Cookie Policy

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Our Privacy Policy explains our principles when it comes to the collection, processing, and storage of your information. This policy specifically explains how we, our partners, and users of our services deploy cookies, as well as the options you have to control them.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of data, stored in text files, that are stored on your computer or other device when websites are loaded in a browser. They are widely used to “remember” you and your preferences, either for a single visit (through a “session cookie”) or for multiple repeat visits (using a “persistent cookie”). They ensure a consistent and efficient experience for visitors, and perform essential functions such as allowing users to register and remain logged in. Cookies may be set by the site that you are visiting (known as “first party cookies”), or by third parties, such as those who serve content or provide advertising or analytics services on the website (“third party cookies”).

Both websites and HTML emails may also contain other tracking technologies such as “web beacons” or “pixels.” These are typically small transparent images that provide us with statistics, for similar purposes as cookies. They are often used in conjunction with cookies, though they are not stored on your computer in the same way. As a result, if you disable cookies, web beacons may still load, but their functionality will be restricted.

How we use cookies

We use cookies for a number of different purposes. Some cookies are necessary for technical reasons; some enable a personalized experience for both visitors and registered users; and some allow the display of advertising from selected third party networks. Some of these cookies may be set when a page is loaded, or when a visitor takes a particular action (clicking the “like” or “follow” button on a post, for example).

Many of the cookies we use are only set if you are a registered WordPress.com user (so you don’t have to log in every time, for example), while others are set whenever you visit one of our websites, irrespective of whether you have an account.

For more information on the choices you have about the cookies we use, please see the Controlling Cookies section below.

Where we place cookies

We set cookies in a number of different locations across our services. These include:

On our websites (including automattic.com, wordpress.com, vip.wordpress.com, jetpack.com, woocommerce.com, crowdsignal.com, gravatar.com, intensedebate.com, vaultpress.com, akismet.com, simplenote.com, simperium.com, leandomainsearch.com, cloudup.com, longreads.com, and happy.tools).
In the administrative dashboards of our websites, such as Calypso and wp-admin.
On sites we host for our users.
On sites that use our plugins (e.g. Jetpack).
In the emails we send.

User Sites

In addition to the cookies set on our own sites, we utilize cookies for our Site Stats feature. This tallies the unique numbers of visitors to a site, as well as the number from specific geographic locations. A visitor is counted when we see a user or browser for the first time in a given period.

Examples

Below are examples of the cookies set by Automattic, with explanations of their purpose. Some of these cookies are set across our whole network, whereas some are specific to individual services (e.g. WordPress.com, Longreads, etc). Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, but rather aims to be representative. Information about cookies that may be set by third parties, such as our ads partners, is below. Additionally, we occasionally set referrer cookies on Jetpack connected sites, using WooCommerce.

In addition, people and companies that use our services to publish or host their own sites may place additional cookies. We provide more information on these cookies below.

Advertising

Cookie	Purpose
ads	Tracks if a visitor has clicked an ad before.
lr_nw	Counts and tracks pageviews on Longreads.com. Used to determine whether or not to show our Membership popup message.
wordpress_eli	Reduces the display of ads for repeat visitors.

Please also see the section below on third party advertisements that you may see on our sites or sites that use our services.

Analytics and Performance

Cookie	Purpose
__pdvt	Used in log of Crowdsignal survey data to aid in debugging customer problems.
_hjIncludedInSample mp_6d7c50ad560e01715a871a117a2fbd90_mixpanel optimizelyBuckets optimizelyEndUserId __hstc hubspotutk optimizelySegments	Gathers information that helps us understand how visitors interact with our websites, which allows us to create a better visitor experience.
ab	Used for “AB testing” of new features.
nux_flow_name	Identifies which user signup flow was shown to the user.
tk_ni / tk_ai / tk_qs	Gathers information for our own, first party analytics tool about how our services are used. A collection of internal metrics for user activity, used to improve user experience.
tk_*r	Referral cookies used to analyse referrer behavior for Jetpack connected sites using WooCommerce.
wp-affiliate-tracker	Remembers the ID of the affiliate that referred the current user to WordPress.com
utma / utmb / utmc / utmt / utmz / ga / gat / gid	Google Analytics. Gathers information that helps us understand how visitors interact with our websites, which allow us to create a better experience for our visitors. Our users may also implement Google Analytics on their own websites.

Functionality

Cookie	Purpose
__stripe_sid / __stripe_mid	For processing payment and to aid in fraud detection.
_longreads_prod_new	Authentication for Longreads.com Member accounts. Only active when logged in, on *.longreads.com domains.
akm_mobile	Stores whether a user has chosen to view the mobile version of a website.
botdlang	Used to track the language a user has selected to view popular blogs in.
landingpage_currency	Defines the currency displayed in WordPress.com landing pages.
pd_dashboard	Records last used folder in Crowdsignal dashboard so it can be reopened upon user’s next visit.
PD_USER_AUTH	Login cookie used to identify Crowdsignal user.
wordpress_logged_in*	Checks whether or not the current visitor is a logged in WordPress.com user.
wp-settings-{user_id}	Persists a user’s wp-admin configuration.
wp_sharing_{id}	Tracks whether or not a user has already performed an action.

Security

Cookie	Purpose
csrftoken	Python/Ajax security cookie used on accounts.longreads.com.

Strictly Necessary

Cookie	Purpose
country_code	Used in order to determine whether or not the cookie banner should be shown. Set immediately on page load and retained for 6 hours to remember the visitor’s country.
sensitive_pixel_option	Remembers the state of visitor acceptance to the cookie banner. Only set when the visitor clicks Accept.
twostep_auth	Set when the user is logged in using two factor authentication.
wordpress_test_cookie	Checks if cookies are enabled to provide appropriate user experience.

Advertisements from Third Parties Through Automattic’s Ads Program

Our mission is to democratize publishing. So that we can offer free access to create a website using WordPress.com, we show ads on some of our users’ sites. Our users may also choose to place ads on their site through our ads program. Additionally, we also show ads from our ads program on some of our own websites (e.g. longreads.com), and in emails.

We operate our ads program in partnership with third party vendors. As part of the operation of our ads program, we use cookies to collect certain information. Advertising cookies enable us and our partners to serve ads and to personalize those ads based on information like visits to our sites and other sites on the Internet.

Below is a representative list of our advertising program partners, along with information on the cookies that that each partner sets. The partners we work with change from time to time, and this is not an exhaustive list. Your choices to control cookies related to our ads program are described below.

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Category of cookies	Why we use these cookies
Strictly Necessary	These cookies are essential for websites on our services to perform their basic functions. These include those required to allow registered users to authenticate and perform account related functions, as well as to save the contents of virtual “carts” on sites that have an ecommerce functionality.
Functionality	These cookies are used to store preferences set by users such as account name, language, and location.
Security	We use these cookies to help identify and prevent potential security risks.
Analytics and Performance	Performance cookies collect information on how users interact with our websites, including what pages are visited most, as well as other analytical data. We use these details to improve how our websites function and to understand how users interact with them.
Advertising	These cookies are used to display relevant advertising to visitors who use our services or visit websites we host or provide, as well as to understand and report on the efficacy of ads served on our websites. They track details such as the number of unique visitors, the number of times particular ads have been displayed, and the number of clicks the ads have received. They are also used to build user profiles, including showing you ads based on products you’ve viewed or acts you have taken on our (and other) websites. These are set by Automattic and trusted third party networks, and are generally persistent in nature.
Third Party / Embedded Content	Sites hosted on WordPress.com make use of different third party applications and services to enhance the experience of website visitors. These include social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (through the use of sharing buttons), or embedded content from Youtube and Vimeo. As a result, cookies may be set by these third parties, and used by them to track your online activity. We have no direct control over the information that is collected by these cookies.