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Lists the cookies on GOV.WALES and explains their purpose.

Use of cookies by GOV.WALES

Cookies are small text files sent to your computer or mobile device by the websites that you visit. They help make websites work better and provide information to the owners of the site. For instance, we use language cookies to know what language you would like the web site displayed to you in, we also use YouTube cookies to embed videos in pages and Google Analytics cookies to track users’ behaviour whilst on the site. By understanding how people use our site, we can improve the navigation and content to better meet people’s needs. The information collected by GOV.WALES includes IP address, pages visited, browser and operating system. The data will not be used to identify any user personally. The cookies we use on our site are:

CookieNamePurposeExpires
Language versionlangPrefWAGThis cookie is created by the content management system and is essential for the site to display to correct language version of the site.When you close your browser
Session TrackingJSessionIDTo track a session when cookies are disabled. This allows the browser to preserve your session.At end of session
GoogleAnalytics_gaThis cookie is used to find out how visitors use our site. We use the information to help us improve the site. The cookie collects information in an anonymous form, including demographic information, the number of visitors to the site, whether they have visited before and the pages they visit.2 years
CookieControlcivicAllowCookies
civicShowCookieIcon
This cookie records whether a user has accepted the use of cookies on our site.10 hours
YouTube

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

PREF

These cookies are essential for the display of YouTube videos on our site.8 months
YouTubeuse_hitbox At end of session
TikTok _ttpTo measure and improve the performance of your advertising campaigns and to personalize the user's experience (including ads) on TikTok13 months
Facebook_fbpUsed to identify users across webpages where Facebook pixel is installed. The pixel automatically saves a unique identifier to an _fbp cookie for the website domain if one does not already exist.3 months
Facebook_fbcUsed to identify the link users initially clicked across webpages where Facebook pixel is installed. The link ad on Facebook sometimes includes a fbclid query parameter. When the user lands the pixel automatically saves the fbclid query parameter to an _fbc cookie for that website domain.3 months
Microsoft Clarity_clckChecks if you’ve visited gov.wales before and makes sure you're given the same ID1 year
Microsoft Clarity_clskConnects a user’s page views into a single session recording1 day
Microsoft ClarityCLIDIdentifies the first time Microsoft Clarity saw this user on any website that uses Microsoft Clarity1 year
Microsoft ClarityANONCHKIndicates whether the MUID cookie is sent to ANID. ANID is not used by Microsoft Clarity, so is set to expire at the end of your session.end of session
Microsoft ClarityMUIDIdentifies unique web browsers visiting Microsoft sites. These cookies are used for advertising, analytics, and operational purposes1 year
Microsoft ClarityMRIndicates whether to refresh the MUID cookie7 days
Microsoft ClaritySMUsed to synchronise the MUID cookie across Microsoft domainsend of session

Web browsers allow some control of cookies through browser settings. To find out more about cookies and how to manage them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

What information do we collect?

We use Google Analytics cookies and Crazy Egg page tracking to help monitor user activity, and to identify where improvements can be made to the site. We do not collect any personal information (e.g. your name or address) that would be able to identify you.

Google Analytics cookies are a web service provided by Google Inc. (‘Google’) and help to gather and analyse user activity. The information gathered about your use of the web site (including your anonymised IP address) will be transmitted to, and stored on Google servers in the United States. Please see the Google privacy policy, and Google's Terms of Service for detailed information.

Google will use this information to produce user activity reports for this website. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf.

Google will not associate your IP address with any other data previously held. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. Please note that if cookies are disabled, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

Crazy Egg page tagging keeps a record of user clicks through our web site, identifying how often links are clicked and if users scroll on pages so that we may identify and make improvements where needed. Please see the Crazy Egg privacy policy for further information.

We use Microsoft Clarity to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioural metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services. Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of products/services and online activity. Additionally, we use this information for site optimisation. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

Pixels

We have installed tracking codes on some pages of this website to help us learn more about users' interests in the site. We run adverts to raise awareness of our policies and target demographics who could benefit from them. Our aim is to make sure that any advertising we create is as relevant as is reasonably possible to our audience. Pixels enable us to create 'custom audiences' to target adverts at groups of people who have visited certain pages. It also helps us to measure how effective our adverts are. We cannot identify individual visitors to our web pages by using pixels.

You can opt out of receiving these targeted adverts by not allowing cookies to be set for ‘Cookies that help with communications and marketing’ or the advert preferences page in your Facebook account.