What is the usnatUUID cookie?
Stores a unique identifier tied to the IAB Tech Lab's "US National" (USNat) section of the Global Privacy Platform (GPP), used to communicate a visitor's US privacy choices to compatible ad-tech vendors.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 3 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
- 12 months
Sites that set usnatUUID before consent
The highest-ranked 3 of 3 sites.
- ft.com4 tracking companies
- theatlantic.com4 tracking companies
- politico.com31 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.