Cookies 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.
User Sites
In addition to the cookies set on our own sites, we utilize cookies for our Site Stars 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.
Below is a representative list of our advertising program partners, along with information on the cookies 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.
Below is a representative list of the cookies that may be set by our ads partners in connection with ads that appear in emails.
| Cookie | Purpose |
| pi-userid | Used to personalize email-based ads. |
| eid_ | Used in email-based ads to track if a visitor has clicked an ad and report to advertisers how their ads performed. |
Visitors to Sites with Parse.ly installed
Below are examples of the cookies set for visitors to sites with the Parse.ly plugin installed.
| Cookie | Purpose |
| test | Used to discover cookie support. |
| _parsely_visitor | JSON document uniquely identifying a browser and counting its sessions. |
| _parsely_tpa_blocked | JSON document storing a flag indicating whether pixel.parsely.com is not accessible by the tracker. |
| _parsely_slot_click | JSON document storing positional information about a clicked internal link. |
| _parsely_session | JSON document storing information identifying a browsing session according to Parse.ly’s proprietary definition. |
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
Mobile Theme
Subscriptions
Our Internal Analytics Tool
In order 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 Automattic 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 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.
For our Simplenote Users: We use our first party analytics tool in Simplenote to help us better understand how Simplenote is used and improve the app for our users. You may opt-out through your privacy settings in the app. By doing so, you won’t share information with our analytics tool about events or actions that happen after the opt-out. One more thing–For Simplenote users who log onto Simplenote using their WordPress.com login, if you’d like to opt-out of our analytics tool on Simplenote, you’ll also need to opt out on the Simplenote app–not on your WP.COM Account Privacy Settings.
Consent and Choices for Advertisements on Our Users’ Sites Through Our Ads Program
You may see a “cookie banner” on our users’ websites, particularly if you are in the European Union. If so, then our ad program does not set, or allow our ad partners to set, cookies that are used to show you targeted ads before you accept.
When you consent in this manner, we and our advertising partners may set third party advertising cookies in order to show you personalized ads on the website you are visiting and, if you are visiting a site in the WordPress.com network, on all websites within that network of sites. You’ll know that a site is in the WordPress.com network because it will have a WordPress.com subdomain (e.g., example.wordpress.com). For other sites that participate in our ads program, your consent is only for personalized ads on the specific site you are visiting.
For visitors to sites in the WordPress.com network:
You can manage your privacy choices for third party advertising cookies for sites in the WordPress.com network by clicking “Learn More” on the banner, which will bring up our consent management platform (CMP). You can also adjust your settings for sites in the WordPress.com network at any time by clicking on the “Privacy” link displayed beneath every ad.
In March 2021 we began rolling out a new CMP to some of our users as part of our transition to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework, which we will participate in as both a CMP provider and as a vendor (framework identification number 496). Our new CMP complies with the framework’s Specifications and Policies, and honors the choices you make using the IAB’s tools. Within the CMP we list as partners all the vendors that participate in the IAB’s Framework. We don’t work with all of these vendors, but our ad partners listed above might, so we want to give you the choice to deactivate them. (This is also why the list in our CMP is longer than you’d expect!).
Other Choices:
We also set a cookie to help us understand how visitors engage with websites that participate in our ad program. Visitors may opt out of our use of this information by visiting this link (the opt-out will be processed immediately with no confirmation step). When you opt out, we replace the unique value for that cookie with an opt-out value. The opt-out works across all websites in our ads program. If you have opted out by accident or wish to opt back in, you may do so by visiting this link. Please note that this option is browser-specific, so if you use a different device or browser or clear your cookies, then you will need to repeat the process.
Contact Us
If you have any questions about our use of cookies, you can find the most relevant contact details in our Privacy Policy