Cookie Policy
Welcome to the Cookie Policy of Thespian Academy, located in the heart of Chicago's vibrant Lincoln Park neighborhood. This policy explains how we use cookies and similar technologies on our website, thespianacademy.com, to enhance your experience and provide you with the best possible service. At Thespian Academy, we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring transparency in our data practices. This policy is designed to help you understand what cookies are, how we use them, and the choices you have regarding their use.
What are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. Cookies can be either "persistent" or "session" cookies. Persistent cookies remain on your computer after you close your browser and are used to remember your preferences and settings for future visits. Session cookies, on the other hand, are deleted when you close your browser and are used to track your activity during a single browsing session. Cookies are not programs; they are simple text files and cannot execute code. They are also not capable of accessing other information on your computer.
How We Use Cookies
At Thespian Academy, we use cookies for various purposes, including:
- Essential Functionality: These cookies are necessary for the basic operation of our website. They enable you to navigate the site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas and filling out forms. Without these cookies, certain services on our website may not be available.
- Performance and Analytics: We use cookies to collect information about how visitors use our website. This includes data on which pages are visited most often, how long visitors stay on each page, and whether they encounter any errors. This information helps us improve the performance and usability of our website. We use tools like Google Analytics to analyze this data.
- Personalization: Cookies allow us to remember your preferences and personalize your experience on our website. For example, we may use cookies to remember your language settings or display content that is relevant to your interests.
- Marketing: We may use cookies to track your browsing activity and show you relevant advertisements for Thespian Academy on other websites. This helps us reach potential students who may be interested in our acting classes and programs.
Types of Cookies We Use
We use the following types of cookies on our website:
- Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are essential for the proper functioning of our website. They enable you to navigate the site and use its features.
- Analytical/Performance Cookies: These cookies allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors to our website and to see how visitors move around the site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
- Functionality Cookies: These are used to recognize you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalize our content for you, greet you by name, and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
- Targeting Cookies: These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited, and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
Here is a detailed table outlining the specific cookies we use, their purpose, and their duration:
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Domain | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Used by Google Analytics to distinguish users and track website traffic. This helps us understand how users interact with our site. | .thespianacademy.com | 2 years | Analytical/Performance |
| _gid | Used by Google Analytics to distinguish users and track website traffic. It is a shorter-lived version of the _ga cookie. | .thespianacademy.com | 24 hours | Analytical/Performance |
| PHPSESSID | This cookie is essential for maintaining your session while you browse our website. It allows us to remember your actions and preferences during a single visit. | thespianacademy.com | Session | Strictly Necessary |
| cookie_consent | This cookie records your consent to our use of cookies. It ensures that we comply with privacy regulations and respect your preferences. | thespianacademy.com | 1 year | Functionality |
| TA_location | Used to remember your preferred location (Chicago) for tailored content and local course information. | thespianacademy.com | 30 days | Functionality |
Your Cookie Choices
You have several choices regarding the use of cookies on our website:
- Browser Settings: Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can configure your browser to block all cookies, block third-party cookies, or prompt you before accepting a cookie. Please note that blocking all cookies may prevent you from accessing certain features of our website.
- Cookie Consent Tool: We provide a cookie consent tool on our website that allows you to manage your cookie preferences. You can use this tool to opt-in or opt-out of different categories of cookies.
- Google Analytics Opt-Out: If you do not want Google Analytics to collect data about your visits to our website, you can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. This add-on prevents Google Analytics from collecting information about your visits to any website that uses Google Analytics.
To manage your cookie settings in your browser, please refer to the help documentation for your specific browser. Here are some helpful links for popular browsers:
"At Thespian Academy, we believe in providing a transparent and user-friendly experience. Our Cookie Policy is designed to give you control over your data and ensure that you understand how we use cookies to improve our website." - Eleanor Vance, Founder of Thespian Academy
Contact Information
If you have any questions or concerns about our Cookie Policy, please contact us at:
Thespian Academy
2400 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
Phone: (312) 555-2288
Email: [email protected]
Our Data Protection Officer, Mr. Arthur Finch, can also be reached at the email address provided above.
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time. We will post any changes on our website and encourage you to review this policy periodically. By continuing to use our website after we post any changes, you agree to the updated policy.
This Cookie Policy was last updated on October 26, 2025.