Effective Date: November 4, 2026
Cookie Management
Kalamazoo College (the “College,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) uses cookies and similar technologies — including pixels, tags, web beacons, scripts, local storage, and session replay tools (collectively, “cookies” or “Tracking Technologies”) — to help our website function effectively, improve user experience, deliver and measure College advertising, and better understand how visitors use our website. Cookies are small text files stored on a visitor’s device when visiting a website. Cookies may be “first-party” (set by the College) or “third-party” (set by another organization through our website) and may be “session” cookies (deleted when you close your browser) or “persistent” cookies (retained until they expire or are deleted). Some cookies are necessary for the operation of the website, while others help us analyze website performance, remember your preferences, deliver relevant advertising, and improve our services.
This Policy is part of, and incorporated into, the Kalamazoo College Web Privacy Policy, which describes more generally how we collect, use, and share information.
Types of Cookies We Use
Essential Cookies
These cookies are required for the website to operate properly and support core functions such as navigation, accessibility, security, load balancing, and form submissions, and to record your cookie consent choices. These cookies do not require your consent and cannot be switched off through our cookie consent tool, although you may block them through your browser settings (which may prevent portions of the website from working).
Functional Cookies
These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your preferred language or region, or whether you have previously seen a message) and provide enhanced, more personalized features. They are set only with your consent.
Analytics and Performance Cookies
We use analytics tools, including Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, to better understand how visitors interact with our website. These tools may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information about website usage, including pages visited, navigation patterns, time on page, referring website, approximate location derived from IP address, device and browser characteristics, and other engagement data. Microsoft Clarity also provides session replay and heatmaps, which record a visitor’s interactions with a page (mouse movements, clicks, scrolling, and taps) and can record text entered into on-screen fields unless the field is masked. The College configures Microsoft Clarity to mask user images and text from being sent to our servers by way of the “Balanced” masking mode. By default, Clarity masks all sensitive text and does not use session replay to collect email addresses, passwords, payment card numbers, or Social Security numbers entered by users. Information collected through these tools is used to improve the usability, accessibility, content, and performance of our website. Google and Microsoft receive this information directly from your browser, may combine it with other information they hold about you, and may use it for their own purposes as described in their privacy policies. These tools are set only with your consent.
Advertising and Targeting Cookies
The College and its advertising partners, including Google Ads, Meta (Facebook and Instagram), may use cookies and pixels to deliver College advertising to you on third-party websites and platforms, to limit how often you see an ad, to measure the effectiveness of advertising, and to build audiences of visitors with similar interests. These technologies may transmit information about your visit (such as the page viewed, actions taken, and browser, device, or platform identifiers) to the advertising platform, which may associate it with your account on that platform. Some state laws treat these uses as a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information or as “targeted advertising.” These cookies are set only with your consent, and you may opt out at any time as described below.
Social Media Cookies
Our website includes features provided by social media platforms, such as share and “like” buttons, embedded posts and video players, and social feeds, from providers including Instagram, Vimeo and YouTube. When a page containing these features loads, the platform may set cookies and receive information about your visit (such as the page URL and your IP address) even if you do not click the feature, and may link that information to your account with the platform. Where the feature is used only to perform an action you request (for example, sharing a page), the related cookie may be treated as essential; where the platform uses it to track you across websites or for advertising or market research, it is non-essential and is loaded only with your consent. Where feasible, we do not load these features until you consent to the applicable category. The platforms’ privacy policies govern their use of this information.
Consent and Your Choices
Except for essential cookies required for website operation, non-essential cookies are not set, and the associated third-party scripts and pixels are not loaded, until you affirmatively consent through the cookie consent banner presented when you first visit our website. The banner allows you to accept all non-essential cookies, reject all non-essential cookies, or choose by category; rejecting non-essential cookies requires no more effort than accepting them. Closing the banner without making a choice, or continuing to browse, is not treated as consent to non-essential cookies.
Visitors may change or withdraw their consent and manage or modify their cookie preferences at any time through the website’s cookie consent tools by selecting “Cookie Settings” in the website footer. Withdrawing consent stops the setting of new non-essential cookies but does not delete cookies already stored on your device or affect processing that occurred before withdrawal; you may delete existing cookies through your browser settings. Your consent choices are stored in a cookie on your device and are specific to that browser and device, so you will be asked again if you clear your cookies, use a different browser or device, or after 365 days, or if we materially change the cookies we use. Most web browsers also allow users to control, block, or delete cookies through browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality or performance of portions of the website.
The College records the consent choices you make through the cookie consent tool (including the date, time, categories selected, and a browser identifier) and retains those records for 365 days in order to document and honor your preferences.
Global Privacy Control and “Do Not Track.”
Where required by applicable law, the College treats a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal sent by your browser as a request to opt out of advertising and targeting cookies for that browser. The College does not otherwise respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals, for which no common industry standard has been adopted.
Additional opt-outs.
You may also limit Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout), opt out of Microsoft Clarity and interest-based advertising through the Digital Advertising Alliance WebChoices Tool (optout.aboutads.info) and the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page (optout.networkadvertising.org), and adjust the advertising settings offered by the platforms listed above. These tools are not controlled by the College, and the College does not guarantee their availability or effectiveness.
Third-Party Services
Some cookies may be placed by third-party service providers that assist the College in analyzing website usage, supporting website functionality, delivering and measuring advertising, or delivering related services. These providers maintain their own privacy and data handling practices, which the College does not control. Visitors are encouraged to review the privacy policies of those providers for additional information. For information regarding how Google and Microsoft collect and use information through Google services and Microsoft Clarity, please refer to their respective privacy statements and policies at policies.google.com/privacy, clarity.microsoft.com/privacy, and facebook.com/privacy/policy. By consenting to analytics or advertising cookies through our cookie consent tool, you also consent to the collection, recording, and use of your information by the providers of those cookies, as described in this Policy and in their privacy policies.
Our website may also embed content from third-party platforms (such as video players, maps, and social media plug-ins). Those platforms may set cookies or collect information about you when the content loads, even if you do not interact with it. Where feasible, we do not load such embedded content until you consent to the applicable cookie category.
Changes to This Policy
Kalamazoo College may update this Cookie Management Policy periodically to reflect changes in technology, legal requirements, or website operations. Any updates will be posted on this page with a revised effective date, and your continued use of the website after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy. If a change materially expands the cookies we use or the purposes for which we use them, we will seek renewed consent through the cookie consent tool.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this Policy or our use of cookies, or wish to exercise any privacy rights available to you under applicable law, please contact us at info@kzoo.edu.