1: What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. 

IWM sets cookies on the IWM website to enable it to carry out certain functions, such as remember the information you have entered on an online form, or to ‘save’ things in your basket in the online shop. We also use cookies to help us understand visitors to the IWM website – what other sites they have visited and whether they responded to any IWM online advertising. 

This page describes what information they gather and how we use it. It also sets out how you can control cookies.

Further information on cookies is available from All About Cookies

2: The information we collect and how long it is kept

The information we collect via cookies consists usually of things like IP addresses, sites visited and actions taken.  We don’t use them to identify you by name, or record things like email addresses or bank details

Cookies can be set for the duration of your visit to the website or for up to two years. 

3: The Cookies we set and what they do

We set the following cookies:

  • Essential Cookies 

These enable the website to carry out certain functions, such as remember the information you have entered on an online form, or to ‘save’ things in your basket in the online shop. They expire once your leave our website. We don’t have to ask for consent for essential cookies as you won’t be able to access or use the website without them. 

  • Functional Cookies

These remember any preferences you have set on the site, such as your cookie preferences. They also allow optional features such as embedded YouTube videos to work, improving your experience.  You will be asked for your consent to use these when you access our website.

  • Analytics Cookies

These cookies (such as Google Analytics) help us understand how people use our website, and we use this data to help improve your experience.  You will be asked for your consent to use these when you access our website.

  • Advertising Cookies

Third party digital advertising providers, such as Facebook (Meta) and Google, place cookies and pixels on our website where we allow them to. When you accept targeting cookies on our website, these cookies will be placed on your device. Each time you interact with our site it will send your usage data back to the digital advertising provider. We then tell the digital advertising platforms, such as Facebook Business Manager or Google, which type of users should be shown an advert from IWM, for example “any device which has visited a specific IWM event page”. The digital advertising provider will then use this data to send an advert to those users who visited the specific page. We never see any of your data and are not able to identify any individuals who may see our adverts.

You can withdraw your consent for these cookies at any time.  You can also see how else digital advertising providers may use this data and find out how you can control how they use your data in the digital advertising providers’ privacy policies and terms and conditions. 

We use Google Analytics and retargeting via Google Ads, and have implemented Google’s latest update, Consent Mode v2, which ensures user consent settings are respected in accordance with data protection legislation. We have implemented Consent Mode v2 to support our marketing efforts and collection of visitor metrics while still protecting your privacy. If you choose not to accept targeting cookies, only anonymised data about interactions with our website and adverts will be sent to the Google server

A full list of the cookies we use is published on the IWM website. 

4: How can I control my cookies?

You cannot control the use of cookies which are necessary for the functioning of the IWM website. These cookies are essential and only last for the duration of the time you are on the IWM site.

For all other cookies, your consent is asked for when you visit the IWM website. 

You can withdraw your consent at any time by accessing the cookie preference centre by clicking on the icon in the bottom left of your browser screen:

One Trust Cookie consent manager

You can withdraw your consent at any time by clicking on the icon.

  • If you decline tracking, no identifiable information will be used and no cookies will be set.
  • Instead, a ‘cookieless ping’ is used by Google to model data, allowing us to understand non-identifiable trends for our website such as how our website performs on different browser types and versions, operating systems, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and sources used to enter our website.
  • This modelled data helps us make decisions on how to improve a user’s experience on our website. The unidentifiable data, modelled by Google to fill in gaps left by users who have denied consent, means you are not logged or tracked by Google Analytics or Google Ads, as no information is collected or used on our site that is identifiable. 

You can also manage your cookie preferences in your browser settings.  

  • The help function within your browser should tell you how.
  • For information on how to block or delete cookies on the browser of your mobile phone you may need to refer to your handset manual. 
  • It is not possible to restrict or block essential or strictly necessary cookies on any device 

For cookies set by other sites you visit, including social media sites accessed via links on our website, you should consult their Privacy or Cookie Policies for information on the cookies they use. 

Further resources to help you manage your rights in the wider digital landscape. 

These are all external links, not managed by IWM or our cookie and privacy policies: 

Restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website and your user experience. We recommend you leave them turned on. 

5: More information

Find out about all the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them.

Read Imperial War Museums’ full privacy statement, with details on who to contact with any further queries.  

6: Date and version control

This policy is effective from 1 December 2025

It replaces the previous policy of 13 November 2023 and has been updated to include information on the use of Google Consent mode and further details on how to control permissions

Version history:

  • 13 November 2023: policy revised to include more information on cookies and marketing
  • 1 May 2021: new policy to reflect revised arrangements for obtaining consent.
  • 25 May 2018: new policy in line with General Data Protection Regulation requirements