Cookie Policy

Your information is handled by our Privacy Policy, which outlines our standards for the collection, processing, and storage. This policy explains how we, our partners, and the users of our services use cookies, as well as your options for controlling them.

What are cookies?
 As soon as you visit a website, a little text file called a “cookie” is stored on your computer or another device. “Session cookies” and “persistent cookies” are frequently used to “remember” you and your preferences, either for a single visit or for several repeat visits. Essential operations like registration and login are carried out by these systems to provide a consistent and efficient user experience. First-party and third-party cookies can be set on a website you are visiting, as well as those that deliver content or provide advertising or analytics services on the website. “Web beacons” and “pixels” may also be used in HTML emails, as well as on websites. Cookies are similar in that they are little, transparent images that are used to collect information for us. It is common to utilize them in conjunction with cookies, even though they aren’t kept on your computer in the same manner. Web beacons may still load if cookies are disabled, but their functionality may be hampered.
How do we use cookies?
Cookies serve a variety of functions for us. For technical reasons, certain cookies are required; others allow visitors and registered users alike to have a tailored experience, and still, others allow for the display of advertisements from specified third-party networks. As soon as the page loads, some of these cookies may be set, such as by clicking on the “like” or ‘follow’ buttons, on a post, for example. You don’t have to log in every time to get many of the cookies we employ, but others are set every time you visit one of our websites, regardless of whether or not you have an account. Please check the Controlling Cookies section below for additional information on your options when it comes to cookies.
Where do we place cookies?
 We set cookies in several different locations across our services. These include:
 On our websites (including automattic.com, wordpress.com, vip.wordpress.com, jetpack.com, gravatar.com, intensedebate.com, vaultpress.com, and akismet.com).
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)

 

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.
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.

User Sites

We use cookies for our Site Stats feature in addition to the ones we place on our sites. Counts both the total number of unique visitors and the number of visits from various geographical areas. When we see a user or browser for the first time in a certain timeframe, we count that person as a visitor.

Examples
Examples of the cookies and an explanation of their purpose can be found in the sections below. The majority of these cookies are set across our whole network, although a few are particular to individual services (e.g. WordPress.com, Longreads, etc). Although this is not an entire list, it is meant to be illustrative of the many options that exist. This section contains information about third-party cookies, such as those placed by our advertising partners. Customers that publish or host their websites through our services may also place additional cookies. In the sections that follow, you’ll find more information about these particular cookies.
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 the log of Polldaddy survey data to aid in debugging customer problems
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 is used to improve user experience.
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 allows us to create a better experience for our visitors. Our users may also implement Google Analytics on their websites.

 

Functionality 

Cookie Purpose
_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.
bottling Used to track the language a user has selected to view popular blogs in.
landingpage_currency Defines the currency displayed on WordPress.com landing pages.
pd_dashboard Records last used folder in Polldaddy dashboard so it can be reopened upon user’s next visit.
PD_USER_AUTH Login cookie used to identify Polldaddy 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 acted.

Security

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

 

Strictly Necessary 

Cookie Purpose
country_code Used 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 an appropriate user experience.

Advertisements from Third Parties Through Automattic’s Ads Program

Our goal is to make publishing accessible to everyone. Some of our users’ websites feature advertisements as a way for us to continue providing WordPress.com as a free tool for website creation. Ads can also be placed on a user’s website through our advertising program. In addition, several of our websites display adverts from our advertising program (e.g. longreads.com).

To run our advertising program, we have to rely on the help of outside merchants. Cookies are used to collect data as part of our advertising program. Ad serving and personalization are made possible by advertising cookies, which we use in conjunction with third-party partners.

Each of our advertising partners sets cookies, and we’ve included a list of those partners’ names and the cookies they set for your convenience. This is not an all-inclusive list of the partners we have worked with in the past. Our ad-related cookies can be controlled in the following sections.

Partner Cookie Info
Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_iba?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201909150
AppNexus https://www.appnexus.com/en/company/cookie-policy
BidSwitch http://www.bidswitch.com/cookie-statement/
Google (AdSense, DoubleClick Ad Exchange “AdX”) https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads
OATH https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/topics/cookies/index.html
Pubmatic https://pubmatic.com/legal/website-cookie-policy/
Skimlinks https://skimlinks.com/user-cookies

 

Visitors to Sites with Jetpack installed below are examples of the cookies set for visitors to sites with the Jetpack plugin installed. For more details on the cookies set for administrators, please see https://jetpack.com/support/cookies/.
Jetpack Comments 

Cookie Name Purpose
comment_author_{HASH} Remembers the value entered into the comment form‘s name field. Specific to the site from which it is set. This cookie mirrors one set by the core WordPress software for commenting purposes.
comment_author_email_{HASH} Remembers the value entered into the comment form‘s email field. Specific to the site from which it is set. This cookie mirrors one set by the core WordPress software for commenting purposes.
comment_author_url_{HASH} Remembers the value entered into the comment form‘s URL field. Specific to the site from which it is set. This cookie mirrors one set by the core WordPress software for commenting purposes

Mobile Theme

Cookie Name Purpose
akm_mobile Remembers whether or not a user wishes to view the mobile version of a site.

Subscriptions

Cookie Name Purpose
jetpack_comments_subscribe_{HASH} Remembers the state of the post and comment subscription checkboxes.
jetpack_blog_subscribe_{HASH} Remembers the state of the post and comment subscription checkboxes.

EU Cookie Law Banner