Cookie Policy

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 devices 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 several different purposes. Some cookies are necessary for technical reasons; some enable a personalised 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 do we place cookies?

We set cookies in several different locations across our services. These include:

  • On our websites (including hyperionbc.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.

Types of Cookies

 Below explains the types of cookies we use on our websites and why we use them.

Required

These cookies are essential for our websites and services to perform basic functions and are necessary for us to operate certain features. These include those required to allow registered users to authenticate and perform account related functions, store preferences set by users such as account name, language, and location, and ensure our services are operating properly.

Analytics and Performance

These cookies allow us to optimize performance by collecting information on how users interact with our websites, including which 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 set by us and our advertising partners to provide you with relevant content and to understand that content’s effectiveness. They may be used to collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites to predict your preferences and to display more relevant advertisements to you. These cookies also allow a profile to be built about you and your interests and enable personalized ads to be shown to you based on your profile.

User Sites

In addition to the cookies set on our 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.

 

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

EU cookie law Remembers the state of visitor acceptance to the 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.

Controlling Cookies

Visitors may wish to restrict the use of cookies or completely prevent them from being set. Most browsers provide ways to control cookie behaviour such as the length of time they are stored – either through built-in functionality or by utilizing third-party plugins. If you disable cookies, please be aware that some of the features of our service may not function correctly.

To find out more on how to manage and delete cookies, visit aboutcookies.org. For more details on your choices regarding the use of your web browsing activity for interest-based advertising you may visit the following sites:

On a mobile device, you may also be able to adjust your settings to limit tracking. 

Some analytics services we use, which place their cookies or web tags on your browser, offer their own opt-out choices. For example, you can opt out of Google Analytics by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on, from Hotjar by using the Do Not Track header, and from Nielsen by clicking the opt-out link found within Nielsen’s Privacy Statement.

Our Internal Analytics Tool

To better understand how our services are used, we monitor certain user activities that take place within our products, including page views and clicks on any links used when managing a site via our dashboards.

We call each one of these actions an “event.” Analytics events are attached to your WordPress.com account and are handled via a first-party system that Hyperion owns and maintains. In general, we record the following data for each event: IP address, WordPress.com user ID and username, WordPress.com-connected site ID (for sites not hosted on WordPress.com), user agent, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, and country code.

We use this information to improve our products, make our marketing to you more relevant, personalize your experience, and for the other purposes described in our Privacy Policy.

You may opt-out of our analytics program through your user settings. By doing so, you won’t share information with our analytics tool about events or actions that happen after the opt-out, while logged in to your WordPress.com account. Note that opting out does not disable the functionality of the actions we track – for example, if you publish a post, we will still have a record of that (don’t worry!), but for an event or action after you opt-out, we will not have other data associated with that action or event in the analytics tool.

Consent for Advertising Cookies on Our Sites

You may see a “cookie banner” on our websites and dashboards. If you are visiting one of our sites from the EU, then we do not set, or allow our ad partners to set, cookies that are used to show you targeted ads before you click to accept. When you consent in this manner, we and our advertising partners may set advertising cookies on the site you are visiting and on our other websites, dashboards, and services, which we use to show you advertisements about our various Hyperion products. We’ll display the banner to you periodically, just in case you change your mind.

We use cookies to give you the best online experience. By agreeing you accept the use of cookies in accordance with our cookie policy.