Cookie Reporting

There have been several significant updates in Audit and Journey reports giving new and important insights on how cookies are behaving on websites. Noteworthy changes include how cookies were loaded and which technology caused them to load. Within reports, this new information can be broken down into two categories.

Origin story describes when a cookie was initially set and if other site actions such as page load, network request loading, or JavaScript executing reset the cookie with changed parameters. If any cookie parameters were changed, including the expiration date, this will be reported within the origin story. Keep in mind that any configured on-page actions could affect cookie parameters.

An initiator is part of the origin story and identifies the file or method that actually created the cookie. These methods are JavaScript file execution or an HTTP header with a set-cookie directive. If JavaScript was executed, reporting will list where in the file the cookie was being set.

Beyond when and how a cookie was set, reporting also identifies which Technology loaded it (for example, a specific analytics or advertising tag). Where available, the report includes in-report hotlinks so you can jump directly to more detail on that Technology's behavior across your site.

Together, Cookie Origin Story, Cookie Initiator(s), and Cookie Relations turn a basic list of cookies into a trail you can actually investigate: when a cookie was set or changed, the exact script or header that set it, and the Technology behind it. If you're auditing for privacy compliance or chasing down an unexpected cookie, these three views are usually the fastest way to find the source.