find these controls under the browser’s privacy, security or site settings.
Blocking all cookies may affect account access, forms, security features and other essential parts of the website.
You can usually
- Delete cookies already stored on your device
- Block cookies from particular websites
- Block third-party cookies
- Allow or refuse optional cookie categories
- Set your browser to remove cookies when it closes
CONSENT AND WITHDRAWAL
You remain in control of optional cookies
When consent is required, you can accept or refuse optional cookies without losing access to the main public content on this website.
Use Cookie settings on public pages or visit Analytics cookies and settings to accept or reject analytics and change your choice. Rejecting after acceptance stops this integration, removes the Google Analytics cookies it can access and reloads the page if analytics had started. It does not erase information already received by Google.
You can also manage stored cookies and site data through your browser settings. Deleting browser data does not itself withdraw a separately recorded assessment analytics choice or email marketing permission. Contact us if you need help. Withdrawal does not make earlier processing unlawful.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Cookies and data protection
Information collected through cookies may become personal information when it identifies or can reasonably be linked to an individual or device.
Our Privacy page explains how we collect, use, protect and retain personal information and how you can exercise your data protection rights.
Updates to this page
We may update this Cookies page when our website, technology, providers or legal responsibilities change.
The date displayed at the top shows when this information was last updated.
COOKIE QUESTIONS
Contact Robust Digital Expert
Contact us if you have a question about cookies or the information collected through this website.
Email: core.desk@robustdigital.expert
Telephone: 020 8126 5423
Freephone: 0800 047 8081
Website sessions and private report access
Our signed-in browser check on 16 October 2026 identified a first-party Drupal session cookie whose name begins SSESS, followed by a site-specific suffix. It supports secure sign-in and session-based services. The observed cookie had Secure and HttpOnly enabled and SameSite set to Lax.
The configured browser-cookie lifetime is 2,000,000 seconds, approximately 23 days. The expiry of an individual cookie depends on when it is issued or renewed. Server-side session cleanup and application permissions are separate controls: a cookie remaining in your browser does not guarantee access throughout that period.
Career Discovery report permission lasts up to one hour after verification. This is separate from the session cookie lifetime and the 365-day assessment-retention period. The public-homepage checks recorded on 16 October 2026 found no stored cookies in the tested private browsing session. Optional Google Analytics has since been enabled and sets analytics cookies only after acceptance. Session cookies may be created when you request session-based functions.
Saving a Career Discovery draft in your browser
If you select the questionnaire save option, local storage in this browser holds your draft answers, additional text and current position. Saving the draft does not itself send those answers to RDE. For new assessments, submission sends fixed-choice answers and required Other explanations; optional written reflections remain in this browser. You can download those reflections from the review screen before submitting. Clearing the matching draft after successful submission can also remove that local saved reflection copy.
Saved drafts expire seven days after your latest save. The questionnaire checks expiry when it opens, when you resume and periodically while it remains open. An expired draft is removed when the browser next runs that check; a closed browser cannot run scheduled removal. You can also use the clear-saved-draft control or clear this website’s browser storage. Older drafts without a recorded save date cannot be resumed and are removed when checked.
After the server successfully saves an assessment, opening its saved summary in the submitting tab clears the matching browser draft. A failed submission keeps the saved draft. A draft changed in another tab is preserved. If storage is blocked or the summary cannot open, use the clear-saved-draft control yourself. Restarting the questionnaire or deleting the server-held assessment does not itself clear a saved draft.
Avoid saving a draft on a shared device. Clear saved drafts when no longer needed. Browser storage is specific to your browser and device, so you may need to clear each browser where you saved a draft.
Your separate optional course-improvement analytics permission concerns submitted assessment information. It does not authorise advertising trackers or marketing. Clearing cookies or browser storage does not itself withdraw a server-recorded assessment analytics choice; change that through Manage my assessment data or contact us.
Need more information?
Read our Privacy page or contact the RDE team.