What is the shell#lang cookie?
We don't have a vendor description for this cookie yet, but our scan shows it's set under the sites' own domains rather than by a third party, and it is usually gone once the browser closes (a session cookie). It's listed as unclassified.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 8 sites (0% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Unclassified
- Set as
- First-party (under the site's own domain)
- Typical lifetime
- Session
Sites that set shell#lang before consent
The highest-ranked 8 of 8 sites.
- uchicago.edu5 tracking companies
- aboutcookies.org2 tracking companies
- adp.com6 tracking companies
- heart.org5 tracking companies
- mimecast.com2 tracking companies
- huntington.com9 tracking companies
- carnival.com3 tracking companies
- ct.gov5 tracking companies
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop shell#lang 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.