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Audience Cookies

Information stored in cookies and local storage

A first-party site-specific cookie is set on the domain of the site and is used to identify the user on your site both within a session and across sessions. This cookie is named cX_P. The identifiers can be accessed both on the client side and the server side. On the client side, cX_P can be read out via the cX.getUserId() function call. On the server side, the cookies can be read via standard mechanisms, such as cX.getCookie("cX_P")

In addition, and if the client supports and allows it, a third-party cookie is set to enable the building of session and cross-session user profiles that span all sites in the Piano Audience, Insight, and CCE network. It is named gckp.

The above cookies are always set when using Piano Audience, Insight, and CCE services. In addition, when using particular services or particular features of those services, some additional cookies can be set.

Note: Click on the "Fullscreen" icon below in order to view the whole table with the Audience cookies.

NAME

TYPE & CATEGORY

LIFETIME

OBJECT

PURPOSE

USER OPT-OUT EFFECT

PROCESSING PARTY

cX_P

Cookie (Essential)

13 months

The first-party user id (persistent ID to track the activity on the current site)

Same as for _pcid. This cookie contains the browserId that is used in Piano products for reporting and tracking purposes

All the system data will be impersonal and will send anonymous PV events

2

cX_G

Cookie (Essential)

13 months

Global ID mapping different ids together into one ID**

A Global ID mapping different IDs together into one ID. Used for building user profile information across all sites of a single customer where cx.js is implemented

Will not build user profile across all sites of a single customer

2

gckp

Cookie (Essential)

12 months

For building user profile information across all sites of a single customer (same as _cX_G but as an HttpOnly cookie)**

Used for building user profile information across sites of a single customer where cx.js is implemented

Will not build user profile across all sites of a single customer

3

_cX_cons

Local Storage (Optional)

No expiry

 Only used if Cxense Consents were applied. For recording consent. pv=true&<br/> ad=true&<br/> recs=true&<br/> segment=true

Used for recording consent as pv=true&<br/> ad=true&<br/> recs=true&<br/> segment=true

Will record consent into memory and ignore consent cache

2

_cX_segmentInfo

Local Storage (Essential)

13 months

Corresponding to the first party cookie cX_segmentInfo***

 Used for processing browsing habits and first-party data to include users in specific audience segments

Has no effect if the user does not opt out of the cX_SegmentInfo*** cookie value (and vice versa)

2

_cX_check

Local & Session Storage (Mandatory)

Temporary

Temporary Local & Session storage to detect Local & Session storage support

Used for detection of Local storage and Session storage support

Will assume that Local & Session storage is available

2

_cX_G

Local & Session Storage (Essential)

13 months

This Local & Session Storage item has been deprecated. Corresponding to the first party cookie cX_G

 Used for building user profile information across all sites of a single customer where cx.js is implemented

Has no effect if the user does not opt-out of the cX_G cookie value (and vice versa)

2

_cX_S

Session Storage (Essential)

Session

Corresponding to the first party cookie cX_S***

Generates a site-specific session ID

Has no effect if the user does not opt-out of the cX_S*** cookie value (and vice versa)

2

_cX_P

Local Storage (Essential)

13 months

This Local Storage item has been deprecated. Corresponding to the first party cookie cX_P

Contains the browserId that is used in Piano products for reporting and tracking purposes

Has no effect if the user does not opt-out of the cX_P cookie value (and vice versa)

2

_cX_lastP1Time

Local Storage (Optional)

7 days

For non-Safari browsers, we record third-party IDs once per week. This represents the next time it should load after. Mostly used on Chrome

Used for recording third-party IDs. Value: UNIX timestamp

Will not set time for third-party token

2

_cX_lastLocalCst

Session Storage (Optional)

Session

For non-Safari browsers, we record third-party IDs once per week. Only used on Edge and Firefox

Used for recording third-party IDs.

Will not set the third-party token

2

_cX_lastLocalCstTime

Session Storage (Optional)

Session

For non-Safari browsers, we record third-party IDs once per week. This represents the next time it should load after. Only used on Edge and Firefox

Used for recording third-party IDs. Value: UNIX timestamp

Will not set time for third-party token

2

_cX_SA

Session Storage (Optional)

Session

Only used if session annotations were applied. Contains annotations for the current session (the custom parameters to be applied to each pageView event for the session) About Session Annotations

Used for setting annotations for the current session

Will not set annotations for the current session

2

_cX_lst

Local Storage (Optional)

13 months

Records a third-party token for cross-site tracking. Mostly used on Chrome

The item is set only once to the cdn.cxense.com domain

Will not set third-party token for cross-site tracking

3

_cX_partner

Session Storage (Essential)

Session

Corresponding to the first party cookie cX_partner. Only used if cX.sync() was executed

Used to limit the number of cookie sync requests

Has no effect if the user does not opt-out of the cX_partner cookie value (and vice versa)

2

_cX_cintSet

Optional

7 days

Is only used if CINT is enabled and cX.cint() was executed. Indicates that a CINT request was ran

CINT is a survey platform provider than serves online surveys to users and collects the responses into their database. The cookie sync to Piano Audience allows customers to ingest CINT survey data and use that for age modeling (and other types of sociodemographic modeling)

Will send a CINT request every time when a user opens the page

2

_cX_clearId

Local Storage (Optional)

13 months

Used to store a unique hash to clear any IDs from the browser's cache and only when cX.clearIds() is called and executed

Used to clear any IDs from the browser's cache when cX.clearIds() is called

The cache will not be cleared correctly

2

_cX_FFRefresh

Local Storage (Optional)

30 days

It's only used on Firefox and only when cX.clearIds() is called to clear the IDs (to force it to re-resolve IDs)

It is used as a method to tell the browser that it needs to retrieve a fresh third-party ID because it didn't respond to changes in HTTP headers for busting the cache

 Doesn't clear the global ID in Firefox

2

_cX_atfr

Local Storage (Optional)

No expiry

Stores "after-the-fact" information for a page view

It stores "after-the-fact" information for a page view, to be sent on the next page view. Contains information on window sizes, widget visibility, user's active time, etc.

 Will not pass any "after-the-fact" information e.g. scroll depth, browser window size

2

*1 = first-party cookies (managed by publishers), 2 = first-party cookies (managed and set by Piano), 3 = third-party cookies. Note, that you can specify the maximum cookie/local storage lifetime in the cx.js settings.

**At Piano, we prioritize the confidentiality and isolation of our client's data. We ensure that data sharing across Piano clients does not occur. All data collected is meticulously partitioned into customer collections, maintaining complete separation between different clients' information. To facilitate seamless tracking across multiple sites, we utilize the "Cx global ID" stored within cookies. This unique identifier allows DMP (Audience) customers to effectively track browsers across their various sites. It's important to note that the Cx global ID is an anonymous ID, ensuring that no personally identifiable information is shared. Even if there are instances where the same browser ID is present in the customer collections of different clients, it is impossible to merge or aggregate the events associated with that browser across multiple customers.

***cX_segmentInfo, cX_S and cX_partner are deprecated cookies which could be stored in the user's browser for a maximum of a year. They will be removed automatically after a user has entered a page.

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