Find out what cookies are and how they are used on the National Trust for Scotland website.
Cookies and Analytics
When you visit our website (nts.org.uk), with your consent, we use cookies to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns, through the use of analytics. We do this to understand the number of visitors to our website and the popularity of different pages. The information is processed in a way that does not directly identify anyone.
What are cookies and pixels?
A cookie is a small piece of text sent to and stored in your browser. A pixel, often referred to as a tag, is a block of code placed within our website’s code. When we refer to cookies on our website and in our policies, we are referring to both cookies and pixels.
Cookies and pixels enable us to recognise your device or monitor information about user behaviour to see how you use our website or interact with our advertising. This helps us to ensure the security and performance of our website as well as determine what is popular and deliver the most appropriate content for you.
To comply with data protection and electronic marketing laws, we must tell you when we use cookies and pixels on our website, tell you what they are and how they work, and in most cases, seek your consent to use them. Consent is not required where the cookies and pixels are necessary for:
- carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network
- the provision of an information society service (eg a service over the internet) requested by the subscriber or user
This means we do not need consent for:
- cookies used to remember the goods a user wishes to buy when they add them to their online basket or proceed to the checkout on our website
- session cookies providing security that is essential to comply with data protection security requirements for an online service the user has requested – eg online payments processing
- load-balancing cookies that ensure the content of the page loads quickly and effectively by distributing the workload across several computers
We use a cookies tool on our website which asks users to opt in for cookies that are not considered necessary (please refer to the tables below for further information). This tool enables you to accept marketing and/or analytics cookies, or neither, and save your preferences; or you can accept the recommended settings. In accepting recommended settings, this will switch all marketing and analytics cookies on and close the cookie controller. You can change your settings at any time by visiting this page.
Our purposes for processing this information is to ensure that content from our website is presented in the most effective way for you and your device; to enable you to participate in interactive features on our website; to maintain and monitor the performance of our website; and to continually look to improve our website and your website experience. Our lawful basis for this processing is either your consent or our legitimate interests (for cookies that are deemed necessary).
Third party cookies
We sometimes embed content from social media and other third-party websites into our website. As a result, when you visit a page containing such content, you may be presented with cookies from these websites and these third-party cookies may track your use of our website. We do not control these cookies, so we would recommend that you check the relevant third party’s website for more information.
Who will have access to your data and who will we share it with?
The National Trust for Scotland may work with other companies that use cookies to collect information regarding your interaction with our website. This information may be used to serve you National Trust for Scotland advertisements that may be of interest to you when you visit other websites, for example on Facebook.
We also work with an affiliates marketing company for the purposes of recording, validating and reporting on successful transactions after clicking on a Trust advertisement on another website. We have a contract in place to govern the lawful handling of this data. Please refer to the AWIN Privacy Policy for further information.
Our website is hosted by a third party. They will have access to your information for the purposes of managing your interaction with the website and investigating any difficulties with using the website. We have a contract in place to govern the lawful handling of this data. Please refer to the Dentsu Creative Privacy Policy for further information.
Dentsu Creative Privacy Policy
Further information about the use of third party cookies and the sharing of cookie data with third parties can be found in the tables below.
What cookies do we use?
We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We’d also like to set optional marketing and analytics cookies to personalise your visit to the website and help us improve it. We won’t set optional cookies unless you enable them or accept our recommended settings.
Necessary cookies
Necessary cookies enable core functionality on our website. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.
Table 1: Necessary cookies
Name | Purpose | Duration |
SimpleSAMLAuthToken | To enable efficient interaction with the website. It tracks the current session ID and assists with session-fixation protection for My Trust by identifying if user has already authorised or otherwise. | Session |
SimpleSAMLSessionID | To enable efficient interaction with the website. It tracks the current session ID and assists with session-fixation protection for My Trust by creating an ID associated with the user session. | Session |
CraftSessionId | To enable efficient interaction with the website. It is used to recognise the same user within a session as they navigate the site. | Session |
CRAFT_CSRF_TOKEN | To improve security of the site by helping to prevent any cross-site request forgery ie malicious exploitation of website by users. | Session |
PHPSESSID | To enable efficient interaction with the website. On the website it is used to establish a user session and to pass state data via a temporary cookie. | Session |
| section_data_ids | Browser caching. Stores customer-specific information related to shopper-initiated actions such as display wish list, checkout information, etc. | 1 day |
| private_content_version | Browser caching. Appends a random, unique number and time to pages with customer content to prevent them from being cached on the server. | 10 years |
| mage-messages | Tracks error messages and other notifications that are shown to the user, such as the cookie consent message, and various error messages. The message is deleted from the cookie after it is shown to the shopper. | 1 day |
| recently_compared_product | Stores product IDs of recently compared products. | 1 day |
| product_data_storage | Stores configuration for product data related to Recently Viewed / Compared Products. | 1 day |
| recently_compared_product_previous | Stores product IDs of previously compared products for easy navigation. | 1 day |
| recently_viewed_product | Stores product IDs of recently viewed products for easy navigation. | 1 day |
| mage-cache-sessid | The value of this cookie triggers the clean-up of local cache storage. | 1 day |
| mage-cache-storage-section-invalidation | Forces local storage of specific content sections that should be invalidated. | 1 day |
| mage-cache-storage | Local storage of visitor-specific content that enables e-commerce functions. | 1 day |
| hide-site-banner | To determine whether to show site-wide notification banner or not. | Session |
| nts-form-dismissed | To determine whether to show sign-up form or not. | 1 year |
Table 2: Necessary cookies (Third Party)
Name | Purpose | Duration |
ApplicationGatewayAffinity | To improve website performance and route traffic to the website. It is set by Microsoft as it runs on the Windows Azure cloud platform. | Session |
Marketing cookies
We use marketing cookies to personalise your visit to our website and show you tailored advertising based on your likes and interests. For example, showing you places to visit and events in your location.
Table 3: Marketing cookies
| Name | Purpose | Duration |
| _aw_m_15472 | To monitor successful conversions from other websites to nts.org.uk using Affiliate Window. | 1 year |
Table 4: Marketing cookies (Third Party)
Name | Purpose | Duration |
_fbp | Contains a subdomain index, timestamp and random number. Used to identify browsers for the purchases of advertising and site analytics. It is set by Facebook. | 90 days |
| uuid2 | Used to select and measure the performance of advertisements in the platform. It is set by Xandr (AppNexus). | 90 days |
| uids | Used to select and measure the performance of advertisements in the platform. It is set by Xandr (AppNexus). | 90 days |
| usersynch | Used to check whether a user ID is synched with platform partners. It is set by Xandr (AppNexus). | 90 days |
| icu | Helps to limit the number of times a user sees an ad. It is set by Xandr (AppNexus). | 90 days |
| anj | Used to check whether a user ID is synched with platform partners. It is set by Xandr (AppNexus). | 90 days |
fr | Contains a User ID, Browser ID and timestamp plus other miscellaneous data. Used to deliver, measure and improve the relevancy of ads. It is set by Facebook. | 90 days |
| _gcl ANID IDE DSID FLC AID TAID exchange_uid | These cookies are used to improve the relevance of ads shown to users. They are set by Google. | 2 years |
SRT ServerPool TASession | To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. These cookies are also used by the website to determine if visitors click on the advertisements. They are set by Tripadvisor. | Session |
PMC | To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitors click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor. | 2 years |
TACds | To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitors click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor. | 2 months |
TART | To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitors click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor. | 4 days |
TATravelInfo | To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitors click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor. | 13 days |
| NID | Targeting/Advertising. Allows our website to remember information that changes the way the site behaves or looks, such as your preferred language or the region you are in. This cookie can also assist you in changing text size, font, and other parts of web pages that you can personalise. It is set by Google. | 180 days |
| DV360 (Pixel) | To optimise membership conversions. It is set by DV360. | 30 days |
| 1P_JAR | To remember recent searches and interactions to save preferences and customise ads on Google websites. It is set by Google. | 30 days |
Analytics cookies
We use analytics cookies to monitor visitor behaviour patterns and improve our website performance. For example, if we are running an advertisement on a third party website, analytics cookies will help us to understand if this advertising has been successful in redirecting users to our website.
Table 5: Analytics cookies
Name | Purpose | Duration |
_ga | To calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the website analytics reports. It uses a unique ID for users. The activity tracked for analytical reports includes page views, e-commerce (memberships, donations and online shop transactions), downloads, use of search functionality or when a user selects specific links on the website. | 2 years |
_gid | To generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website by registering a unique ID. The activity tracked for analytical reports includes page views, e-commerce (memberships, donations and online shop transactions), downloads, use of search functionality or when a user selects specific links on the website. | 2 days |
_gat | To throttle request rate and limit requests to Google Analytics. | 1 minute |
| _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. | 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. | 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 the site. | 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. | 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 behaviour in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. | 1 year |
| _hjRecordingLastActivity | This gets updated when a visitor recording starts and when data is sent through the WebSocket (the visitor performs an action that Hotjar records). | Session |
| _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. | 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. | 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. | 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. | 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 page view limit. | 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. | 30 minutes |
| _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress | This cookie is used to detect the first page view session of a user. This is a True/False flag set by the cookie. | 30 minutes |
| _hjFirstSeen | This is set to identify a new user’s first session. It stores a true/false value, indicating whether this was the first time Hotjar saw this user. It is used by Recording filters to identify new user sessions. | Session |
| hjViewportId | This stores information about the user viewport such as size and dimensions. | Session |
| _hjRecordingEnabled | This is added when a Recording starts and is read when the recording module is initialized to see if the user is already in a recording in a particular session. | Session |
Table 6: Analytics cookies (Third party)
Name | Purpose | Duration |
| _dc_gtm_ | To improve website performance and limit data collection on high traffic websites. It is set by Google. | 1 minute |
__adal_ca | To attribute the name of the campaign that drove a user to the website by using the traffic source and campaign data. It is set by Adalyser. | 6 months |
__adal_cw | To set the conversion window and allows visitor conversions to be associated to previous website visits via a visit timestamp. It is set by Adalyser. | 7 days |
__adal_id | To generate a unique id to identify user devices. It is set by Adalyser. | 2 years |
__adal_ses | To track user sessions and conversions so that they can be attributed accordingly to TV advertising campaigns. It is set by Adalyser. | 1 day |
GPS | To enable tracking based on geographical GPS location by registering a unique ID on mobile devices. It is set by YouTube. | 1 day |
PREF | To help Google keep statistics of how the visitor uses YouTube videos across different websites by registering a unique ID. It is set by YouTube. | 8 months |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | To estimate the users’ bandwidth on pages with integrated YouTube videos. It is set by YouTube. | 179 days |
YSC | To keep statistics of which videos from YouTube the user has seen by registering a unique ID. It is set by YouTube. | Session |
TASSK | To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitors click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor. | 179 days |
TAUD | To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitors click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor. | 13 days |
TAUnique | To allow the visitor to view embedded content from Tripadvisor, such as advertisements. This cookie is also used by the website to determine if visitors click on the advertisements. It is set by Tripadvisor. | 2 years |
| CONSENT | To remember recent searches and interactions to save preferences and customise ads on Google websites. It is set by Google. | 1 year |
| cHTML - Invibes - Analytics Tag | To measure the behaviour of visitors segmented by location, gender and age, and content interest. It is triggered by the time spent on a page. It is set by Invibe. | 1 year |
How will we protect your data?
Unfortunately, the transmission of information over the internet cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us over the internet. Transmitting information over the internet is done at your own risk and you should bear this in mind when using our site, products and services online. To protect key account and financial information you provide us with online, we use a security measure known as Secure Server Layer (SSL). When you submit financial information to our site it is encrypted to provide protection.
Changing cookie preferences
You can update your cookie preferences on our website at any time, by visiting this page.
To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, you can use the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on
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- delete all cookies
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- clear all cookies when you close the browser
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- install add-ons and plugins that extend browser functionality
You can find information about controlling cookies across different browsers below:
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