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 trusted third party service providers 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 (when applicable) 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 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 website and services including third-party plug-ins and services used to support our website. These would include:

  • On this website constructionofficeonline.com as well as automattic.com, wordpress.com, vip.wordpress.com, jetpack.com, gravatar.com, intensedebate.com, vaultpress.com, and akismet.com).
  • In the user account and administrative dashboards of our websites, such as Calypso and wp-admin.

Types of Cookie

The table below explains the types of cookies we use on our website and why we use them.

Category of cookies Why we use these cookies
Strictly Necessary These cookies are essential for websites 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 our site as it provides 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 website, including what pages are visited most, as well as other analytical data. We use these details to improve how our website function and to understand how users interact with the site and applicable plug-ins.
Advertising As applicable, 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 ConstructionOfficeOnline as well as trusted third party networks (such as Automattic), and are generally persistent in nature.
Third Party / Embedded Content Our sites make use of trusted 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 and like 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

In addition to the cookies set on our own site, we utilize cookies for Site Stats feature hosted by trusted third party . 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.

Advertising

Cookie Purpose
ads Tracks if a visitor has clicked an ad before.
lr_nw Example of cookie that 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
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 one of our third party services as an analytics tool about how our site and services are used. A collection of internal metrics for user activity, used to improve user experience.
utma / utmb / utmc / utmt / utmz / ga / gat / gid Google Analytics. Gathers information that helps us understand how visitors interact with our website, which allow us to create a better experience for our visitors.

Functionality

Cookie Purpose
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 landing pages.
USER_AUTH Login cookie used to identify the user.
wp-settings-{user_id} Persists a user’s login configuration.
wp_sharing_{id} Tracks whether or not a user has already performed an action.

Advertisements from Third Parties

Our mission is to maintain free access to the information published on ConstructionOfficeOnline.com.  So that we can offer free access, we show ads at various areas of our site.

We operator our ads program in partnership with third party vendors.  As part of the operation of our ads program, cookies are used 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 site 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
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
BidSwitch http://www.bidswitch.com/cookie-statement/
AppNexus https://www.appnexus.com/en/company/cookie-policy

EU Cookie Law Banner

The European Union’s ePrivacy Directive (often referred to as the ‘cookie law’) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) place requirements on website owners and operators to provide information about, and gain consent for their use of cookies.

Cookie Name Purpose
eucookielaw 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 for ways to control cookie behavior 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 use of your web browsing activity for interest-based advertising visit youronlinechoices.eu (EU based) or optout.aboutads.info (US based). On a mobile device, you may also be to adjust your settings to limit ad tracking.

You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on.

Analytics Tools

In order to better understand how our site and its services are used, we monitor certain user activities that take place including page views and clicks on any links used when browsing our site.

We call each one of these actions an “event.” Analytics events are attached to your account and are handled via third party systems such as Automattic who owns and maintains their Analytics system. In general, and as an example, the following data is recorded for each event: IP address, user ID or username, WordPress.com-connected site ID, user agent, referring URL, timestamp of event, browser language, and country code.

We use this information to improve our site and 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 programs through your user settings. By doing so, you won’t share information with the  analytics tools about events or actions that happen after the opt-out, while logged in to your 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.

Consent for Advertising Cookies

You may see a “cookie banner” on our website and dashboard. If you are visiting our site 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 third party advertising partners may set advertising cookies on the site you are visiting and on other of our websites, dashboards, and services. We’ll display the banner to you periodically, just in case you change your mind.

* Please note this consent feature will start on May 22, 2018.

We set a cookie to help us understand how visitors engage with websites.  We will provide visitors with the opportunity and links to opt out specific to each third party advertising partner.  For example, if you want to opt out of Automattic’s use of this information, visit this link (the opt-out will be processed immediately with no confirmation step). When you opt out,  the unique value for that cookie is replaced with an opt-out value and works across our entire website. If you have opted out by accident, or wish to opt back in, you may do so by visiting this link.

Please note that these options are browser specific, and so if you use a different device or browser or clear your cookies, 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.