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Cookie policy

Cookies

Our websites

This Cookie Policy relates to your use of the Wellcome Collection websites (https://wellcomecollection.org).

When you choose to accept or reject cookies on one of our websites, your choices are valid for that website only. If you click through to another website, whether operated by us (including Wellcome Trust or Wellcome Funding) or a third party you will need to make separate choices in relation to the cookies that you would like to accept or reject on that other website.

For more information as to how Wellcome uses your information, please see our Privacy Policy.

What are cookies?

Like most organisations, Wellcome uses cookies, and similar technologies such as tracking pixels (referred to in this policy together as "cookies"), to capture information about our website users (referred to as "you"). A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that is downloaded onto your computer or device by a website, stored and used to send information back to that website.

Cookies help to make websites work. They can also improve the performance of a site and some provide information to the owners of the site.

Cookies do not store or collect information about you like your name. But they do collect information that relates to, for example, the devices you use to access the internet and your browsing history.

What cookies do we use?

Cookies that measure website use: these allow us to count your visits to the website, and to see how you move around it. This helps us to provide you with a good experience while you browse, for example by helping to make sure you can find what you need. It also allows us to improve the way the website works.

Cookies that help with our communications and marketing: we will use these to measure how you are interacting with our marketing and advertising materials, and the effectiveness of our campaigns.

We may use targeting cookies to understand your interests and show you relevant adverts about us on other websites you visit. This includes social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Research Gate.

Targeting our adverts means they’re more effective and enable us to reach a diverse and wide-ranging audience.

Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are necessary for our website to function and therefore cannot be switched off. We use them for things like remembering your privacy settings, or information that you enter into an online form.

First party cookies: These are cookies that Wellcome sets when you visit our website.

Third party cookies: These are cookies that are used by third parties other than Wellcome. They include advertising partners and social media providers, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Research Gate, and we may use these to serve advertisements about our work across the internet.

We will ask for your consent to place cookies on your computer or device, except where they are essential to make our website work.

You can withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or manage any other cookie preferences by changing your cookie settings. This page can also be accessed by clicking on "Manage cookies" in the footer of our websites. You can then adjust the slider buttons to "on" or "off" and save. You may need to refresh your page for your settings to take effect.

We will ask you to revisit your preferences if you haven't visited our websites in over six months, so that we can check that they are accurate.

Cookies we use

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are necessary for our website to function and therefore cannot be switched off. We use them for things like remembering your privacy settings, or information that you enter into an online form.

Cookie namePurposeDuration
CookieControlThis stores your cookie consent preferences182 days
SessionIDPreserves the visitor's session state across page requestsPersistant
auth0+A4Used to implement the session layer for single sign onSession
auth0_compatFallback for single sign-on on browsers that don't support the sameSite=None attributeSession
didDevice identification for bot attack protectionSession
did_compatFallback for anomaly detection on browsers that don't support the sameSite=None attribute.Session
wecoIdentitySessionIndicates that successful authentication occurred with the identity provider7 days
WC_userPreferenceGuideTypeUsed on exhibition guide pages to remember which type of digital exhibition guide the user prefers8 hours
WC_PopupDialogRemembers that the user has cloesd the popup dialogso it is not displayed againSession
WC_globalAlertRemembers that the user has closed the global alert banner so it is not displayed againSession
WC_siteIssueBannerRemembers that the user has closed the banner about website issues so it is not displayed again4 hours
WC_wellcomeImagesRedirectUsed to indicate if the user has closed the banner you see when
you've been redirected from Wellcome Images
2036-12-31T23:59:59Z
WC_apiToolbarMiniUsed to indicate if the user is using the "mini" version of the API toolbarSession
toggle_*Set by Wellcome to switch on/off website features that are under development, or only intended for
a subset of users e.g. Wellcome staff or people taking part in usability research
1 year
__cf_bmUsed to read and filter requests from bots30 mins
Prismic-authAllows requests to Prismic APISession
Ar_debugUsed by Google Ad Services to debug ads1 year

Cookies that measure website use

We use analytics cookies on our websites. These collect information related to the number of visitors to the website, where visitors have come to the website from, and the pages they visited. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. We use the following analytics cookies on our websites:

ProviderPurpose
Google AnalyticsWith your permission, we use Google Analytics to to collect data about how you use the website. This information helps us to improve the website.
Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click.,
Visit Google to see a full list of cookies and their uses.
Twilio SegmentWith your permission, we use Segment to collect data about how you use the website. This information helps us to improve the website, such as improving our website search.
Visit Segment’s privacy statement.
HotjarWith your permission, we use HotJar to help us understand how you are using the website. We use the data to inform changes we make to improve your experience.
Hotjar Analytics cookies store data about whether you have participated in a Hotjar survey, the way in which you interact with a page and what you click on while you are visiting the site.
Visit HotJar's website to see a full list of cookies and their uses.
YouTubeWe embed videos on our websites from our official YouTube channel using YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode.
YouTube will not store personally-identifiable Cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode.
Read about how YouTube maintains user privacy.
VimeoWe embed videos on our websites from our official Vimeo channel. With permission we collect data on how you interact with these videos.
This information helps us improve the digital content we create. Visit Vimeo to see a full list of cookies and their uses.

Cookies that help with our communications and marketing

We will use these to measure how you are interacting with our marketing and advertising materials, and the effectiveness of our campaigns.

We may use targeting cookies to understand your interests and show you relevant adverts about us on other websites you visit. You can control what adverts you see on these sites by logging into your settings on the relevant service.

Targeting our adverts means they're more effective and enable us to reach a diverse and wide ranging audience.

We use the following marketing cookies on our websites:

ProviderPurpose
GoogleAdsWe use tracking technologies to enhance the measurement, optimisation, and targeting of our advertising campaigns on Google.
See the full list of cookies on Google's website.
MetaWe use tracking technologies to enhance the measurement, optimisation, and targeting of our advertising campaigns on Meta (includes Facebook and Instagram).
See the full list of cookies on Meta's website.

Controlling all cookies

In addition to the cookie choices presented within our websites, you can also use your web browser to manage your cookies. For example, your web browser will enable you to:

  • delete all or selected cookies
  • block all cookies
  • allow all cookies
  • block "third party" cookies
  • clear all cookies when you close the browser
  • open a "private browsing"/ "incognito" session, which allows you to browse the web without recording your browsing history or storing local data such as cookies.

If you do choose to block cookies, please be aware that you may lose some of the functionality of our websites.

Find out more about managing cookies on browsers:

Changes to this Policy

We may update how we use cookies (and this policy) from time to time. So please check regularly to keep up to date with any changes.

Contact us

If you want to contact us in relation to this Cookie Policy, contact our Data Protection Team at dataprotection@wellcome.org.

This policy was last updated on 17/04/2024.