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Cookies

GOV.UK 'Apply for a Blue Badge' puts small files (known as 'cookies') on your computer.

Cookies are used to:

  • remember the details you have entered before you submit the application
  • remember the notifications you have seen so we do not show them again
  • measure how you use the website so it can be updated and improved based on your needs

Find out how to manage cookies

Essential cookies

Essential cookies keep your information secure while you use 'Apply for a Blue Badge'. We do not need to ask permission to use them.

Name Purpose Expires
SESSION Used to remember the details you have entered before you submit the application 2 hours
BlueBadgeAppVersion Used to store version number of 'Apply for a Blue Badge' online service. 30 days
analytic_cookies_policy Saves your cookie consent settings for Analytics cookies 1 year
cookies_preferences_set Used to tell if you made a decision to accept or deny cookies. 1 year

Analytics cookies (optional)

Google Analytics

With your permission, we use Google Analytics to collect data about how you use 'Apply for a Blue Badge'. This information helps us to improve our service.

Google is not allowed to use or share our analytics data with anyone.

Google Analytics stores anonymised information about:

  • how you got to 'Apply for a Blue Badge'
  • the pages you visit on Notify and how long you spend on them
  • any errors you see while using 'Apply for a Blue Badge'
Name Purpose Expires
_ga We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use the site. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements. 1 year
_gid We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use the site. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements. 24 hours
_gat_gtag_UA Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made. 10 minutes

Hotjar

With your permission, we use Hotjar to collect data about how you use 'Apply for a Blue Badge'. This information helps us to improve our service.

Hotjar is not allowed to use or share our analytics data with anyone.

Hotjar stores anonymised information about:

  • how you interact with the pages on 'Apply for a Blue Badge'
  • the pages you visit on 'Apply for a Blue Badge' and how long you spend on them
  • which links you choose to click and what users do and do not like

For further details, please see the 'about Hotjar' section of Hotjar's support site.

Name Purpose Expires
_hjClosedSurveyInvites Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor interacts with a Survey invitation modal popup. It is used to ensure that the same invite does not re-appear if it has already been shown. 365 days
_hjDonePolls Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor completes a poll using the Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the same poll does not re-appear if it has already been filled in. 365 days
_hjMinimizedPolls Hotjar cookie. This cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimizes when the visitor navigates through your site. 365 days
_hjShownFeedbackMessage This cookie is set when a visitor minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if they navigate to another page where it is set to show. 365 days
_hjIncludedInPageviewSample This cookie is used to detect the first pageview session of a user. This is a True or False flag set by the cookie. 30 minutes
_hjIncludedInSessionSample This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that user is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit. 30 minutes
_hjFirstSeen This is set to identify a new user's first session. It stores a true or 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
_hjid

Hotjar cookie. This cookie 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.

365 days
_hjRecordingLastActivity This should be found in sessionStorage (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). 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 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
_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress This cookie is used to detect the first pageview session of a user. This is a boolean flag and does not contain any identifiable information. 30 minutes

For further details, please see Hotjar's privacy policy.

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