Cookies: What They Are And How To Remove Them

Most web sites you visit will use cookies to improve your user experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you, either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’). All very confusing we know. But cookies have been around for years and are part of what makes web sites work.

  • Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, storing your preferences, and generally improving your experience of a website.
  • Cookies make the interaction between you and the website faster and easier. If a website doesn’t use cookies, it will think you are a new visitor every time you move to a new page on the site – for example, when you enter your login details and move to another page, it won’t recognise you and it won’t be able to keep you logged in.
  • Cookies may be set by the website you are visiting (‘first party cookies’) or they may be set by other websites who run content on the page you are viewing (‘third party cookies’).

What is in a cookie?

A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie.

  • Each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers.
  • It allows a website to remember things like your preferences or what’s in your shopping basket. It doesn’t store your name, address or inside leg measurement.

What to do if you don’t want cookies to be set

Some people find the idea of a web site storing information on their computer or mobile device a bit intrusive, particularly when this information is stored and used by a third party without them knowing. Although this is generally quite harmless you may not, for example, want to see advertising that has been targeted to your interests.
If you prefer, it is possible to block some or all cookies, or even to delete cookies that have already been set; but you need to be aware that you might lose some functions of that website.

If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how.
Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.

Cookie Name Purpose
Google Analytics _ga Used to distinguish users and expires in 2 years
Google Analytics _gid Used to distinguish users and expires in 24 hours
Google Analytics _gat Used to throttle request rate and expires in 24 hours
Google AdWords ads/ga-audiences Used by Google Adwords to re-engage visiitors that are likely to convert to customers based on the vsitor’s online behaviour across websites
Google Analytics IDE Used by Google DoublieClick to register and report the website user’s actions after viewing or clicking one of the advertisers ads with the purpose of measuring the efficacy of an ad and to present targeted ads to the user.
Google Analytics test_cookie Used to check if the users browser supports cookies
AddThis _at.hist Used by social sharing platform AddThis to store the users usage history of the AddThis sharing widget
AddThis _atuvc Updates the counter of a websites socual sharing features
AddThis _atuvs Ensures the updated counter is displated to the user if a page is shared with the AddThis
AddThis _at.cww Used by social sharing platform AddThis
AddThis _fbp Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertismnet products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers
AddThis _gcl_au Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertismement effciency across websites using their services
AddThis at-lojson-cache-# Used by social sharing platform AddThis
AddThis at-rand Used by social sharing platform AddThis
AddThis loc Geolocation, which is used to help providers determin how users who share information with each other are geographically located (state level)
AddThis uvc Detects how often the social sharing services, AddThis, encounters the same user.
AddThis xtc Registers the users sharing of content via social media
AddThis uid Recognise a visitor when they return to the site.
AddThis uvc Update the counter monitoring the sharing of content via social media sites.
Facebook fr Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertismnet products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers
Facebook tr Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertismnet products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers
Instagram csrftoken Helps prevent Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks
Instagram rur Ensure visitor browsing-security by preventing cross-site request forgery. This cookie is essential for the security of the website and visitor
Instagram urlgen Ensure visitor browsing-security by preventing cross-site request forgery. This cookie is essential for the security of the website and visitor
Vimeo vuid
vimeo
Collects data on the users visits to the website, such as which pages have been read.