Cookies & Website Analytics
We (and our authorized third parties) use cookies and similar technologies, such as pixels, web beacons, tags, and session replay tools to collect information about you, your device, and how you interact with our websites. Cookies are a type of technology that install a small amount of information on a user’s computer or other device when they visit a website. Some cookies are erased when you close your browser window and some persist over multiple sessions for a period of time.
Pixels, web beacons and tags are types of code or transparent graphics that contain a unique identifier, and which provide analytical information about the user experience and help us customize our marketing activities. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, pixels, web beacons, and tags are embedded invisibly on web pages. Session replay tools record your interactions with our websites, such as how you move throughout our websites and engage with our webforms, and help us improve our websites and identify and fix technical issues visitors may be having with our websites.
In addition to the uses identified above, we use these technologies to analyze website usage by all of our visitors; to help us remember you and your preferences when you revisit the websites; and to remember you the next time you log in.
We may disclose information to or allow selected third parties, such as social media companies, advertising networks, and companies that provide analytics including ad tracking and reporting, to place cookies and other tracking technologies through the website to provide us with better insights into the use of the website or user demographics or to provide relevant advertising to you. These third parties may collect information about a user’s online activities over time and across different websites when he or she uses our website.
Many USC.edu websites use Google Analytics (or other similar web analytics tools) to collect information about visitor traffic and behavior. This allows us to identify usage trends and to improve the performance and content of our websites.
You can use the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on to disable tracking by Google Analytics.
Further general information about cookies and how they work is available at www.allaboutcookies.org. You can decline cookies by adjusting your browser settings but some features of the websites may not function. If you change computers, devices, or browsers; use multiple computers, devices, or browsers; or delete your cookies, you may need to repeat this process for each computer, device, or browser. We currently do not use technology that responds to do-not-track signals from your browser.