The short version
We use essential cookies to make the site work. Analytics (our own record of the pages you visit, and Google Analytics) and advertising tags run on marketing pages only if you say yes, and you can change your mind at any time from the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page.
What cookies are
Cookies are small text files a website stores in your browser. They let the site remember things between pages and visits: that you are logged in, which course you are enrolling on, or that you have visited before. This policy also covers the similar small notes a page can keep in your browser storage.
Essential cookies
Some cookies are required for the site to work at all. They keep you logged in, remember the course you are enrolling on and keep the checkout secure. These cannot be switched off through the site, because without them nothing works.
Analytics and advertising
Our own analytics, only if you say yes: we record which of our marketing pages you visit, when, the site or advert that brought you here, how long each page was in front of you and how far down you scrolled, against a random code in the oba_vid cookie. We never keep your IP address or your device details. If you later ask for an info pack or fill in another form, we link those visits to your enquiry. Before you choose, we only count that a page was seen; if you say no, we record nothing, and if you had said yes before, we delete what that browser recorded. A Global Privacy Control signal from your browser counts as a no. The record is deleted 13 months after your last visit.
On marketing pages, and only if you say yes, we use Google Tag Manager to load analytics and advertising tags. With your consent, Google, Meta and LinkedIn tags may run on those pages. They help us understand which pages are useful and whether our advertising works. If you say no, none of them is loaded at all.
These tags may set cookies from those providers. Each provider publishes its own policy on how it uses the data it collects.
Managing cookies
When you first visit, we ask before setting anything optional, and nothing optional is set until you choose. Accepting and rejecting are equally easy, and you can change your mind at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page or the button below. If you take consent back, we clear the analytics and advertising cookies the tags left on our own domain, and delete our own record of the pages that browser visited.
Every major browser also lets you view, block and delete cookies in its settings. You can block all cookies, block third-party cookies only, or clear them whenever you like.
If you block essential cookies, expect logging in and checkout to stop working. The rest of the site will still read fine.
Full cookie list
Every cookie and browser-storage note the site uses, and what each one is for. The first ten are essential.
- oba_consent: remembers your cookie choice, so we do not ask on every page. Lasts 6 months, then we ask again.
- sb-…-auth-token: keeps you logged in. Lasts up to 400 days, or until you log out.
- oba_cart_id: remembers the course you are enrolling on before you have logged in. Lasts 30 days.
- oba_order: lets the confirmation page show the order you have just paid for. Lasts 2 hours.
- oba.player.nav and oba.player.tutor (browser storage): remember whether you closed the contents or the OBA Tutor panel in a lesson. Kept until you clear your browser.
- oba_purchase_… (browser storage, this tab only): stops a purchase being counted twice if you reload the confirmation page.
- oba_advisor and oba_lead: keep your OBA Advisor chat going from page to page, and let the advisor recognise you if you have already asked for an info pack, so it does not ask for your details twice. Only the chat itself can read them. They last 30 and 90 days, or until you press End chat.
- oba.advisor (browser storage): remembers whether you have a chat open, whether there is a reply you have not read yet, and when you closed the advisor's greeting. Nothing you typed. Kept until you clear your browser.
- oba.popups (browser storage): remembers which of our pop-ups you have already seen, closed or answered, and when, so we do not show you the same one again too soon. Nothing you typed. Kept until you clear your browser.
- Stripe (__stripe_mid and __stripe_sid): set on the checkout for fraud prevention. Lasts up to a year and 30 minutes respectively.
- oba_vid: our own analytics, only if you say yes. A random code that tells your visits apart from everybody else's, and links them to your enquiry if you fill in a form. Lasts 6 months, and is deleted at once if you say no.
- Analytics and advertising, on marketing pages only and only with your consent: Google Analytics (_ga and _ga_…, up to 2 years), the Meta pixel (_fbp, 90 days), and any other tags our Tag Manager loads, such as LinkedIn, which set their own cookies as described in each provider's policy.
- The learner app, the lesson player and admin load no analytics or advertising tags at all.
Questions
If you have questions about cookies or this policy, email support@oba.uk. We reply within 1 working day.