Cookies

Cookies we use on Virtual Fly Brain

Last updated: May 2026

This page lists the cookies set by www.virtualflybrain.org and the related Virtual Fly Brain (VFB) services. It complements the Privacy Notice.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your device when you visit. Cookies let a site recognise your browser between requests and on return visits.

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are required for the website and applications to work and cannot be turned off through any opt-out mechanism without breaking core features.

Name	Set by	Purpose	Expires
JSESSIONID	Geppetto (v2.virtualflybrain.org and variants)	Maintains your application session in the 3D web client — currently selected neurons, layer visibility and camera state.	End of browser session

Performance cookies

These cookies help us understand how visitors use Virtual Fly Brain so we can improve content, navigation and the underlying data integrations. The data is aggregated and is not used to identify individual users.

Google Analytics 4

We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a web analytics service provided by Google LLC. GA4 receives your IP address transiently for geolocation purposes, derives an approximate location (city/country level), and discards the raw IP — it is not stored against your analytics record. The data we see is aggregated counts, paths through the site, and broad geographic distribution.

Name	Purpose	Expires
_ga	Distinguishes browsers across visits.	2 years from your most recent visit
_ga_K7DDZVVXM7	Maintains GA4 session state for the VFB property.	2 years from your most recent visit

For details of Google’s processing, see Google’s Privacy & Terms.

International transfer note: Google may process GA4 data on servers in the United States. The transfer is covered by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1795); Google is certified under the framework. The UK extension to the framework applies for UK-origin data.

How to opt out

You can opt out of Google Analytics on every site you visit by installing Google’s Analytics Opt-out browser add-on. You can also clear or block individual cookies via your browser’s settings; doing so will not prevent you from using the public VFB services, but the Geppetto session cookie above is needed for the 3D viewer.

Other cookies set by sites we link to

Pages elsewhere on virtualflybrain.org may embed content from third-party services (for example, YouTube or X/Twitter). Those embeds may set their own cookies; please refer to the third party’s own cookie or privacy policy for details. We do not set non-essential third-party cookies of our own beyond Google Analytics.

Contact

Questions about cookies on this site: data@virtualflybrain.org.

Wider University data-protection enquiries: University of Edinburgh Data Protection Officer.