What is the _node cookie?
We don't have a vendor description for this cookie yet, but our scan shows it's set by a third-party domain we haven't identified, and it is usually gone once the browser closes (a session cookie). It's listed as unclassified.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 12 sites (0% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Unclassified
- Set as
- First-party on 83% of sites, third-party on 17%
- Typical lifetime
- Session
Sites that set _node before consent
The highest-ranked 12 of 12 sites.
- psu.edu4 tracking companies
- msu.edu10 tracking companies
- ucdavis.edu7 tracking companies
- arizona.edu9 tracking companies
- colorado.edu8 tracking companies
- vt.edu10 tracking companies
- uwaterloo.ca7 tracking companies
- oregonstate.edu7 tracking companies
- umass.edu13 tracking companies
- iu.edu15 tracking companies
Show 2 more sites
- udel.edu9 tracking companies
- vanderbilt.edu5 tracking companies
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop _node being set on later visits. Blocking third-party cookies in your browser settings stops the third-party kind everywhere, and clearing cookies for a site removes any it already set.
Understanding this page
- How cookie lifetimes work, and why a 13-month _ga matters
What a cookie's "expires" field actually controls, why Google Analytics ships a 2-year default that many sites cut down to 13 months, and how Safari's 7-day cap on script-set cookies changes the picture.
- First-party vs third-party cookies (and why "first-party" still tracks you)
What the distinction actually means technically, why browsers only block one of the two, and how CNAME cloaking, server-side tagging and cookies like _ga let sites keep tracking under their own domain.
- How to block or limit trackers
Browser privacy settings, content blockers, Global Privacy Control and clearing cookies compared honestly — what each one actually stops, what it doesn't, and what it costs you in return.