What are cookies?

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we may store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

Our Websites may use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our Websites. This may help us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Websites and may also allow us to improve our Websites. By continuing to browse the Websites, you are agreeing to our use of cookies as well as the terms of this policy (the “Cookie Policy”).

What types of cookies do we use?

We may use the following cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Websites. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Websites, use a shopping cart, or make use of e-commerce payment processing services.
• Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our Websites when they are using it. This may help us improve how our Websites work, for example, by ensuring that users find what they are looking for easily.
• Functionality cookies. These cookies are used to recognize you when you return to our Websites. They may enable us to personalize our content for you, greet you by name, or remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
• Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our Websites, the pages you have visited, and the links you have followed.

Hotjar cookies

Our Websites use cookies associated with Hotjar. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users’ experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behavior and their devices. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our Websites. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf.

These cookies apply when the Hotjar Tracking Code has been loaded and ensure the Hotjar Tracking Code functions correctly. Mentions of site_id refer to the unique ID allocated to an individual site when it is created in Hotjar.

In order for Hotjar features and tools to function correctly, all the cookies listed below (source here) should be allowed.

Relating to the user
Cookie name	Description
_hjSessionUser_{site_id}

Set when a user first lands on a page.

Persists the Hotjar User ID which is unique to that site.

Ensures data from subsequent visits to the same site are attributed to the same user ID.

365 days duration.

JSON data type.

_hjid	Set when a user first lands on a page. Persists the Hotjar User ID which is unique to that site. Ensures data from subsequent visits to the same site are attributed to the same user ID. 365 days duration. UUID data type.
_hjFirstSeen	Identifies a new user’s first session. Used by Recording filters to identify new user sessions. Session duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjUserAttributesHash	User Attributes sent through the Hotjar Identify API are cached for the duration of the session. Enables us to know when an attribute has changed and needs to be updated. Session duration. Hash data type.
_hjCachedUserAttributes	Stores User Attributes 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. Cookie used regardless of whether a Feedback tool is present. Session duration. JSON data type.
_hjViewportId	Stores user viewport details such as size and dimensions. Session duration. UUID data type.

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Relating to the session
Cookie name	Description
_hjSession_{site_id}	Holds current session data. Ensures subsequent requests in the session window are attributed to the same session. 30 minutes duration. JSON data type.
_hjSessionTooLarge	Causes Hotjar to stop collecting data if a session becomes too large. Determined automatically by a signal from the WebSocket server if the session size exceeds the limit. Session duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjSessionRejected	If present, set to '1' for the duration of a user's session, when Hotjar has rejected the session from connecting to our WebSocket due to server overload. Applied in extremely rare situations to prevent severe performance issues. Session duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjSessionResumed	Set when a session/recording is reconnected to Hotjar servers after a break in connection. Session duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjLocalStorageTest	Checks if the Hotjar Tracking Code can use local storage. \ If it can, a value of 1 is set. Data stored in_hjLocalStorageTest has no expiration time, but it is deleted almost immediately after it is created. Under 100ms duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjIncludedInPageviewSample	Set to determine if a user is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit. 30 minutes duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjIncludedInSessionSample	Set to determine if a user is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit. 30 minutes duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress	Used to detect the first pageview session of a user. 30 minutes duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjTLDTest	We try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. Enables us to try to determine the most generic cookie path to use, instead of page hostname. It means that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). After this check, the cookie is removed. Session duration. Boolean true/false data type.

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Relating to Recordings
Cookie name	Description
_hjRecordingEnabled	Set when a Recording starts. Read when the Recording module is initialized to see if the user is already in a recording in a particular session. Session duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjRecordingLastActivity	Set in Session storage as opposed to cookies. Updated when a user recording starts and when data is sent through the WebSocket (the user performs an action that Hotjar records). Session duration. Numerical Value (Timestamp) data type.

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Relating to Feedback and Survey tools
Cookie name	Description
_hjClosedSurveyInvites	Set when a user interacts with an external link Survey invitation modal. Ensures the same invite does not reappear if it has already been shown. 365 days duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjDonePolls	Set when a user completes an on-site Survey. Ensures the same Survey does not reappear if it has already been filled in. 365 days duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjMinimizedPolls	Set when a user minimizes an on-site Survey. Ensures that the Survey stays minimized when the user navigates through your site. 365 days duration. Boolean true/false data type.
_hjShownFeedbackMessage	Set when a user minimizes or completes a Feedback widget. Ensures the Feedback widget will load as minimized if the user navigates to another page where it is set to show. 365 days duration. Boolean true/false data type.

You can opt-out of being tracked by Hotjar and prevent our Websites from analyzing the actions you take using them. This will prevent us from learning from your actions and creating a better website experience for you and other users. To opt-out, visit Hotjar’s Do Not Track page, here.

For further details, please see the ‘about Hotjar’ section of Hotjar’s support site.

How to block or restrict cookies?

You can also block or restrict the cookies used by our Websites by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. Alternatively, you can visit www.internetcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers and devices. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies), you may not be able to access all or parts of our Websites.