Cookies created by Piwik PRO

Piwik PRO sets first-party cookies in the visitor’s browser (except the deprecated stg_global_opt_out third-party cookie). Cookies are used to collect and store data about a visitor, their sessions and interactions with your site. Each module in Piwik PRO uses different kinds of cookies. Here’s a list of all cookies used by Piwik PRO.

Analytics

_pk_ses.<appID>.<domainHash>

Module: Analytics
Expires after: 30 minutes (can be changed)
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Shows an active session of the visitor. If the cookie isn’t present, the session has finished over 30 minutes ago and it was counted in a pk_id cookie.

_pk_id.<appID>.<domainHash>

Module: Analytics
Expires after: 13 months (can be changed)
Extends: No
Type: First-party cookie

About: Used to recognize visitors and hold their various properties.

Value: <visitorID>.<cookieCreationTimestamp>.<visitsCount>.<currentVisitTimestamp>.<lastVisitTimestamp>.<lastEcommerceOrderTimestamp>

  • visitorID: Value is generated via JavaScript when not provided otherwise.
  • cookieCreationTimestamp: Cookie creation time.
  • visitsCount: 0 means there are no previous visits.
  • currentVisitTimestamp: Current time. Refreshed with every user action.
  • lastVisitTimestamp: Time of the last visit. Empty if there are no previous visits. It is also used to increase the number of visits (together with the cookie pk_ses).
  • lastEcommerceOrderTimestamp: Time of the last ecommerce order. Empty if there are no ecommerce orders.

_pk_cvar

Module: Analytics
Expires after: 30 minutes (can be changed)
Extends: No
Type: First-party cookie

About: Holds custom variables that were set during the previous page view. It’s not enabled by default. Requires calling the storeCustomVariablesInCookie() method on the Javascript tracker object.

Value: Custom variable keys and values.

app_id

Module: Analytics
Expires after: 365 days
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Used to pass a site or app ID between Piwik PRO’s modules: Analytics, Tag Manager, Audience Manager, Consent Manager, Administration.

Value: A site or app ID.

piwik_auth (deprecated)

Module: Analytics (versions below 16.0.0)
Expires after: 24 minutes (can be changed)
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Stores session information for Piwik PRO’s user interface (UI). As long as this cookie is valid and contains a login and a token_auth parameter, a visitor is considered as a logged-in visitor, and a PIWIK_SESSID cookie will be refreshed.

Value: login=<userLogin>:token_auth=<tokenHash>:_=<signature>

  • userLogin: User’s login.
  • tokenHash: md5 hash created from a login and a token_auth parameter.
  • signature: Checksum

PIWIK_SESSID (deprecated)

Module: Analytics (versions below 16.0.0)
Expires after: 24 minutes (can be changed)
Extends: No
Type: First-party cookie

About: Stores a PHP session ID.

Value: A unique session identifier.

ppms_privacy_<appID>

Module: Consent Manager
Expires after: 365 days (can be changed), 30 minutes (for anonymous tracking)
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Stores visitor’s consent to data collection and usage.

Value: A JSON encoded object that holds visitor’s consent to data collection and usage.

  • -1: A visitor didn’t make any decision.
  • 0: A visitor didn’t agree to the use of their data.
  • 1: A visitor agreed to the use of their data.

Created if: You use Consent Manager and display the form on your site.

Decoded cookie:

{
   "consents":{
      "analytics":{
         "status":-1,
         "historyId":"8438dc88-b4ac-40a2-8f4d-4aa2b756f66b",
         "updatedAt":"2020-01-30T12:15:47.283Z"
      },
      "ab_testing_and_personalization":{
         "status":1,
         "historyId":"5233e88f-6e5a-4cac-893f-d9ffa410cb73",
         "updatedAt":"2020-01-31T10:56:35.447Z"
      },
      "custom_consent":{
         "status":0,
         "historyId":"be4f1bbb-4ba7-4954-8c64-dc0333ab589a",
         "updatedAt":"2020-01-31T10:56:35.447Z"
      },
      "user_feedback":{
         "status":0,
         "historyId":"d2b5f73b-9cbe-4ed6-aee0-88644c62be6a",
         "updatedAt":"2020-01-31T10:56:35.447Z"
      },
      "marketing_automation":{
         "status":0,
         "historyId":"ce1dc131-22e7-4f0a-aafd-83bc0b1cff73",
         "updatedAt":"2020-01-31T10:56:35.447Z"
      },
      "remarketing":{
         "status":1,
         "historyId":"210ec16b-22ae-446a-9799-57069167c08e",
         "updatedAt":"2020-01-31T10:56:35.447Z"
      },
      "conversion_tracking":{
         "status":0,
         "historyId":"c4e868e6-058f-44b6-84a7-7c0d08aa0124",
         "updatedAt":"2020-01-31T10:56:35.447Z"
      },
      "intro":{
         "historyId":"6c69aa2a-443f-41a1-ada2-75dd394fc782",
         "updatedAt":"2020-01-31T10:56:35.447Z"
      }
   },
   "visitorId":"564e3818-27e7-e38f-39dd-569067520af2",
   "domain":{
      "normalized":"client1.piwikpro.test",
      "isWildcard":false,
      "pattern":"client1.piwikpro.test"
   },
   "staleCheckpoint":"2020-01-31T10:56:27.699Z"
}

Tag Manager

_stg_debug / stg_debug

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: 14 days
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Determines if the Tag Manager’s debugger should be displayed. A cookie is removed after you close the debugger.

Value: 1 when debug mode is turned on.

Created if: You use a stg_debug query parameter in the URL.

stg_traffic_source_priority

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: 30 minutes
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Stores the type of traffic source that explains how the visitor reached your website.

Value:

  • 1: Direct
  • 2: Referral
  • 3: Social media
  • 4: Organic search
  • 5: Campaign

Created if: You use the traffic source condition in a trigger.

stg_last_interaction

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: 365 days
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Determines whether the last visitor’s session is still in progress or a new session has started.

Value: A timestamp of the last interaction a visitor had on your website.

Created if: You use a multiplicity condition in a trigger.

stg_returning_visitor

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: 365 days
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Determines if the visitor has already been to your website — they are returning visitors.

Value: A timestamp of the last interaction a visitor had on your website.

Created if: You use a returning-visitor condition in a trigger.

stg_fired__<appID>

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: The session ends. (Fixed idle time or after a browser is closed.)
Extends: No
Type: First-party cookie

About: Determines if the combination of a tag and trigger was fired during the current visitor’s session.

Value: A timestamp of the moment when a tag is fired.

Created if: You use a multiplicity condition in a trigger, and a trigger is set to fire a tag once per session. A cookie is created after the tag is fired.

stg_utm_campaign

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: The session ends. (Fixed idle time or after a browser is closed.)
Extends: No
Type: First-party cookie

About: Stores a name of the campaign that directed the visitor to your website.

Value: An encoded value of an utm_campaign query parameter.

Created if: You use the campaign condition in a trigger, and a visitor enters your website from a campaign with an utm_campaign query parameter.

stg_pk_campaign

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: The session ends. (Fixed idle time or after a browser is closed.)
Extends: No
Type: First-party cookie

About: Stores a name of the campaign that directed the visitor to your website.

Value: An encoded value of a pk_campaign query parameter.

Created if: You use the campaign condition in a trigger, and a visitor enters your website from a campaign with a pk_campaign query parameter.

stg_externalReferrer

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: The session ends. (Fixed idle time or after a browser is closed.)
Extends: No
Type: First-party cookie

About: Stores an URL of a website that referred a visitor to your website.

Value: The window.location.origin value for a referral website.

Created if: You use the external referrer condition in a trigger, and a visitor enters your website from a referral website.

_stg_opt_out_simulate

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: 365 days
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Used to simulate the behavior of the opt-out snippet in the debugger. It turns off all tracking tags in the tested domain.

Value:

  • true: Opt-out simulation is turned on.
  • false: Opt-out simulation is turned off.

Created if: You turn on opt-out simulation in debug mode.

_stg_optout

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: 365 days
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: Used to turn off all tracking tags in the tested domain.

Value:

  • true: A visitor opts out of tracking.
  • false: A visitor agrees to tracking.

Created if: A visitor opts out of tracking. (You use an opt-out snippet.)

stg_global_opt_out (deprecated)

Module: Tag Manager
Expires after: 365 days
Extends: Automatically
Type: Third-party cookie

About: Used to turn off all tracking tags on websites that belong to one Piwik PRO account.

Value:

  • 1: A visitor opts out of tracking.
  • 0: A visitor agrees to tracking.

Created if: A third-party cookie is set when a visitor opts out of tracking. (You use a global opt-out snippet.)

Administration

csrftoken

Module: Administration
Expires after: 8 hours
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: This cookie is set only for Piwik PRO’s users. It stores a CSRF token for securing Piwik PRO’s forms.

Value: A randomly generated string.

sessionid

Module: Administration
Expires after: 8 hours
Extends: Automatically
Type: First-party cookie

About: This cookie is set only for Piwik PRO’s users. It stores the session ID of the currently logged-in user.

Value: A randomly generated string.

Local storage

In addition to cookies, Piwik PRO uses local storage in the visitor’s browser to stack some information. Here’s what is kept in that storage.

ppms_webstorage

Module: Tag Manager, Consent Manager and Analytics

About: Prevents visitor’s data loss that may happen because of some mechanisms used by browsers, for example, Safari’s ITP.

Value: A stringified object that contains information about created cookies for each module. It stores data about each created cookie, such as a key, value, expiry date, path, domain, and more. This is the same data that was used to create a cookie.

Created if: Each time a cookie is set in the visitor’s browser.

Removed if: A ppms_webstorage item isn’t removed automatically. But a visitor can delete it manually. Single entries in the object are removed after a corresponding cookie expires.

ppms_data_store

Module: Audience Manager

About: Stores information from forms on your website. After a visitor submits a form, the data is passed to Audience Manager. But if a form redirects a visitor to another page, data may be lost. Therefore form data is kept in the local storage as a backup. (A page where a visitor is redirected needs to have a form tracker, otherwise Piwik PRO can’t collect form data.)

Value: A JSON encoded object that contains:

  • payload: AES encrypted form data.
  • aes: RSA encrypted AES key (for payload)
  • Iv: initialization vector (for payload)

Removed if: After the form tracker sends data to the server. It can happen right after a visitor submits a form or after a new page loads in their browser.

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