Cookies

Cookies

A cookie is created at the request of the website a user is viewing. The website requests the web browser create a small text file with a small amount of information, which it can access whilst you are viewing the website. The information is usually to provide some functionality... to enhance the users experience on the site."

aboutcookies.org.uk

How to Manage Cookies

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of certain parts of the University of Aberdeen's website.

Most standard web browsers may be configured to refuse cookies: consult your browser's help pages for instructions on how to do this. You may wish to visit aboutcookies.org.uk which contains comprehensive information on how to manage cookies on a wide variety of browsers.

University of Aberdeen Cookies

General Purpose Cookies

The following cookies may be set by certain pages within our website as necessary.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
32 alphanumeric characters PHP session ID
Used to maintain the security of your browsing session
When you close your browser
abdn_maps Used to store geolocation, if you have agreed to share that information 30 minutes
abdn_forms SimpleForms
Used to check that cookies are enabled so that the PHP session ID can be used without displaying it in the browser's URL
1 hour
abdn_session_cookie_check Intranet/standard SimpleCMS login
Used to check that cookies are enabled so that the PHP session ID can be used without displaying it in the browser's URL
1 hour
abdn_show_cookie_advisory Used to determine whether the cookie advisory notice has been displayed 1 year
UoAInfrastructure Used for balancing of the session to a specific server Immediately
_shibsession_[alphanumeric string] Used to identify the user's Shibboleth session When you close your browser
AWSALBCORS Required to use sticky sessions (load balancer consistently sending request to the same webserver) 1 week
AWSALB Required to use sticky sessions (load balancer consistently sending request to the same webserver) 1 week
phpSaml Used to identify the user's PHP session When you close your browser
t4_access_reset Used to log you out of Terminalfour CMS When you log out

Confidential Reporting Service

The following cookies are set set by the Confidential Reporting Service.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
confidential_reporting_production_session Used to temporarily store data relating to the Confidential Reporting form After 30 minutes or when you close your browser

Clearing

The following cookies are set by the Clearing website.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
abdn_clearing_session Used to temporarily remember your chosen country of choice in order to determine eligibility After 24 hours

Online Store

The following cookies are set set by the third-party company WPM Education for the operation of the University's Online Store.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
ASPSESSIONIDCSBBRDCQ Session ID
Used to maintain the security of your browsing session
When you close your browser
WPM%5FStore Used to maintain the security of your browsing session Immediately
WPM%5FStore%5FSession Used to maintain the security of your browsing session Immediately

AURA

The following cookie is set when using the University's DSpace installation, the Aberdeen University Research Archive (AURA).

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
JSESSIONID Session ID
Used to maintain the security of your browsing session
When you close your browser

Medical School Learning Technology Applications

The following cookies are set when using these in-house applications for teaching and learning:

Application Name Domain Category
Assessment Central XSRF-TOKEN www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  assessment_central_production_session www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Logged in laravel_token www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Anatomy anatomy www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  anatomy_csrf_cookie_name www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
ELF cisession www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Logged in g36F28djyre2 www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Radiation Protection MoodleSession www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Electives cisession www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Suttie Centre Room booking IDE .doubleclick.net Marketing
  XSRF-TOKEN www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  bcookie .linkedin.com Marketing
  dmSessionID www.abdn.ac.uk Marketing
  fr .facebook.com Social Media
  lang .ads.linkedin.com Functional
  lang .linkedin.com Functional
  lidc .linkedin.com Functional
  recordID www.abdn.ac.uk Marketing
  room_booking_production_session www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Admin Login XSRF-TOKEN www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  room_booking_production_session www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Course Feedback Forms SCEF www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Humanities 0ec509f03c7447eb7db95ab9a8d9dca3 www.abdn.ac.uk Functional
  MOODLEID_ www.abdn.ac.uk Performance
  MoodleSession www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  MoodleSessionTest www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  abdn_show_cookie_advisory_20180525 .abdn.ac.uk Functional
eLearning MOODLEID_elearning www.abdn.ac.uk Performance
  MoodleSessionTestelearning www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  MoodleSessionelearning www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Device Loan uoa-csrf_uoa_coursecatalogue_cookie www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  uoa-uoacoursecatalogue .abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
Cerebrum cerebrum www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
IDM heracles www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  heracles_csrf_cookie_name www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  cerebrum www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
MyMBChB/MyBDS/MyPA medicalmyvle www.abdn.ac.uk Strictly Necessary
  medicalmyvle_csrf_cookie_name .abdn.ac.uk Performance
  cerebrum www.abdn.ac.uk Performance
  medicalssouser .abdn.ac.uk Performance

MyAberdeen

The following cookies are set when using MyAberdeen.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
JSESSIONID Session ID
Used to maintain the security of your browsing session
When you close your browser
cookies_enabled Used to store cookie setting When you close your browser
NSC_301884.qspe1_wjq1.hspvq Used to maintain the security of your browsing session When you close your browser
s_session_id Used to maintain the security of your browsing session When you close your browser
session_id Used to maintain the security of your browsing session When you close your browser

Additionally, MyAberdeen may occasionally display reminders related to your course in pop-up windows, and uses a cookie to determine whether you have already seen a given reminder. An example would be the scefpopup cookie. All such cookies expire when you close your browser.

MyCurriculum Launch Site

The following cookies are set when accessing MyCurriculum via the launch site.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
mycgk Used for session management in the MyCurriculum launch site After two hours
visitor Used for recording visitor activity in the site After 30 days

MyTimetable

The following cookies are set when using MyTimetable.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
mytimetable Used for session management in MyTimetable After two hours
csrf_cookie_timetables Used for CSRF protection in MyTimetable After two hours
timetablesssouser Session management
This cookie is set when a user logs in to MyTimetable
When you close the browser

Third Party Cookies

The University of Aberdeen makes use of external services within its website. Examples of such services include YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and these external services may also place cookies on your device.

Details of how to opt out of receving cookies from the main third parties whose content we use are available below:

To opt out of receiving cookies from other services, we recommend reviewing your browser's cookie settings as noted above.

Other Cookies

The University of Aberdeen relies on statistics generated by your visits to our webpages to plan further improvements to our website. The cookies which are set in order to enable us to collate these statistics are not strictly necessary for the operation of our websites. Links are provided below which will enable you to opt out of receiving these cookies if you wish.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to generate reports on the number of visits to pages on our website, and the resulting statistics help us to plan improvements to our website. Google Analytics is also used by third party widgets implemented on our website.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
_ga Used to distinguish users 2 years
_gid Used to distinguish users 24 hours
_ga_<container-id> Used to persist session state 2 years
_gac_gb_<container-id> Contains campaign related information 90 days
_gat Used to throttle request rate 1 minute
AMP_TOKEN Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service 30 seconds to 1 year
_gac_<property-id> Contains campaign related information for the user 90 days
__utma Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics 2 years from set/update
__utmt Used to throttle request rate 10 minutes
__utmb Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics 30 mins from set/update
__utmc Not used in ga.js. Set for interoperability with urchin.js. Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user was in a new session/visit End of browser session
__utmz Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics 6 months from set/update
__utmv Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. This cookie is created when a developer uses the _setCustomVar method with a visitor level custom variable. This cookie was also used for the deprecated _setVar method. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics 2 years from set/update

Google Maps

We use Google Maps to provide location information to users of our website.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
NID Random letters and numbers 1 hour
PREF Random letters and numbers End of the year

Google Tag Manager

We use Google Tag Manager to manage Google Analytics and other tracking cookies which may be used for marketing purposes or evaluating the effectiveness of our website.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
_dc_gtm_UA-209114-1 1 10 minutes

Hotjar

We use Hotjar to analyse online behaviour and improve user experience across our website.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
_hjClosedSurveyInvites Hotjar cookie that is set once a user interacts with an External Link Survey invitation modal. It is used to ensure that the same invite does not reappear if it has already been shown. 365 days
_hjDonePolls Hotjar cookie that is set once a user completes a survey using the On-site Survey widget. It is used to ensure that the same survey does not reappear if it has already been filled in. 365 days
_hjMinimizedPolls Hotjar cookie that is set once a user minimizes an On-site Survey widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimized when the user navigates through your site. 365 days
_hjShownFeedbackMessage Hotjar cookie that is set when a user minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if the user navigates to another page where it is set to show. 365 days
_hjSessionTooLarge Causes Hotjar to stop collecting data if a session becomes too large. This is determined automatically by a signal from the WebSocket server if the session size exceeds the limit. Session
_hjSessionRejected If present, this cookie will be set to '1' for the duration of a user's session, if Hotjar rejected the session from connecting to our WebSocket due to server overload. This cookie is only applied in extremely rare situations to prevent severe performance issues. Session
_hjSessionResumed A cookie that is set when a session/recording is reconnected to Hotjar servers after a break in connection. Session
_hjid Hotjar cookie that is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behaviour in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. 365 days
_hjRecordingLastActivity This should be found in Session storage (as opposed to cookies). This gets updated when a user recording starts and when data is sent through the WebSocket (the user performs an action that Hotjar records). Session
_hjTLDTest When the Hotjar script executes we try to determine the most generic cookie path we should use, instead of the page hostname. This is done so that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). To determine this, we try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. After this check, the cookie is removed. Session
_hjUserAttributesHash User Attributes sent through the Hotjar Identify API are cached for the duration of the session in order to know when an attribute has changed and needs to be updated. Session
_hjCachedUserAttributes This cookie stores User Attributes which are sent through the Hotjar Identify API, whenever the user is not in the sample. Collected attributes will only be saved to Hotjar servers if the user interacts with a Hotjar Feedback tool, but the cookie will be used regardless of whether a Feedback tool is present. Session
_hjLocalStorageTest This cookie is used to check if the Hotjar Tracking Script can use local storage. If it can, a value of 1 is set in this cookie. The data stored in_hjLocalStorageTest has no expiration time, but it is deleted almost immediately after it is created. Under 100ms
_hjIncludedInPageviewSample This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that user is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit. 30 minutes
_hjIncludedInSessionSample This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that user is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit. 30 minutes
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress This cookie is used to detect the first pageview session of a user. This is a True/False flag set by the cookie. 30 Minutes
_hjFirstSeen This is set to identify a new user’s first session. It stores a true/false value, indicating whether this was the first time Hotjar saw this user. It is used by Recording filters to identify new user sessions. Session
_hjViewportId This stores information about the user viewport such as size and dimensions. Session
_hjRecordingEnabled This is added when a Recording starts and is read when the recording module is initialized to see if the user is already in a recording in a particular session. Session

Siteimprove

Siteimprove Analytics is a web analytics service. It allows us to recognise and count the number of visitors and so see how visitors move around the site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way the website works, for example by making sure users are finding what they need easily.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
nmstat This cookie is used to help record visitors' use of the website. It is used to collect statistics about site usage such as when the visitor last visited the site. This information is then used to improve the user experience on the website. This Siteimprove Analytics cookie contains a randomly generated ID used to recognize the browser when a visitor reads a page. The cookie contains no personal information and is used only for web analytics. 1000 days
siteimproveses This cookie is used purely to track the sequence of pages a visitor looks at during a visit to the site. This information can be used to create User Journeys and enable visitors to find relevant information more quickly. At end of session
szcookiechoice This cookie is used to determine if the user has accepted or declined cookies. At end of session
sz-feedback-should-hide This cookie is used to hide/close a feedback widget for specific sessions (visits) on the Analytics Feedback feature. It is set when a user clicks a button in the feedback widget which indicates they don't wish to see the widget again. The cookie contains no personal information and is used only for web analytics. It simply contains the text 'true' when it is set. At end of session
_cfduid This cookie is set by the CloudFlare service to identify trusted web traffic. It does not correspond to any user id in the web application, nor does the cookie store any personally identifiable information. See: https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200170156-What-does-the-CloudFlare-cfduid-cookie-do- Never

SoundCloud

SoundCloud provides a platform for sharing and promoting audio.

Cookie Identifier Purpose Expires
sc_anonymous_id Random number separated by hyphens 10 years
__qca Random letters and numbers 18 months
__utma Random number 2 years
__utmb Random number Immediately
__utmc Random number At end of session
__utmt 1 Immediately
__utmz Letters and numbers with referral string 6 months

Author: Web Team
Last reviewed: 18 April 2024
Last updated: 18 April 2024