Cookie and Privacy 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 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.
- In the emails we send.
Types of Cookie
The table below explains the types of cookies we use on our websites and why we use them.
| Category of cookies | Why we use these cookies |
| 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 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.
Required
| Cookie | Purpose |
| __ssid | For processing payment and to aid in fraud detection. |
| __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. |
| 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. |
| csrftoken | Python/Ajax security cookie used on accounts.longreads.com. |
| forterToken | For processing payment and to aid in fraud detection. |
| 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. |
| 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_logged_in* | Checks whether or not the current visitor is a logged in WordPress.com user. |
| wordpress_test_cookie | Checks if cookies are enabled to provide appropriate user experience. |
| 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. |
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. |
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.
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.