Privacy and Cookies
The OpenAthens privacy policy is available at https://www.openathens.net/privacy/. You can find details of cookies set by our public website at https://www.openathens.net/cookies/.
This page covers the cookies and local storage used by our products.
What happens if I decline optional cookies?
The service improvement tools are not loaded. All other cookies are deemed necessary for the operation of the sites.
Declining optional cookies does not affect the collection of the authentication and transfer stats you see in the reporting interface.
Operational cookies and storage
OpenAthens uses various cookies and similar to maintain sessions and store preferences that are necessary for its operation. None of these contain personal data.
admin.openathens.net
Name | Function |
|---|---|
| Cookie consent status |
| Maintains admin session |
go.openathens.net
No cookies stored.
login.openathens.net
Name | Function |
|---|---|
| Cookie consent status |
| Multi-factor authentication state |
| Maintains admin account session |
| Authentication session and state identifier |
| Last selected brokered connection |
| Last used organisation |
| Information about the organisation selected when logging in |
| The SAML connector chosen if you map to multiple organisations |
| Active SAML request ID |
| Selected organisation |
| Maintains user account session |
| XSRF seed token for a user |
| Whether debug mode is enabled |
my.openathens.net
Name | Function |
|---|---|
| Cookie consent status for end-user pages |
| Maintains user session |
| XSRF seed token |
oa-connect.openathens.net
Name | Function |
|---|---|
| Cookie consent status for oa-connect pages |
register.openathens.net
Name | Function |
|---|---|
| Maintains user session |
reports.openathens.net
Name | Function |
|---|---|
| Cookie consent status |
| Maintains admin session |
resource.status.openathens.net
Name | Function |
|---|---|
| Cookie consent status |
| Language preference |
| Load balancing |
sp.openathens.net
Name | Function |
|---|---|
| Maintains admin session |
| XSRF seed token |
| Cookie consent status |
wayfinder.openathens.net
No cookies stored.
Service improvement
We also use tools to monitor how the service is used so that we can improve it. None of these provide us with personal information although organisation identifiers may be collected on signed-in administration pages. OpenAthens uses these identifiers to derive organisational demographics, without sending that information to the tools. Examples are the size and type of an organisation or how long it has been a subscriber.
Google Analytics
Some of our websites use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (IP addresses are discarded at local collection centres after determining data such as country) will be transmitted to and stored by Google. Google uses this information to evaluate your use of our website, compile reports on website activity for website operators and provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Further information about Google’s privacy policy may be obtained from http://www.google.com/privacy.html.
Cookies:
_ga- session_ga_<randomid>- returning users
Hotjar
We use Hotjar to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise our service and experience. Hotjar gathers direct feedback from users as well as data about their actions and devices. It uses cookies and other technologies to collect this data.
The information Hotjar collects includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymised user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf. For further details, please see Hotjar’s support site: https://help.hotjar.com/hc/en-us/sections/35766945134481-About-Hotjar.
Cookies:
_hjSessionUser_<random_id>- randomised user identifier_hjSession_<random_id>- randomised session identifierhjActiveViewportId- whether you’ve seen, responded to, or collapsed an interaction