Cookies and consent

The Usertick widget keeps a few values in your visitors’ browsers: what each survey did for the visitor, a random visitor ID, visit counters and the identify() record. Everything it stores is first-party, on your site’s own domain, and the widget sets no third-party cookies. This page lists every key, so you can describe them in your cookie notice and in your consent tool.

You decide whether your site needs your visitors’ consent before the widget runs, and you ask for it. Usertick shows no consent banner, and the widget doesn’t read the browser’s Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals. When your site needs consent, load the Usertick tag only after the visitor gives it, as described in Load Usertick after consent.

The widget keeps the values in the table below in first-party cookies on your domain (path /, SameSite=Lax, not HttpOnly). When the browser blocks cookies, it keeps the same values in localStorage instead, under the same names. A cookie lasts 365 days from the last time the widget wrote it.

Name	Purpose	Lifetime
`usertick_vid`	A random visitor ID created in this browser. It keeps the visitor on the same side of a survey’s traffic share and in the same variant, and a response carries it as the anonymous ID	365 days; replaced by `logout()` after a signed-in user
`usertick_visits`	The number of visits, for the visitor type rule (new or returning)	365 days from the last page view
`usertick_seen_at`	The time of the last page view, so a page view after 30 idle minutes counts as a new visit	365 days from the last page view
`usertick_display_<survey ID>`	How many times the survey showed and the times of the last three showings, for its repeat rule and for earlier survey rules	365 days from the last showing
`usertick_submitted_<survey ID>`	When the visitor answered the survey, so an answered survey doesn’t come back	365 days
`usertick_dismissed_<survey ID>`	When and how many times the visitor closed the survey without answering, for the wait after a close	365 days from the last close
`usertick_event_count_<survey ID>`	How many matching custom events the visitor fired, for a trigger that waits for several	365 days from the last count
`usertick_test`	A check that the browser accepts cookies. The widget deletes it right after writing it	Removed at once

The widget also uses localStorage and sessionStorage on your domain:

Name	Storage	Purpose	Lifetime
`usertick_user`	`localStorage` (a cookie without the hash when `localStorage` is blocked)	The user ID, traits and hash your page passed to `Usertick.identify()`	Until `logout()`, `identify(null)` or `reset()`
`usertick_submission_queue`	`localStorage`	Responses that couldn’t be sent yet, with their answers and respondent details, sent again in the background	Up to 7 days per response
`usertick_submission_lease_<response ID>`	`localStorage`	A short lock, so two open tabs never send the same waiting response at once	About 25 seconds
`usertick_config_<site ID>`	`localStorage`	The npm package only: a copy of the site’s survey settings, used when they load slowly	At most 24 hours
`__usertick_session_start`, `__usertick_focused_ms`	`sessionStorage`	When this browser session started and how long the site was in front of the visitor, for the time on site and engaged visitor triggers	Until the tab closes
`__usertick_pages`	`sessionStorage`	Pages viewed this session, for the pages viewed trigger	Until the tab closes
`__usertick_visit`	`sessionStorage`	The paths viewed and site searches made this visit, for the hesitation, can’t find it and engaged visitor triggers. They stay in the browser and are never sent	Until the tab closes
`__usertick_interactions`	`sessionStorage`	Clicks, copies and form changes counted for the engaged visitor trigger	Until the tab closes
`__usertick_landing`	`sessionStorage`	The referrer and query string of the first page of the session, for the referrer and campaign parameter rules. They stay in the browser and are never sent	Until the tab closes
`__usertick_dismissed_<survey ID>`	`sessionStorage`	The visitor closed the survey during this visit	Until the tab closes
`usertick_country`	`sessionStorage`	The visitor’s country, looked up only when a survey has a country rule or a country variant	Until the tab closes

The widget doesn’t fingerprint the browser, and it sends no page views or survey showings to Usertick: a response is sent when the visitor submits it. See Identify your users for what a response carries.

What hosted survey pages store

A survey’s own page, at its link, QR code or email link, keeps these values in sessionStorage, which the browser deletes when the tab closes:

Name	Purpose	Lifetime
`usertick_link_vid`	A random ID for this tab, so a reload shows the same variant. A response carries it as the anonymous ID	Until the tab closes
`__usertick_link_user_<link ID>`	The user ID and hash the link carried, so they can leave the address bar and a reload still sends them	Until the tab closes
`usertick_country`	The visitor’s country, looked up only when the survey has a country rule or a country variant	Until the tab closes

Survey pages load the theme’s fonts from Usertick (cdn.usertick.com), never from Google Fonts. When your site needs consent before the widget runs, don’t put the Usertick tag in the page as is. Load it once the visitor has consented, on every page load. The widget writes nothing before its code loads.

Consent tool category
Consent callback
npm package

Add the tag from your consent tool’s callback. Replace <site ID> with the ID from your install code in Settings → Sites.

function loadUsertick() {
  if (document.querySelector('script[src="https://cdn.usertick.com/s/<site ID>.js"]')) return;
  const script = document.createElement("script");
  script.async = true;
  script.src = "https://cdn.usertick.com/s/<site ID>.js";
  document.head.appendChild(script);
}

// Call loadUsertick() when the visitor accepts the category that covers Usertick,
// and on every later page load when their saved choice allows it.

Call Usertick.init() only after the visitor consents, and Usertick.identify() only after that too, because identify() stores the user ID and traits as soon as it runs. Importing the package stores nothing beyond the usertick_test check, which it deletes at once.

import Usertick from "@usertick/snippet";

// In your consent tool's callback, once the visitor accepts:
Usertick.init({ site_id: "<site ID>" });

When a visitor withdraws consent on a page where the widget runs, clear what it stored and remove it from the page, then stop loading the tag on later pages:

if (window.Usertick) {
  Usertick.reset();
  Usertick.destroy();
}

reset() deletes the widget’s cookies and its localStorage and sessionStorage keys in this browser, except responses that are still waiting to be sent, which stay until they are sent or 7 days pass, and the looked-up country, which goes when the tab closes. destroy() removes the widget’s surveys, listeners and timers from the page.

Getting started

Install Usertick

Build surveys

Channels

Results

Workflows

Organization

Account

Cookies and consent

What the widget stores on your site

What hosted survey pages store

​What the widget stores on your site

​What hosted survey pages store

​Load Usertick after consent

​When a visitor withdraws consent

What the widget stores on your site

What hosted survey pages store

Load Usertick after consent

When a visitor withdraws consent