Cookie Policy

Functionality

Description of Cookie

Cookie Used

Setting the Scope of Your Site Content

Because any cookie read/write access is restricted by a combination of the cookie name and its domain, default visitor tracking via Google Analytics is confined to the domain of the page on which the tracking code is installed. For the most common scenario where the tracking code is installed on a single domain (and no other sub-domains), the generic set up is correct. In other situations where you wish to track content across domains or sub-domains, or restrict tracking to a smaller section of a single domain, you use additional methods in the ga.js tracking code to define content scope.

All Cookies

Determining Visitor Session

The Google Analytics tracking for ga.js uses two cookies to establish a session. If either of these two cookies are absent, further activity by the user initiates the start of a new session.

This description is specific to the ga.js tracking code for web pages. If you use Analytics tracking for other environments—such as Flash or mobile—you should check the documentation for those environments to learn how sessions are calculated or established.

__utmb
__utmc

Identifying Unique Visitors

Each unique browser that visits a page on your site is provided with a unique ID via the __utma cookie. In this way, subsequent visits to your website via the same browser are recorded as belonging to the same (unique) visitor. Thus, if a person interacted with your website using both Firefox and Internet Explorer, the Analytics reports would track this activity under two unique visitors. Similarly if the same browser were used by two different visitors, but with a separate computer account for each, the activity would be recorded under two unique visitor IDs. On the other hand, if the browser happens to be used by two different people sharing the same computer account, one unique visitor ID is recorded, even though two unique individuals accessed the site.

__utma

Tracking Traffic Sources & Navigation

When visitors reach your site via a search engine result, a direct link, or an ad that links to your page, Google Analytics stores the type of referral information in a cookie. The parameters in the cookie value string are parsed and sent in the GIF Request (in the utmcc variable). The expiration date for the cookie is set as 6 months into the future. This cookie gets updated with each subsequent page view to your site; thus it is used to determine visitor navigation within your site.

__utmz

Custom Variables

You can define your own segments for reporting on your particular data. When you use the setCustVar()  method in your tracking code to define custom variables, Google Analytics uses this cookie to track and report on that information. In a typical use case, you might use this method to segment your website visitors by a custom demographic that they select on your website (income, age range, product preferences).

___utmv

Name

Description

Expiration

_ga

_gid

Used to distinguish users.

2 years from set/update

24 hours

__utma

This cookie is typically written to the browser upon the first visit to your site from that web browser. If the cookie has been deleted by the browser operator, and the browser subsequently visits your site, a new __utma cookie is written with a different unique ID. This cookie is used to determine unique visitors to your site and it is updated with each page view. Additionally, this cookie is provided with a unique ID that Google Analytics uses to ensure both the validity and accessibility of the cookie as an extra security measure.

2 years from set/update.

_gat_UA

__utmt

Used to throttle request rate.

1 minute

20 minutes

__utmb

This cookie is used to establish and continue a user session with your site. When a user views a page on your site, the Google Analytics code attempts to update this cookie. If it does not find the cookie, a new one is written and a new session is established. Each time a user visits a different page on your site, this cookie is updated to expire in 30 minutes, thus continuing a single session for as long as user activity continues within 30-minute intervals. This cookie expires when a user pauses on a page on your site for longer than 30 minutes. You can modify the default length of a user session with the setSessionsCookieTimeout() method.

30 minutes from set/update.

__utmc

This cookie operates in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether or not to establish a new session for the user. In particular, this cookie is not provided with an expiration date, so it expires when the user exits the browser. Should a user visit your site, exit the browser and then return to your website within 30 minutes, the absence of the __utmc cookie indicates that a new session needs to be established, despite the fact that the __utmb cookie has not yet expired.

End of browser session.

__utmz

This cookie stores the type of referral used by the visitor to reach your site, whether via a direct method, a referring link, a website search, or a campaign such as an ad or an email link. It is used to calculate search engine traffic, ad campaigns and page navigation within your own site. The cookie is updated with each page view to your site.

6 months from set/update.

__utmv

This cookie is not normally present in a default configuration of the tracking code. The __utmv cookie passes the information provided via the _setVar()method, which you use to create a custom user segment. This string is then passed to the Analytics servers in the GIF request URL via the utmcc parameter. This cookie is only written if you have added the _setVar() method for the tracking code on your website page.

2 years from set/update.

Name

Description

Expiration

_fbp

Facebook tracking pixel

3 hours

_fr

Facebook cookie

1 minute

personalization_id

Twitter integration/sharing capabilities.

2 years

IDE

Advertising Cookie by Doubleclick.net

1 year