What is the us_privacy cookie?
Stores the IAB Tech Lab's "US Privacy String", a standardized signal indicating whether the visitor has opted out of the sale of personal information under laws like the CCPA, so ad-tech vendors can honor that choice.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 11 sites (0% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Necessary
- Belongs to
- IAB
- Set as
- First-party (under the site's own domain)
- Typical lifetime
- 30 days
Sites that set us_privacy before consent
The highest-ranked 11 of 11 sites.
- forbes.com2 tracking companies
- accuweather.com3 tracking companies
- cbsnews.com0 tracking companies
- newsweek.com12 tracking companies
- pluto.tv0 tracking companies
- grindr.com1 tracking company
- cbssports.com5 tracking companies
- dish.com18 tracking companies
- fox.com11 tracking companies
- foxsports.com9 tracking companies
Show 1 more site
- mtv.com3 tracking companies
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop optional cookies, though a necessary cookie like this one may still be set. 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 written by CookieTosser, for a cookie the Open Cookie Database doesn't cover.
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.