What is the mid cookie?
This is a functionality cookie used to optimize the use of Instagram on the website.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 8 sites (0% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Functional
- Belongs to
- Set as
- First-party on 50% of sites, third-party on 50%
- Typical lifetime
- 13 months (vendor says: 9 years) — shorter than the vendor documents
Sites that set mid before consent
The highest-ranked 8 of 8 sites.
- instagram.com0 tracking companies
- megafon.ru5 tracking companies
- usc.edu5 tracking companies
- itv.com3 tracking companies
- guard.io14 tracking companies
- macrumors.com6 tracking companies
- usf.edu7 tracking companies
- wcd.gov.in5 tracking companies
Related cookies
Other cookies from Instagram.
- SessionId23 sites
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop mid 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.
Description from the Open Cookie Database (Apache 2.0).
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.