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Cookies on the Museum's online shop

What are cookies?

Cookies are small blocks of data created by a web server while you are browsing a website.

Why do we use cookies?

They are used widely to improve how websites work, to give users the best online experience tailored to their interests and to provide information to website owners about how their site is used and how well it is performing.
We may also use information gained from cookies to tailor the content of our communications with you via other channels, for example if you are opted in to receive marketing emails.

Functional cookies 

These cookies let you use all parts of the Museum's website and remember the choices you make to give you better functionality and personal features. Without them, services that you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Some examples of how we use these cookies are:

  • Remembering if you visited the website before so that messages for new visitors are not displayed to you
  • Recognising you when you sign into the Museum's online shop or recruitment portal
See the functional cookies used on the Museum's website

Cookie Name: pr-cookie-notice-status

Purpose: This presence of this cookie prevents the cookie banner from popping up again once cookie preferences have been saved.

Cookie Name: user_allowed_save_cookie

Purpose: Used for cookie restriction mode. When cookie restriction mode is enabled, visitors to your store are notified that cookies are required for full-featured operations.

Cookie Name: guest-view

Purpose: Stores the Order ID that guest shoppers use to retrieve their order status. 

Cookie Name: login_redirect

Purpose: Preserves the destination page that was loading before the customer was directed to log in.

Cookie Name: mage-messages

Purpose: Tracks error messages and other notifications that are shown to the user, such as the cookie consent message, and various error messages.

Cookie Name: section_data_ids

Purpose: Stores customer-specific information related to shopper-initiated actions, such as wish list display and checkout information.

Cookie Name: store

Purpose: Tracks the specific store view / locale selected by the shopper.

Cookie Name: amz_auth_err

Purpose: (Used by Amazon Pay) Value “1’ indicates an authorization error.

Cookie Name: amz_auth_logout

Purpose: (Used by Amazon Pay) Value “1” indicates that the user should be logged out.

Cookie Name: mage-cache-sessid

Purpose: The value of this cookie triggers the cleanup of local cache storage. 

Cookie Name: mage-cache-storage

Purpose: Local storage of visitor-specific content that enables ecommerce functions.

Cookie Name: stf

Purpose: Records the time messages are sent by the SendFriend (Email a Friend) module.

Cookie Name: recently_viewed_product

Purpose: Stores product IDs of recently viewed products for easy navigation.

Cookie Name: recently_viewed_product_previous

Purpose: Stores product IDs of recently previously viewed products for easy navigation.

Cookie Name: mage-translation-storage

Purpose: Stores translated content when requested by the shopper. Used when Translation Strategy is configured.

Cookie Name: mage-translation-file-version

Purpose: Tracks the version of translations in local storage. Used when Translation Strategy is configured as Dictionary.

Cookie Name: product_data_storage

Purpose: Stores configuration for product data related to Recently Viewed / Compared Products.

Cookie Name: recently_compared_product

Purpose: Stores product IDs of recently compared products.

Cookie Name: recently_compared_product_previous

Purpose: Stores product IDs of previously compared products for easy navigation.

Cookie Name: mage-cache-storage-section-invalidation

Purpose: Forces local storage of specific content sections that should be invalidated.

Cookie Name: pr-cookie-consent

Purpose: Stores your cookie consent value (i.e. all cookies enabled, only necessary cookies enabled etc).

Cookie Name: pr-cookie-consent-id

Purpose: Assigns the user a unique ID based on their cookie consent value. This is necessary in conjunction with the pr-cookie-consent cookie for the functionality of the cookie consent module.

Cookie Name: form_key

Purpose: A security measure that appends a random string to all form submissions to protect the data from Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF).

Cookie Name: X-Magento-Vary

Purpose: Configuration setting that improves performance when using Varnish static content caching.

Cookie Name: private_content_version

Purpose: Appends a random, unique number and time to pages with customer content to prevent them from being cached on the server.

Cookie Name: persistent_shopping_cart

Purpose: Stores the key (ID) of persistent cart to make it possible to restore the cart for an anonymous shopper.

Cookie Name: add_to_cart

Purpose: Used by Google Tag Manager. Captures the product SKU, name, price and quantity removed from the cart, and makes the information available for future integration by third-party scripts.

Cookie Name: mage-banners-cache-storage

Purpose: Stores banner content locally to improve performance.

Cookie Name: remove_from_cart

Purpose: Used by Google Tag Manager. Captures the product SKU, name, price, and quantity added to the cart, and makes the information available for future integration by third-party scripts.

Cookie Name: at_check

Purpose: Used by Adobe Target to record the user's cookie preferences.

Cookie Name: adobeujs-optin

Purpose: Used by Adobe Analytics to record the user's cookie preferences.

Cookie Name: SIDCC, __Secure-XXXSID, __Secure-XXXSIDCC, __Secure-XXXSIDTS

Purpose: Used by YouTube to enable core functionality of embedded videos.

Cookie Name: AEC

Purpose: Used by YouTube / Google to validate user sessions.

Cookie Name: SOCS, SOCSSSID

Purpose: Used by Google to store user privacy preferences.

Cookie Name: adv_awc

Purpose: AWIN commission tracking cookie.

Advertising cookies

We use third party advertising cookies to track the actions of visitors to our site. That information lets us assess the effectiveness of our digital advertising and allows users to be served more relevant ads on third party platforms.

This could include showing you adverts we think may interest you based on the pages you visit on our site, limiting the number of times that a given ad is shown to you, and removing those who have already bought tickets from any future ticket sales campaigns.

Data stored in these cookies will be shared with ad platform vendors and used to inform third party marketing activities, such as building audience profiles and serving targeted advertising.

See the advertising cookies used on the Museum's website

Cookie Name: dmSessionID, recordID

Purpose: Multiple cookies used by the email marketing company Dotdigital (previously known as DotMailer) to track when email campaign recipients land on the target website, which enables monitoring of the effectiveness of a campaign.

Cookie Name: _fbp

Purpose: Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers.

Cookie Name: fr

Purpose: Used by Facebook to collect data for targeted advertising.

Cookie Name: 1P_JAR, NID

Purpose: Multiple cookies used by Google to collect data that profiles the interests of web users for advertising purposes.

Cookie Name: IDE

Purpose: This domain is owned by Doubleclick (Google). Doubleclick is Google's real time bidding advertising exchange.

Cookie Name: test_cookie

Purpose: Used by Doubleclick (Google's real time bidding advertising exchange).

Cookie Name: GPS, YSC, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

Purpose: Multiple cookies used by YouTube to collect data for targeted advertising.

Cookie Name: lang

Purpose: Used by Twitter to collect data that is primarily used for tracking and targeting. The data is collected from the 'Tweet this' function on the Museum's website.

Cookie Name: CONSENT

Purpose: This cookie carries information about how the end user uses the website, and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting said website.

Cookie Name: Affc

Purpose: This cookie is used by Affiliate Future to enable tracking of affiliate campaigns.

Cookie Name: t2_f8n3t7fos

Purpose: Used by Reddit to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers.

Cookie Name: ar_debug

Purpose: Used by Google Ads to debug ads.

Cookie Name: SID, HSID, APISID

Purpose: Used by Google Ads to track user specific details and login behaviour.

Cookie Name: SAPISID

Purpose: Used by Google Ads to display personalized advertisements on Google sites, based on recent searches and previous interactions.

Cookie Name: datr

Purpose: Used by Facebook to enable browser identification.

Cookie Name: _rdt_uuid, csv, edgebucket, loid, pc

Purpose: Used by Reddit to enable targeted advertising.

Cookie Name: _gcl_au

Purpose: Used by Google Ads for conversion linking.

Performance cookies 

These cookies help us make sure that the website is working properly, fix any errors and let us try and assess new content and design ideas. These cookies also help us to build an understanding of your interests so we can personalise website content to be more specific and relevant to you. They do not store details like your name or email address, but can track the website pages you visit. You can refuse these cookies but the website content will be less tailored to you. If you are also subscribed to email marketing or have another relationship with the Museum such as being a Museum member, these cookies will also help us to personalise the content you receive via other channels.

See the performance cookies used on the Museum's website

Cookie Name: _ga

Purpose: Distinguishes visitors to the site.

Cookie Name: _gid

Purpose: Distinguishes visitors to the site.

Cookie Name: _gat

Purpose: Used to throttle request rate.

Cookie Name: _dc_gtm_*

Purpose: Throttles request rate when Google Analytics is deployed with Google Tag Manager.

Cookie Name: gpv_PagePath

Purpose: Used by Adobe Analytics to collect data on user's site interactions.

Cookie Name: gpv_PageQueryString

Purpose: Used by Adobe Analytics to collect data on user's site interactions.

Cookie Name: gpv_PageFullURL

Purpose: Used by Adobe Analytics to collect data on user's site interactions.

Cookie Name: gpv_PageTitle

Purpose: Used by Adobe Analytics to collect data on user's site interactions.

Cookie Name: nhmuid, nhmsid

Purpose: Used to gather Adobe Analytics data. These cookies allow for insights into anonymised user behaviour during browsing sessions and over longer periods.

Cookie Name: _ga_XXXXXXXXX

Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to anonymously identify individual users.

Cookie Name: _hjSessionUser_xxxxxx, _hjSession_xxxxxx, _hjMinimizedPolls

Purpose: Used by Hotjar to monitor user session behaviour and to identify when messaging has been seen.

Cookie Name: s_cc, AMCV_##########@AdobeOrg, AMCVS_##########@AdobeOrg

Purpose: Multiple cookies used by Adobe Analytics to track visitor behaviour and gather performance data.

Cookie Name: mbox

Purpose: Used by Adobe Target to keep track of visitor sessions during website experiments.

Setting your own cookie preferences 

To set your own cookies preferences or to accept all of the cookies the Museum uses on its site please visit our cookie preference page.

How to reset your cookie preferences

Please reset your cookie preferences on our cookie preference page.

Last updated: 18 September 2023

Legislation about cookies

The EU cookie law , introduced in 2011, requires that websites make clear how and why they use cookies.

You can find information about all the cookies that we use on the Natural History Museum ("NHM") online shop ("The Site"), and our affiliated websites on this page.


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