Cookies
A cookie lets a website recognise your device and store some information about your preferences or interactions.
Why we use cookies
We use gov.scot cookie tracking data to make informed decisions on whether the site is meeting your needs, which leads to us making improvements. For example, we monitor how much traffic each part of the site gets and work to improve areas which are not being found when they should be.
The cookies that we set on gov.scot cannot be used to identify you personally. Find out more about how to manage cookies for all websites
Turn cookies on or off
We use 3 main types of cookie on our website. You can choose which cookies you're happy for us to use. Any data collected is anonymous.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to collect information about how you use gov.scot.
We store information about:
- the pages you visit and how long you spend on each page
- how you got to gov.scot
- what you click on while you're visiting gov.scot
We do not:
- collect information that can be used to identify you; for example, we never receive your name or address
- make any attempt to find out the identities of people visiting gov.scot
- allow the tools that we use to find out the identities of people visiting gov.scot
- sell, trade or give your details to third parties, unless we are required to do it by law
All information we get through cookies and analytics will be treated in confidence.
We anonymise the last 3 digits of all gov.scot user IP addresses for Google Analytics, so that we can ensure that you are protected (you can read more about how this works here). We can only see a general overview of which regions and cities you may come from, not where individuals access from.
Find out more about security and privacy in Google Analytics.
You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.
| Cookie name | Description | Expiry time |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | This is used to understand and differentiate between different users. | 13 Months |
| _ga_<container-id> | Used to persist session state. Container ID is the identifier for the Google Analytics account being used. | 13 Months |
| _gid | _gid has a different ID for each page set on, and a timestamp. This assists with plotting user journeys. | 24 Hours |
YouTube
Pages on gov.scot which contain YouTube videos will not set third-party cookies (we use YouTube-nocookie.com — you can read more here).
Further information
You can email the performance team for further information. Email: performance@gov.scot
All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except for graphic assets and where otherwise stated
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