What is the s_ecid cookie?
Stores a persistent, unique identifier used by Adobe Experience Cloud to recognize and track visitors across a website.
Table of Contents
About the s_ecid cookie
| Vendor | Adobe |
|---|---|
| Category Category The functional category of the technology, such as Web Analytics or Social Media. Learn more | Web Analytics |
| Consent Category Consent Category The consent category this cookie most commonly falls under across sites we scan, normalized into four standard categories. Learn more | Performance & Analytics |
| Prevalence | Very Common |
| Popularity Popularity Popularity is calculated from our dataset of 4.5B+ cookies analyzed across hundreds of millions of web pages. Learn more | Found on 11.3% of scanned pages |
| Expiration Type | Timestamp |
| Expiration Duration | 29 days |
| Party Type Party Type Whether the cookie is first-party or third-party. Learn more | Mixed |
| Risk Level Risk Level Rates how sensitive the data stored by this cookie is (High, Medium, or Low) based on data classification and distribution. Learn more | Medium |
| Vendor Privacy Policy | https://www.adobe.com/privacy.html |
| Vendor Website | https://www.adobe.com |
What is the purpose of the s_ecid cookie?
The s_ecid cookie (formerly associated with the Marketing Cloud ID or MID) is set by the Adobe Experience Cloud Identity Service (ECID) or the Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK. It stores a copy of the visitor's Experience Cloud ID (ECID/MID) in the format s_ecid=MCMID|<ECID>, serving as a common identifier shared across multiple Adobe products including Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, and Adobe Audience Manager. The cookie acts as a first-party backup of the AMCV cookie and is set on the customer's own domain after the AMCV cookie is set; it is primarily used in CNAME (first-party) tracking scenarios to allow persistent ID tracking and to act as a reference ID if the primary AMCV cookie expires. By maintaining a stable identity, this cookie enables cross-session analytics, personalized experiences, and the stitching together of a user's behavioral profile over time.
What are the Privacy Risks of the s_ecid cookie?
Risk Level: Medium
The s_ecid cookie stores a pseudonymous unique identifier that enables persistent user tracking and behavioral profiling across multiple sessions, and potentially across multiple subdomains or domains connected via Adobe's Identity Service. While it does not natively store direct plaintext PII, the collected behavioral data is commonly tied to known user records, CRM data, or downstream audience segmentation within the Adobe ecosystem, which justifies a Medium risk classification.
How to Remove the s_ecid cookie from a Website
To remove the s_ecid cookie, website administrators must disable or remove the Adobe Experience Cloud Identity Service (VisitorAPI.js) or the Adobe Experience Platform Web SDK (alloy.js) from their tag management/data collection implementation (e.g., Adobe Tags / Adobe Launch). Because this cookie is a backup copy of how Adobe recognizes users (the ECID/AMCV value), it cannot be removed independently without breaking the core visitor-identification functionality of Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, and other Adobe Experience Cloud services. Administrators who rely on Adobe's services therefore must choose between keeping the cookie active or removing the Adobe Experience Cloud / ECID service entirely.