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?
How we use cookies?
Where we place cookies?
- 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 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. |
User Sites
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 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 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 allow us to create a better experience for our visitors. Our users may also implement Google Analytics on their own 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. |
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 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 performed an action. |
Security
Cookie | Purpose |
csrftoken | Python/Ajax security cookie used on accounts.longreads.com. |
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 an 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).
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.
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
Mobile Theme
Subscriptions
EU Cookie Law Banner
Please note that this section is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather aims to be representative and that our users may set additional cookies (such as Google Analytics), depending on the features they have chosen to enable or the plugins they have installed.