Cookie Policy
Last updated August 15, 2026
Provided for general information — not a substitute for legal advice.
Our approach
Museum Compass is an editorial catalog, not an advertising business. We set as few cookies as the site can run on. Only the essential cookies below are written unless you choose “Accept all”, and no advertising or social-media trackers are embedded in these pages at any point.
Cookies we set
| Cookie | Category | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| mc_consent | Essential | Stores your cookie choice (accept all or essential only) and the policy version it was made against.First party | 180 days |
| sb-…-auth-token | Essential | Signed-in session for Museum Compass staff using the internal editorial tools. Not set for ordinary visitors.First party (hosting provider) | Session / until sign-out |
| _ga | Analytics — consent required | Google Analytics 4: distinguishes one browser from another for audience measurement (pages viewed, outbound links followed). Set only after you choose “Accept all”.Third party — Google LLC, acting as our processor | 2 years |
| _ga_<container-id> | Analytics — consent required | Google Analytics 4: keeps session state for this property. Set only after you choose “Accept all”.Third party — Google LLC, acting as our processor | 2 years |
| mc_recent_searches | Local storage — essential | Not a cookie: your last five searches are kept in your browser’s local storage so the search panel can offer them again. They are never sent to us, and clearing your site data removes them.First party — stays in your browser | Until you clear site data |
Where you are changes when analytics runs
In the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland (and Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein), analytics cookies are set only after you explicitly choose “Accept all”. Until then the Google Analytics script is never requested and no analytics cookie exists.
Everywhere else, including the United States, analytics is on by default when you first arrive, and a bar tells you so. You can switch it off in one click — either from that bar or from “Cookie preferences”, in the footer of every page and below. Once you make a choice anywhere in the world, that choice is what we follow.
What analytics does when it is enabled
When analytics is enabled, we load Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-J4SQQKCS7P), provided by Google LLC as our processor. It measures which pages are viewed and which outbound links are followed, and sets the _ga and _ga_<container-id> cookies listed above. IP addresses are anonymised and no advertising or personalisation signals are enabled — ad_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization stay denied in every region. Google’s handling is described in its privacy policy.
We also record an anonymous first-party event when you follow an outbound link to a museum, ticketing site, or partner: which link was used, which page it was on, and when. We do not set an additional cookie for this, we do not build a profile, and the event is not tied to a name, an account, or an advertising identifier.
If you choose Essential only or Turn off analytics, none of this runs: the Google Analytics script is not requested, no analytics cookies are set, and no event is sent. Links work exactly the same way. Any measurement tool we add in future passes through the same consent gate.
Changing your mind
Your current choice is loading. You can change it at any time — this link, or “Cookie preferences” in the footer of every page, reopens the banner.
You can also clear or block cookies in your browser settings. Blocking the consent cookie means the banner will ask again on each visit.
Museum Compass is operated by ramjac, LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company. Questions about this document: privacy@museumcompass.com.