Cookies are small blocks of data created by a web server while you are browsing a website.
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.
These cookies let you use all parts of the Museum's websites 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:
Cookie name: nhm-performance, nhm-functional, nhm-marketing, nhm-functional-XXXXXX, nhm-wpy-functional, nhm-wpy-marketing, nhm-wpy-performance
Purpose: Used to remember cookie consent settings and to prevent marketing and performance data being collected if the user has rejected those cookies.
Cookie name: JSESSIONID
Purpose: Used when you log in to the main area of the Museum's website to use our Nature Plus forums, Jobs website or online shop.
Cookie name: ASP.NET_SessionId
Purpose: Session cookies that are used to manage logged in users.
More information: Used within our recruitment portal http://nhm.irecruittotal.com.
Cookie name: _dc_gtm_UA-57477456-19
Purpose: Used to load scripts and code into a page.
Cookie name: .ASPXAUTH
Purpose: Used to determine if a user is authenticated.
Cookie name: ASP.NET_SessionId
Purpose: Used to maintain an anonymised user session.
More information: This cookie is used on the Wildlife Photographer of the Year site.
Cookie name: nhm.sso.loggedIn
Purpose: Used when you log in to the main area of the Museum's website to use our Nature Plus forums, Jobs website or online shop.
Cookie name: ROUTEID
Purpose: Used for persistence by EBEAC and Synthesys applications.
Cookie name: SESSION
Purpose: Used to identify the user’s session while purchasing memberships.
Cookie name: __cfduid
Purpose: Used to speed up page load times.
Cookie name: stsservicecookie, x-ms-gateway-slice, CkTst, brcap, fpc, buid, esctx
Purpose: Multiple cookies required for Azure B2C sso functionality.
Cookie name: __cfduid
Purpose: Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis.
Cookie name: __cfduid
Purpose: Used by RawGit to serve raw files directly from GitHub.
Cookie name: MoodleSession
Purpose: Used by Moodle to provide continuity and maintain a user's login from page to page. When you log out or close the browser this cookie is destroyed (in your browser and on the server).
More information: Moodle is an online training platform that hosts some of the Museum's training options.
Cookie name: PHPSESSID
Purpose: If you visit the UK Species Inventory Sandbox site then this cookie will be set on your device to ensure that your settings are remembered from one page to another whilst you browse the site.
Cookie name: ckan
Purpose: A session cookie used to manage logged in users on the Natural History Museum Data Portal.
Cookie name: sb_csrftoken
Purpose: Protects against Cross-Site Request Forgery security attacks.
Cookie name: ugid
Purpose: Provided by Unsplash to allow images to be embedded into our website.
Cookie name: SERVERID
Purpose: Identifies the server that delivered the last page to the browser, used for load balancing.
Cookie name: ASPSESSIONIDXXXXXXXX
Purpose: Used to maintain an anonymised user session by the server.
Cookie name: _GRECAPTCHA
Purpose: Used by Google reCAPTCHA to provide spam protection within the user session.
Cookie name: GTSASP.NET_SessionId, IsMemberPortalCategoryGroup, tickets.nhm.ac.uk, tickets.nhm.ac.ukCORS
Purpose: First party session cookies used to enable ticket booking via the NHM website.
Cookie name: BNIS_x-bni-jas
Purpose: A session cookie for the NHM Data Portal which uses Web Application Firewalls to detect and block suspicious traffic that may cause a denial of service.
Cookie name: Queue-it
Purpose: Our queueing system uses cookies to know when to put website users in a queue, and to keep track of their place within the queue.
Cookie name: machine
Purpose: This is a third party cookie set by secure.worldpay.com used to enable secure online transactions involving credit/debit card payments.
Cookie name: peoplesChoice-wpy-cookie-2023
Purpose: Our voting system for WPY People’s Choice competition uses cookies to know when someone has already cast their one permitted vote.
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: LOGIN_INFO, PREF, VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA, SIDCC, __Secure-XXXSID, __Secure-XXXSIDCC
Purpose: Used by YouTube to enable core functionality of embedded videos.
Cookie name: WPY_DashboardFirstTimeMessageShown, WPY_CategoryFirstTimeMessageShown
Purpose: Used on the Wildlife Photographer of the Year entry site (wpy-entry.com) to ensure that necessary system messages are shown to the user only once.
We use third party advertising cookies to track the actions of visitors to our sites. 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 sites, 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.
Cookie name: dmSessionID, recordID
Purpose: Multiple cookies used by the email marketing company 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: GPS, YSC, VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Purpose: Multiple cookies used by Youtube to collect data for targeted advertising.
Cookie name: IDE
Purpose: This domain is owned by Doubleclick (Google). The main business activity is: Doubleclick is Googles real time bidding advertising exchange.
Cookie name: test_cookie
Purpose: Used by Doubleclick (Google's real time bidding advertising exchange).
Cookie name: u2, ActivityInfo2
Purpose: Used by Sizmek for multi-platform targeted advertising services.
Cookie name: _gw.
Purpose: A persistent cookie for GetSiteControl used for widget targeting.
More information: This cookie is set for one year.
Cookie name: _gs
Purpose: A session cookie for GetSiteControl. It contains information on server targeting, visitors' IP addresses, and geolocation.
More information: This cookie is erased when a site visitor closes their browser.
Cookie name: _gu
Purpose: A persistent cookie for GetSiteControl used mainly for chat functionality.
More information: This cookie is set for one year.
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: sc_anonymous_id
Purpose: The data collected by this cookie is used by Soundcloud, and is collected from pages which contain sound files embedded from the Soundcloud website.
More information: Soundcloud is a German company providing social sharing services centred around soundclips.
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: _ttp, cookie-consent, msToken, _abck, tta_attr_id, tta_attr_id_mirror, ttwid, _tt_enable_cookie, odin_tt, tt_chain_token
Purpose: These cookies are used by TikTok to collect data for targeted advertising.
Cookie name: datr, sb
Purpose: Used by Facebook to enable browser identification.
Cookie name: d_prefs , guest_id, guest_id_ads, guest_id_marketing, muc_ads, personalization_id
Purpose: Used by X (Twitter) for identification, tracking user activities, authentication, and delivering a personalised experience on their platform.
Cookie name: DSID
Purpose: Used by Doubleclick to identify logged-in users on non-Google sites and to store user preferences regarding ad personalization.
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: ar_debug
Purpose: Used by Google Ads to debug ads.
Cookie name: AEC
Purpose: Used by Google Ads to detect spam, fraud, and abuse to help ensure advertisers are not incorrectly charged for fraudulent or otherwise invalid impressions or interactions with ads.
Cookie name: _gcl_au
Purpose: Used by Google Ads for conversion linking.
These cookies help us make sure that the websites are 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.
Cookie name: _gat
Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to limit the amount of data recorded on high traffic websites.
Cookie name: __utmz
Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to identify the source of traffic to the site.
More information: The cookie has a life span of six months and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics.
Cookie name: _ga
Purpose: Used by Google Universal Analytics to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier.
Cookie name: __utmt, _gat
Purpose: Multiple cookies used by Google Analytics to throttle the request rate for the service.
Cookie name: _hjIncludedInSample
Purpose: Used by HotJar to uniquely identifies a visitor during a single browser session and indicate they are included in an audience sample.
Cookie name: _gid
Purpose: Used by Google Universal Analytics to store and update a unique value for each page visited.
Cookie name: __utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmt, __utmz, __utmv, __utmli
Purpose: Multiple cookies used by Google Analytics to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance.
Cookie name: utm_campaign, utm_medium, utm_source
Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to store campaign information.
Cookie name: _gaexp
Purpose: An Optimize cookie used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.
Cookie name: _hjShownFeedbackMessage
Purpose: Used by Hotjar when a visitor minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback.
Cookie name: CONSENT
Purpose: Used by Google to profile the interests of web users.
Cookie name: _hjid
Purpose: Used by Hotjar when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the random user ID, unique to that site on the browser.
Cookie name: nhmsid, nhmuid
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: ep201, ep203
Purpose: Third party cookies owned by Survey Monkey to enable survey and questionnaire functionality on the NHM website.
Cookie name: s_ecid, s_cc, s_sq, s_vi, s_fid, AMCV_##########@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.
Cookie name: _hjSessionUser_xxxxxx, _hjSession_xxxxxx
Purpose: Used by Hotjar to monitor user session behaviour.
Cookie name: gpv_PageFullURL, gpv_PagePath, gpv_PageQueryString, gpv_PageTitle
Purpose: Used by Adobe Analytics to store metadata for the previously browsed page and record user journeys around the site.
Cookie name: OTZ
Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to provide aggregate analysis of website visitors.
Cookie name: _ga_XXXXXXXXX
Purpose: Used by Google Analytics to anonymously identify individual users.
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.
Cookie preferences for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Entry Portal can be managed separately using the WPY Entry cookie preference page.
Please reset your cookie preferences on our cookie preference page.
Cookie preferences for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Entry Portal can be reset using the WPY Entry cookie preference page.
Last updated: 3 May 2024
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") website ("The Site"), and our affiliated websites on this page.