Cookie policy and settings

What are cookies?

Cookies are tiny ‘text files’ of letters and numbers that are downloaded in your computer/smartphone/tablet while you’re surfing a website. They are transferred between the website’s server and your Internet browser to allow the website to distinguish you from other users, remember actions you’ve made and provide you with content that is relevant to you.

How does Art Fund use cookies?

Art Fund categorises cookies into three types: Functional, Analytics & performance, and Marketing. These allow us to enable certain functions, understand and improve your experience on our website, and improve the efficiency of our marketing activity.

How do I change my cookie settings?

To help you choose what cookies are stored we have split them out into three areas: Functional, Analytics & performance, and Marketing.

We have listed the cookies we use in each category below.

The strictly necessary Functional cookies can't be turned off unless you disable all cookies in your browser. Blocking some types of cookies may mean you can’t use all of the services or features on our sites.

Changing your browser cookie settings will not remove any existing cookies from your browser, it will only affect the way cookies are used in future.

1 . Functional

These cookies are necessary for our website to operate. They enable you to move around the site and use its features, for example accessing My Art Fund, completing a form or buying a National Art Pass. These cookies cannot be turned off by the user unless you disable all cookies in your browser. Find out more about how to do this.

Cookie name Description Type Expiry
Cloudflare __cfduid The _cfduid cookie helps Cloudflare detect malicious visitors to our Customers’ websites and minimizes blocking legitimate users. It may be placed on the devices of our customers' End Users to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It is necessary for supporting Cloudflare's security features. HTTP 1 year
location To store users location data for mapping purposes. HTTP ! day
cookieconsent_preferences_v4 This cookie is used to remember a user’s choice about cookies on artfund.org. Where users have previously indicated a preference, that user’s preference will be stored in this cookie. HTTPS 1 year
PHPSESSID Store session data, e.g login and basket HTTP Session
gearsSessionId API session cookie to facilitate checkout functionality HTTPS Session
art_goals_profile_id To temporarily store your Art Profile preferences prior to creating an account and/or logging into the website. HTTP 1 Month
art_tickets_session Store session data HTTP Session
basketId User basket tracking cookie storing the id of the basket HTTP Session
laravel_token API access token to authorise website requests to the Art Tickets API HTTP Session
cookieconsent_preferences This cookie is used to remember a user’s choice about cookies on artfund.org. Where users have previously indicated a preference, that user’s preference will be stored in this cookie. HTTPS 1 year
referral To store a users referral code temporarily during the referral process. HTTP 1 hour

2 . Analytics & performance

These cookies enable us to improve the online services and experiences we offer you, by allowing us to monitor the number of visitors to our website and how they navigate it. This can help us to ensure you find what you’re looking for easily, for example. We collect this information in a way that does not identify you and the data is not shared with anybody else.

Cookie name Description Type Expiry
_gat Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate HTTP 1 day
_gid Registers a unique IDthat is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. HTTP 1 day
_ga These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. HTTP 2 Years
_gali These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. HTTP 30 Seconds
_gat Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate HTTP 1 day
_gid Registers a unique IDthat is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. HTTP 1 day
_ga These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. HTTP 2 Years
_gali These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. HTTP 30 Seconds
_hjClosedSurveyInvites Hotjar cookie that is set once a visitor interacts with an External Link Survey invitation modal. It is used to ensure that the same invite does not reappear if it has already been shown. HTTPS 1 year
_hjDonePolls Hotjar cookie that is set once a visitor completes a survey using the On-site Survey widget. It is used to ensure that the same survey does not reappear if it has already been filled in. HTTPS 1 year
_hjMinimizedPolls Hotjar cookie that is set once a visitor minimizes an On-site Survey widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimized when the visitor navigates through your site. HTTPS 1 year
_hjShownFeedbackMessage Hotjar cookie that is set when a visitor minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if the visitor navigates to another page where it is set to show. HTTPS 1 year
_hjid Hotjar cookie that is set when the customer first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. HTTPS 1 year
_hjRecordingLastActivity This should be found in Session storage (as opposed to cookies). This gets updated when a visitor recording starts and when data is sent through the WebSocket (the visitor performs an action that Hotjar records). HTTPS 1 year
_hjTLDTest When the Hotjar script executes we try to determine the most generic cookie path we should use, instead of the page hostname. This is done so that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). To determine this, we try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. After this check, the cookie is removed. HTTPS Session
_hjUserAttributesHash User Attributes sent through the Hotjar Identify API are cached for the duration of the session in order to know when an attribute has changed and needs to be updated. HTTPS Session
_hjCachedUserAttributes This cookie stores User Attributes which are sent through the Hotjar Identify API, whenever the user is not in the sample. These attributes will only be saved if the user interacts with a Hotjar Feedback tool. HTTPS Session
_hjLocalStorageTest This cookie is used to check if the Hotjar Tracking Script can use local storage. If it can, a value of 1 is set in this cookie. The data stored in_hjLocalStorageTest has no expiration time, but it is deleted almost immediately after it is created. HTTPS Under 100ms
_hjIncludedInPageviewSample This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit. HTTPS 30 minutes
_hjIncludedInSessionSample This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit. HTTPS 30 minutes
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress This cookie is used to detect the first pageview session of a user. This is a True/False flag set by the cookie. HTTPS 30 minutes
_gaexp Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in. HTTP Depends on the length of the experiment, but typically 90 days.
_opt_awcid Used for campaigns mapped to Google Ads Customer IDs. HTTP 24 hours
_opt_awmid Used for campaigns mapped to Google Ads Campaign IDs. HTTP 24 hours
_opt_awgid Used for campaigns mapped to Google Ads Ad Group IDs HTTP 24 hours
_opt_awkid Used for campaigns mapped to Google Ads Criterion IDs HTTP 24 hours
_opt_utmc Stores the last {{utm_campaign}} query parameter. HTTP 24 hours

3 . Marketing

These cookies allow companies or advertisers we work with to deploy more relevant ads and improve the efficiency of our marketing efforts. This means you might see personalised or targeted adverts while browsing other websites.

Cookie name Description Type Expiry
_gcl_au This cookie is used by Google Analytics to understand user interaction with the website. HTTP 3 months
_fbp This cookie will help deliver our advertising to people who have already visited our website when they are on Facebook or a digital platform powered by Facebook Advertising. Session HTTP 3 Months
fr The cookie is set by Facebook to show relevant advertisements to the users and measure and improve the advertisements. The cookie also tracks the behaviour of the user across the web on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. HTTPS 3 Months
IDE Used by Google DoubleClick and stores information about how the user uses the website and any other advertisement before visiting the website. This is used to present users with ads that are relevant to them according to the user profile. HTTP 1 Year
fs_uid This cookie is used by FullStory for session tracking. HTTP No expiry
dm_i Tracks and identifies a visitor as an Engagement Cloud contact whilst they browse a site's pages. This data can then be used for better segmenting and targeting of contacts. HTTP 20 mins
sessionID Tracks and identifies a visitor as an Engagement Cloud contact whilst they browse a site's pages. This data can then be used for better segmenting and targeting of contacts. HTTP 20 mins
recordID Tracks and identifies a visitor as an Engagement Cloud contact whilst they browse a site's pages. This data can then be used for better segmenting and targeting of contacts. HTTP 20 mins
dm_i Tracks and identifies a visitor as an Engagement Cloud contact whilst they browse a site's pages. This data can then be used for better segmenting and targeting of contacts. HTTP 20 mins
sessionID Tracks and identifies a visitor as an Engagement Cloud contact whilst they browse a site's pages. This data can then be used for better segmenting and targeting of contacts. HTTP 20 mins
recordID Tracks and identifies a visitor as an Engagement Cloud contact whilst they browse a site's pages. This data can then be used for better segmenting and targeting of contacts. HTTP 20 mins

Third-party cookies

Third-party cookies are set by someone other than the owner of the website you’re visiting.

Some of our pages may also contain content from other sites like YouTube, which may set their own cookies. If you share a link to a page on one of our sites, the platform you share it on (for example, Facebook) may set a cookie on your browser. We have no control over third-party cookies – you can turn them off in your browser here, but not through us.

Turn off cookies in your browser

It is possible to stop your browser from accepting cookies by changing your browser’s cookie settings. These settings can usually be found in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser. The following links may be helpful, or you can use the “Help” option in your browser.

Useful links

If you would like to find out more about privacy, cookies and their use on the internet, you may find the following links useful:

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Your privacy

Art Fund aims to improve the services we offer. Cookies and similar technologies allow us to better understand your needs and improve your experience on our website.

To find out more, read our cookie policy or to manage your settings click here.

  • Type of browser and its settings
  • Cookie information
  • The IP address from which the device accesses a client’s website or mobile application
  • Information about the geographic location of the device when it accesses a website or mobile application

  • Remember your login details and store your preferences
  • Create a better, more personalised experience
  • Help us understand how people interact with our website and how this could be improved
  • Make our advertising and communications efforts more efficient with measurement and targeting