Cookies Policy
20260729_rev01 · COMPARED WITH 20260702_rev01
Full text changes — 20260702_rev01 to 20260729_rev01
| 1 | ### List of Cookies, Purpose, and Storage Periods | |
| 2 | ||
| 3 | Below is a list of cookies on the PLOS website, information about the cookie provider, type of cookie, its purpose, and its storage period. | |
| 4 | ||
| 5 | #### First Party | |
| 6 | ||
| 7 | | Cookie | Provider Information | Type | Storage Period | Purpose | | |
| 8 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | |
| 9 | | JSESSIONID | PLOS, USA | Strictly necessary | Session | Manages a user's authentication and session | | |
| 10 | | plos-device-detected | PLOS, USA | Strictly necessary | 2 Hours | Manages display of desktop and mobile interfaces | | |
| 11 | | CASTGC | Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA | |
| 12 | [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Strictly necessary | Session | Ticket-granting cookie to support authentication and single sign-on. | | |
| 13 | | CSRF-TOKEN | PLOS, USA | Strictly necessary | Session | Cross Site Request Forgery Token for site security. | | |
| 14 | | flanders\_session | PLOS, USA | Strictly necessary | Session | Reduces database calls by remembering data about the user as they click between pages on the PLOS website. | | |
| 15 | | plosDataLinkSurveyHush | PLOS, USA | Strictly Necessary | 24 Hours | Manages the number of times users are asked to opt-in to a survey. | | |
| 16 | ||
| 17 | #### Third-Party | |
| 18 | ||
| 19 | | Cookie | Provider Information | Type | Storage Period | Purpose | | |
| 20 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | |
| 21 | | IDE | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Marketing | 2 Years | Used by Google DoubleClick to register and report the website user's actions after viewing or clicking one of the advertiser's ads and present targeted ads. | | |
| 22 | | NID | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Marketing | 6 Months | Registers a unique ID that identifies a returning user's device. Used for targeted ads. | | |
| 23 | | 1P\_JAR | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Marketing | 30 Days | Remembers preferences. | | |
| 24 | | gid | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 2 Years | Collects information about how visitors use our website. Used to compile reports and improve the website. | | |
| 25 | | ga | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 2 Years | Collects information about how visitors use our website. Used to compile reports and improve the website. | | |
| 26 | | gads | Google Ads (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Marketing | 1 Year | Collects information about how visitors use our website. Used to compile reports and improve the website. | | |
| 27 | | GCLB | Google Cloud (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Strictly Necessary | Session | Maintains continuity of session when IP addresses may change. | | |
| 28 | | dc\_gtm | Google Analytics (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Minute | Collects information about how visitors use our website. Used to compile reports and improve the website. | | |
| 29 | | gat\_master | Google Analytics (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Minute | Collects information about how visitors use our website. | | |
| 30 | | wordpress\_test\_cookie | WordPress (Automattic, Inc.), 60 29th Street #343, San Francisco, CA 94110 USA [Privacy Policy](https://automattic.com/privacy/) | Strictly Necessary | Session | Tests whether WordPress can place cookies. Does not identify the user. | | |
| 31 | | gat\_journalsMaster | Google Analytics (Google LLC), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043 USA [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Minute | Collects information about how visitors use our website. | | |
| 32 | | \_ceir, is\_returning | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Year | Tracks whether a visitor has visited the site before. | | |
| 33 | | \_CEFT | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Year | Stores page variants assigned to visitors for A/B performance testing. | | |
| 34 | | \_cer.s | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | Session | Tracks a recording visitor session unique ID, host, and start time. | | |
| 35 | | \_cer.v | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | Up to 31 Days | Tracks whether a visitor has visited the site before. | | |
| 36 | | \_ce.s | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Year | Tracks a recording visitor session unique ID, host, and start time. | | |
| 37 | | \_ce.cch | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Second | Used to check if cookies can be added. | | |
| 38 | | \_ce.gtld | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Second | Used to identify the top-level domain. | | |
| 39 | | ce\_need\_secure\_cookie | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 1 Second | Used to determine cookie security parameters. | | |
| 40 | | ce\_successful\_csp\_check | Crazy Egg, 16220 Ridgeview Ln La Mirada, CA 90638, USA [Privacy Policy](https://www.crazyegg.com/privacy) | Performance and Analytics | 24 Hours | Determines if the page has a Content Security Policy rule that would prevent tracking. | | |
| 41 | | \_\_hs\_opt\_out | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#7606041f0017150f361e0314050619025815191b) | Necessary | 6 month | This cookie is used by the opt-in privacy policy to remember not to ask the visitor to accept cookies again. | | |
| 42 | | \_\_hs\_do\_not\_track | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#80f0f2e9f6e1e3f9c0e8f5e2f3f0eff4aee3efed) | Necessary | 6 month | This cookie can be set to prevent the tracking code from sending any information to HubSpot. | | |
| 43 | | \_\_hs\_initial\_opt\_in | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#11616378677072685179647362617e653f727e7c) | Necessary | 7 days | This cookie is used to prevent the banner from always displaying when visitors are browsing in strict mode. | | |
| 44 | | \_\_hs\_cookie\_cat\_pref | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#83f3f1eaf5e2e0fac3ebf6e1f0f3ecf7ade0ecee) | Necessary | 6 months | This cookie is used to record the categories a visitor consented to. | | |
| 45 | | \_\_hs\_gpc\_banner\_dismiss | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#1464667d6275776d547c617667647b603a777b79) | Necessary | 180 days | This cookie is used when the Global Privacy Control banner is dismissed. | | |
| 46 | | \_\_hs\_notify\_banner\_dismiss | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#8bfbf9e2fdeae8f2cbe3fee9f8fbe4ffa5e8e4e6) | Necessary | 180 days | This cookie is used when the website uses a Notify consent banner type. | | |
| 47 | | hs\_ab\_test | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b6c6c4dfc0d7d5cff6dec3d4c5c6d9c298d5d9db) | Necessary | End of the session | This cookie is used to consistently serve visitors the same version of an A/B test page they've seen before. | | |
| 48 | | \_key | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#59292b302f383a2019312c3b2a29362d773a3634) | Necessary | 14 days | When visiting a password-protected page, this cookie is set so future visits to the page from the same browser do not require login again. | | |
| 49 | | \_\_hsmem | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA[\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#f686849f8097958fb69e839485869982d895999b) | Necessary | 7 days | This cookie is set when visitors log in to a HubSpot-hosted site. It contains encrypted data that identifies the membership user when they are currently logged in. | | |
| 50 | | hs-membership-csrf | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#fd8d8f948b9c9e84bd95889f8e8d9289d39e9290) | Necessary | End of the session | This cookie is used to ensure that content membership logins cannot be forged. | | |
| 51 | | \_\_cfruid | | |
| 52 | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#0474766d7265677d446c716677746b702a676b69) | |
| 53 | ||
| 54 | Cloudflare, Inc. 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107 | |
| 55 | [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#4521352a0526292a302123292437206b262a28) | |
| 56 | ||
| 57 | | Necessay | End of the session | This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider because of their rate limiting policies. Learn more about Cloudflare cookies. | | |
| 58 | | \_\_cfuvid | | |
| 59 | ||
| 60 | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#d8a8aab1aeb9bba198b0adbaaba8b7acf6bbb7b5) | |
| 61 | ||
| 62 | Cloudflare, Inc. 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107 | |
| 63 | [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6105110e21020d0e1405070d0013044f020e0c) | |
| 64 | ||
| 65 | | Necessay | End of the session | This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider because of their rate limiting policies. Learn more about Cloudflare cookies. | | |
| 66 | | \_\_cf\_bm | | |
| 67 | ||
| 68 | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e595978c9384869ca58d908796958a91cb868a88) | |
| 69 | ||
| 70 | Cloudflare, Inc. 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107 | |
| 71 | [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#bcd8ccd3fcdfd0d3c9d8dad0ddced992dfd3d1) | |
| 72 | ||
| 73 | | Necessary | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider and is a necessary cookie for bot protection. Learn more about Cloudflare cookies. | | |
| 74 | | \_\_hstc | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#a8d8dac1dec9cbd1e8c0ddcadbd8c7dc86cbc7c5) | Performance and analytics | 6 months | The main cookie for tracking visitors. | | |
| 75 | | hubspotutk | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6c1c1e051a0d0f152c04190e1f1c0318420f0301) | Performance and analytics | 6 months | This cookie keeps track of a visitor's identity. It is passed to HubSpot on form submission and used when deduplicating contacts. | | |
| 76 | | \_\_hssc | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#b7c7c5dec1d6d4cef7dfc2d5c4c7d8c399d4d8da) | Performance and analytics | 6 months | This cookie keeps track of sessions. | | |
| 77 | | \_\_hssrc | HubSpot, Inc. Two Canal Park, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA [\[email protected\]](https://plos.org/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c3b3b1aab5a2a0ba83abb6a1b0b3acb7eda0acae) | Performance and analytics | End of the session | Whenever HubSpot changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set to determine if the visitor has restarted their browser | |