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Privacy and cookies

Rooms — rooms.joh.cam.ac.uk

Who is responsible for your data

This page explains how the Rooms directory uses your data. St John's College is the data controller. We use your data to manage College accommodation, provide access to your records and documents, and keep the service secure.

For the College's privacy notices, including those for current students and offer holders and for staff, visit the College privacy page, under "Specific Privacy Statements". These explain the College's reasons for using personal data, retention periods and your rights.

What this website holds

This website shows and stores data that the College needs to manage your accommodation:

  • your name, CRSID and email address
  • your course and year of study
  • your accommodation applications, room preferences and room allocations
  • the documents you sign on this website, your signature and copies of accommodation emails
  • your University profile photo
  • sign-in records and technical logs used to operate and protect the service

Services this website uses

  • Microsoft: provides University sign-in and the College's email service. Copies of sent emails are also kept in Microsoft storage.
  • DigitalOcean: stores room photos and floor plans.
  • OpenStreetMap: provides the maps on room pages. When a map loads, your browser connects to OpenStreetMap and sends technical information such as your IP address.
  • College statistics (stats.joh.cam): counts page visits without using cookies. It receives the address of the page you visit and the referring page. Some signed-in page addresses include your CRSID.

Cookies and browser storage

Rooms uses cookies to keep you signed in and protect forms:

  • Session cookie: connects your browser to your Rooms session. The session expires after 120 minutes without activity. Logging out ends your signed-in access.
  • XSRF-TOKEN: protects the forms on this website from attacks.

New sign-ins do not create a "remember me" cookie. If your browser has one from an earlier visit, it can keep you signed in until you log out or the cookie expires.

Room search filters are saved for the current browser tab and cleared when you close it. Rooms does not use advertising cookies or cookies for its visit statistics. University sign-in is a separate Microsoft service with its own cookies.

Contact

For questions about how your data is used or kept, or to exercise your rights, contact the College Data Protection Lead: [email protected].

For questions about your accommodation, contact the Accommodation Office: [email protected].

We last updated this page on 28 October 2026.