Cookie Policy | Pharma Observatory

Last updated: 2026-10-11

1. About this policy #

This policy explains the cookies and similar browser storage used by Pharma Observatory Explore, pharmaobservatory.com, and by the Contract Research Map and Clinical Research Map sites, which are operated by the same company. It is operated by The Assay Depot LLC, trading as Scientist.com. For any question about it, write to support@scientist.com. What we do with personal data more generally is in the privacy policy.

2. What cookies and browser storage are #

A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to keep. Browsers also offer other places to keep small pieces of information for a site: local storage, which stays until you clear it, and session storage, which is cleared when you close the browser tab. This policy calls all of these “cookies and similar storage”, and lists each one we use below by its exact name.

3. The four categories #

Necessary. Storage the site needs in order to work, or that records a choice you made. It is always on, and we do not ask for your consent to it. It covers signing in, form security, your display preferences, your map view, your cookie choices, and error reporting.

Analytics. Storage used to count visits and pages so we can see what is used and improve it. It is off until you allow it.

Advertising. Storage and tags used by our advertising partners for two purposes: conversion measurement (linking a visit that began with an advertisement to a later sign-up) and retargeting (showing our own advertisements to people who have visited this site). Our partners are LinkedIn (active now, through the LinkedIn Insight Tag), and Google and Microsoft Bing, which we may add. This is one choice: allowing it covers the partners named here and only for these two purposes, and we update this list before adding another partner. It is off until you allow it.

Nothing in the Analytics or Advertising categories is used until you choose. You can accept all, reject all, or choose by category, and you can change your mind at any time (section 6). If we change what a category covers, we ask you again.

4. What we store #

Duration “tab” means session storage, which ends when you close the tab. Duration “browser session” is a cookie without an expiry date, which your browser drops when it closes. Provider “us” means it is set by our own pages and read only by us.

Name	Where it is kept	Purpose	Category	Duration	Provider
`_explore_session`	Cookie, pharmaobservatory.com only	Keeps you signed in, and holds the security token that protects our forms (sign-in, requesting a PDF). A signed-out visitor receives it too, holding only that token and no personal data.	Necessary	Browser session	Us
`po_consent`	Local storage	Remembers your choices on this page, so we do not ask again.	Necessary	Until you change it or clear your browser data	Us
`theme`	Local storage	Remembers the light or dark theme you chose. Only written when you use the theme control.	Necessary	Until you clear your browser data	Us
`po-agent-client`	Local storage	Remembers the AI client you picked on the AI agents page. Only written when you pick one.	Necessary	Until you clear your browser data	Us
`map:carry-view`	Session storage	Keeps the map view (where you were looking) when you move between map pages.	Necessary	Tab	Us
`ph_<project key>_posthog`	Session storage	PostHog’s random visitor ID and session details for this tab, so a visit counts as one visit.	Analytics	Tab	PostHog, on our behalf
`po_gclid`	Session storage	The Google Ads click ID from the link you followed, kept so a later sign-up or PDF request can be matched to the ad.	Advertising	Tab	Us (the value comes from Google Ads)
`po_li_fat_id`	Session storage	The LinkedIn click ID from the link you followed, kept so a later sign-up or PDF request can be matched to the ad. Only present if you arrived from a LinkedIn ad.	Advertising	Tab	Us (the value comes from LinkedIn)
`po_msclkid`	Session storage	The Microsoft Advertising click ID from the link you followed, kept so a later sign-up or PDF request can be matched to the ad. Only present if you arrived from a Microsoft Advertising ad.	Advertising	Tab	Us (the value comes from Microsoft Advertising)
LinkedIn identifiers (for example `bcookie`, `lidc`, `li_sugr`, `UserMatchHistory`)	Cookies set by LinkedIn on linkedin.com domains	Set by the LinkedIn Insight Tag, which loads only after you allow Advertising, so LinkedIn can recognise your browser, build an audience of site visitors for our LinkedIn campaigns, and measure them. The exact set is chosen by LinkedIn.	Advertising	Set by LinkedIn; see its policy	LinkedIn

Notes on the table:

The map sites set no cookies. The Contract Research Map and Clinical Research Map send no cookie from their servers. On those sites only the local and session storage entries above can appear: po_consent, theme, map:carry-view, and, if you allow them, the Analytics entry.
Before you choose. With Analytics off, PostHog still counts page views but keeps its visitor ID in the page’s memory only, so nothing is written to your device and each page load looks like a new, anonymous visit. With Advertising off, po_gclid, po_li_fat_id and po_msclkid are not written and the LinkedIn Insight Tag is not loaded. The lead form can still read a click ID that is in the address of the page you are on.
When you withdraw. Turning Analytics off removes PostHog’s entries from your browser and gives PostHog a fresh in-memory ID. Turning Advertising off removes po_gclid, po_li_fat_id and po_msclkid and stops later pages from loading the LinkedIn Insight Tag; clear LinkedIn’s own cookies in your browser to remove them.
Error reporting. Browser errors are reported to Sentry through our own server. It uses no cookie or browser storage, and is part of the Necessary category.
Sign-in. When you choose Sign in, you are taken to our identity provider’s hosted page, WorkOS, which may set its own cookies there under its own policy.

5. Advertising on the map sites #

The Contract Research Map shows sponsored cards supplied by the ad server Kevel. We do not load any Kevel script or tracking pixel in your browser, and we do not send you to Kevel’s tracking links. Instead our own server asks Kevel for the ads, tells Kevel when an ad is shown, and, when you click one, records the click with Kevel and then sends you on to the advertiser. In those server calls Kevel receives the browser identification string your browser sent us (so it can discount automated traffic) and a truncated version of your IP address (the last part removed: for an IPv4 address the final number is set to zero, for an IPv6 address only the first three groups are kept), which it uses to deliver, geo-target and filter ads. Kevel receives your full IP address only if you have allowed the Advertising category. It receives nothing else about you. The advertiser’s page opens as an ordinary link, under that advertiser’s own policy.

The picture on an ad card is loaded from Kevel’s image host, as an ordinary image request, so Kevel’s host can see your address and browser details when it serves it. We do not rely on that request to set or read any cookie. This works the same whether or not you allow the Advertising category, which for now covers po_gclid, po_li_fat_id, po_msclkid, the LinkedIn Insight Tag and the full (rather than truncated) IP address sent to Kevel described above.

6. Changing your choices #

Use Cookie settings in the footer of any page to reopen the choices at any time. You can change a category, or withdraw consent entirely, and the change applies at once.

You can also block or delete cookies and site storage in your browser settings. If you block the Necessary entries, parts of the site, such as signing in, will not work. Your browser’s help pages explain how for each browser. Clearing your browser data also clears your choices here, and we will ask you again on your next visit.

7. Changes to this policy #

We change this policy when what we store changes. The date at the top shows the latest revision, and a change to a category’s meaning prompts the banner again.