Cookie Policy – Stars Interactive Group websites

Most websites that you visit today will use cookies in one way or another in order to improve your user experience. Although the use of cookies is generally harmless, some people may find it intrusive and may wish to block some or all cookies, or delete cookies that have already been set. In order to give you a fuller picture about cookies and to allow you to make informed choices, this Policy describes what cookies are, how we use them on our websites, and what you need to do if you would like to adjust your cookie settings.

Please note that, by using this website, you agree to our use of cookies as described in this Policy.

1. What is a cookie?

Cookies are text-only strings of information that are downloaded to your personal desktop, laptop computer or mobile device (each a “Device”) when you visit a website. Your web browser then sends these cookies back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises those cookies. You can find more information about cookies at www.allaboutcookies.org.

Cookies are very helpful and can be used for many different purposes. These include allowing you to navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and making the interaction between you and the website quicker and easier. Sometimes cookies are used to help ensure that the adverts you see online are relevant to you and your interests.

1. Setting and storing cookies 
   Cookies may be set either by the website you are visiting (“first party cookies”) or by third party websites who run content on the website you are looking at (“third party cookies”). 

   They may be stored either for the duration of your visit to the website or for repeat visits. We will use the following terms to describe the storing of cookies:

   Session cookie: A cookie that allows us to link your actions during a browser session. A browser session starts when you open the browser window and finishes when you close it. Session cookies are created temporarily and are deleted once the browser window is closed.

   Persistent cookie: A cookie that remains on your Device for the period of time specified in the cookie and activated each time you visit the website that created that particular cookie.

2. Different types of cookies
   There are four main types of cookies:
   
   Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around and use the features of a website, or to provide a service requested by you. For example, remembering items you have placed in an online shopping basket. We do not need to obtain your consent in order to use these cookies.
   
   Functionality cookies: These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, a website may be able to provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by using a cookie to store information about the region in which you are currently located, remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise, and provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.
   
   Performance cookies: These cookies collect information about how you use a website, for instance which pages you go to most often, and if you get error messages from them. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies you. All of the information collected by these cookies is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how the website works.
   
   Targeting cookies or advertising cookies: These cookies are used to deliver adverts that are more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers. Quite often targeting or advertising cookies will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organisation. For more information about online behavioural advertising cookies and online privacy, please see the guide produced by the internet advertising industry available at www.youronlinechoices.com.

2. How we use cookies

We use cookies on our websites for software accessed on our website and for information accessible from our websites, such as information about playing poker, our various online and offline poker tournaments and our special offers. We never place third party advertising on our websites, but we do allow third parties to set cookies on our websites that enable us to provide more relevant advertisements to you on other websites.

Except as described in this Cookie Policy, we never share cookie information with third parties.

We use the following cookies on our websites:

1. Strictly necessary cookies
   
   We use first party strictly necessary cookies in order to track referrals to our websites from third party affiliate websites. These cookies are persistent, and usually have a lifespan of two years. We combine your registration information with these cookies so that we know which affiliate you signed up with.
   
   We use XSRF-TOKEN for cross site request forgery protection purposes. It is a session cookie.
2. Functionality cookies
   We use the following first party functionality cookies:
   
   _test: This allows us to check if you have enabled cookies. It is a session cookie. 
   
   _ps_visit: This cookie allows us to detect if you have viewed the cookie information notice, and will prevent the webpage from showing the banner again. It is a persistent cookie with a permanent lifespan.
   
   _ps_close: We use this cookie in connection with our mobile banner, in order to detect if you have closed it. The cookie is persistent with a permanent lifespan.
   
   _ps_webcashier: We use this cookie in connection with our mobile applications, in order to detect if you have downloaded the client application and to show alternative buttons. This cookie is persistent with a lifespan of 3 months.
   
   PHPSESSID: This cookie is used on www.pokerstars.tv and Full Tilt websites. It records the start time of your browsing session for caching purposes, and makes the website more responsive. It is a session cookie.
   
   k visit: This cookie is used from time to time in connection with a user survey feature on our www.pokerstars.tv website, which we use to solicit feedback about our site and programming. It is a persistent cookie with a lifespan of one year.
   
   Login ID, Session ID, Signature, Web Token: These cookies are used for login purposes. They are session cookies.
   
   Web ID: This cookie is used to convert your username into a number. It is used for security purposes. It is a persistent cookie.
   
   Install ID (WIID): This cookie is used for security purposes and to track what you have done on the site. It is a persistent cookie.
   
   Login Source: This cookie is used to understand how you are using the site and which platforms you are using. It is a persistent cookie.
   
   License & Site: These cookies enable us to know what licenced site you need to view and then offer the corresponding pages in the correct language. They are persistent cookies.
   
   Country Code: This cookie lets us provide you with the correct country specific content. It is a persistent cookie.
   
   GUI Version: This cookie lets us see how you are using our websites so we can provide a better overall support service should any issue with our sites arise. It is a persistent cookie.
   
   We use the following third party functionality cookie:
   
   Adobe Flash Player: This cookie is used on our www.pokerstars.tv website, and stores user preferences such as volume level. It is a persistent cookie with a permanent lifespan.
3. Performance cookies
   
   We sometimes use the following third party performance cookies on our websites:
   
   Hotjar: We use analytics services provided by Hotjar Limited (http://www.hotjar.com/) in order better understand how visitors use our site. We use the following specific cookies: (i) _hjUserId. This persistent cookie is set as soon as a user loads a page which contains the Hotjar code. The cookie contains a universally unique identifier (UUID) which allows Hotjar to track the same visitor across multiple pages and sessions; (ii) _hjClosedSurveyInvites. This persistent cookie is set once a visitor interacts with a Survey invitation modal popup. It is used to ensure that the same invite does not re-appear if it has already been shown; (iii) _hjDonePolls. This persistent cookie is set once a visitor completes a poll using the Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the same poll does not re-appear if it has already been filled in; (iv) _hjMinimizedPolls. This persistent cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Feedback Poll widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimizes when the visitor navigates through your site; (v) _hjDoneTestersWidgets. This persistent cookie is set once a visitor submits their information in the Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the same form does not re-appear if it has already been filled in; (vi) _hjMinimizedTestersWidgets. This persistent cookie is set once a visitor minimizes a Recruit User Testers widget. It is used to ensure that the widget stays minimizes when the visitor navigates through your site; and (vii) _hjIncludedInSample. This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels.
   
   Google Analytics (_utma, _utmb, _utmc, _utmt, _utmv, _utmz, _ga, _gat, _gat_t1): Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (http://www.google.com/analytics/). Google Analytics sets cookies in order to evaluate our online services and our mobile apps and provide us with reports about how they are used. We also use Google Analytics to run content experiments so that we can test and improve our websites. Google Analytics uses both session and persistent cookies. The persistent cookies usually have lifespans of between six months and two years.
   
   ClickTale: ClickTale is a web analytics service provided by ClickTale, Inc. (http://www.clicktale.com/). ClickTale sets cookies on some of our websites in order to provide us with information about what visitors do inside the pages of those sites. The cookies set by ClickTale are persistent cookies with a lifespan of one year.
   
   Maxymiser: Some of our websites use analytics services provided by Maxymiser Limited (http://www.oracle.com/marketingcloud/products/testing-and-optimization/index.html), in order to recognise and count the number of visitors to our websites and enable us to see how visitors browse around our websites. In connection with that, we use the following Maxymiser cookies: (i) mmact, mmid, mmcore.srv, mmcore.txt, mmcord.pd and mmcore.pd. These are persistent cookies; (ii) maxymiser.optout. This cookie is used to enable or disable Maxymiser on each of your web browsers. This is a persistent cookie; (iii) mmcore.tst. This cookie is use by the platform as a test to see whether or not browser settings allow cookies to be set on the end-user machine. This cookie is a session cookie; (iv) mmpa.tst. This is a previous version of the same cookie. This cookie is a session cookie.
   Please note that we do not use analytics cookies to collect any personally identifiable information about you. We may, however, combine your registration information with the data that we get from the above analytics services, so that we can analyse how you use our services.  
4. Targeting/advertising cookies
   We use the following first party targeting or advertising cookies:
   
   gidclient: This cookie contains a Google client id variable used by the analytics team to determine where affiliate traffic originates from. This cookie is persistent with a lifespan of 1 month.
   
   adqID: This cookie contains an Adquant advertisement id, used to determine where social media traffic originates from. This cookie is persistent with a lifespan of 1 month.
   
   We use the following third party targeting/advertising cookies on our websites:
   
   Adnetik / Digilant: Some of our websites use the Adnetik ad service (now rebranded as “Digilant”) provided by Media Contacts Limited (http://www.digilant.com/). Adnetik / Digilant sets cookies on those sites so that we can find out if a user has performed an action on any given page and so that we can subsequently re-target that user. It uses persistent cookies with a permanent lifespan.
   
   Cognitive Match: A small number of our websites use onsite targeting services, provided by Cognitive Match Limited (http://www.cognitivematch.com/). Cognitive Match sets cookies on those sites so that it can provide us with a dynamic creative optimisation solution, allowing us to make our websites more relevant to you. The cookies set by Cognitive Match are persistent cookies with a permanent lifespan.
   
   Double Click: We permit Double Click, a service operated by Google (http://www.google.com/doubleclick/), to place two cookies on your Device via our websites. The first, called “test cookie”, is a persistent cookie with a lifespan of fifteen minutes. The test cookie checks to see if your browser accepts targeting/advertising cookies. If it does, then Double Click will place a second cookie called “id” on your Device. The id cookie is a persistent cookie with a lifespan of two years. Double Click also places these cookies on your Device when you see our advertisements on other websites. We use Double Click’s cookies to measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns, limit the number of times you see an advertisement, remember that you have visited a website, and provide advertisements that are more relevant to your interests. To find out more please visit http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ads/.
   
   promo, sti, pti, date: They are affiliate cookies used to track and evaluate conversions coming from our affiliate websites. They are persistent cookies with a permanent lifespan which may be changed based on our affiliate programme policy.
   
   pstrk: This allows us to keep user's non-personal details that people have downloaded. It is a persistent cookie with a permanent lifespan.
   
   pstrk.mminfo(testid): This cookie allows us to integrate Mayxmiser A/B test with other tracking tool like GA. It is a persistent cookie with a permanent lifespan.
   
   pstrk.ref(tempRef): This is session cookie which temporarily keep the referrer for that visit and will expire immediately after the session.
   
   pstrk.gid: This is persistent cookie only to keep part of GA info like non-personal digit based id and session index.
   
   pstrk.utmid(__tempUTMID): This is a session cookie which temporarily keep the urchin utm_id.
   
   Signal: Signal is a proprietary tag management technology that provides data processing services to manage and control the collection of data derived from our websites, desktop and mobile applications (data sources). It sets, reads and modifies cookies or other stored content objects on the browsers of visitors to these data sources. As a result, data pertaining to those visitors may be collected by Signal on behalf of the Stars Interactive Group. This data may include: 
   
   IP address and other unique identifier for any computer, mobile phone, or other device information about visitor’s web browser and device;
   
   information about visitor interactions with the client’s data source, such as content viewed;
   
   demographic data, such as location;
   
   data that identifies a visitor’s web browser and device to one or more third-party services.
   
   Signal does not store or share any of this information with other third parties. The data collected is for our sole use only.

3. How to manage your cookie settings

There are various ways in which you can manage and control your cookie settings.

You should bear in mind that, by deleting or blocking cookies, some or all of the websites you visit (or features of them) may not work properly or as effectively.

If you disable our “_ps_visit” cookie, or if you delete all cookies, then your preferences will not be remembered and you will be informed about cookies each time you visit our site.

At the moment, it is not technically possible to adjust your cookie settings at our individual websites.

However, you can manage your cookie settings via your web browser, as well as at the websites of the third parties who place cookies on your Device via our websites.

1. Turning off cookies via your web browser

   Most modern web browsers will provide you with some general information about cookies, enable you to see what cookies you’ve got, allow you to delete them all or on an individual basis, and enable you block or allow cookies for all websites or individually selected websites. You can also normally turn off third party advertising cookies separately. 

   Please note that if you adjust your cookie settings via your web browser then, unless you delete or block each cookie individually, the changes will apply to all websites that you visit - not just our websites. You will also need to adjust your cookies on a browser-by-browser basis.

   Information about cookies is usually found in the ‘Help’ section of the web browser. Below are some links to the ‘Help’ sections of some commonly used web browsers:

   Internet Explorer - http://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

   Google Chrome - http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647

   Google Android - http://support.google.com/android/?hl=en
   
   Mozilla Firefox - http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cookies-information-websites-store-on-your-computer?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Cookies

   Opera - http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/privacy/

   Safari - http://www.apple.com/support/safari/ 
   
   Blackberry - https://help.blackberry.com/en/blackberry-leap/10.3.1/help/mwa1334238823957.html

2. Turning off third party cookies 

   1. Turning off third party functionality cookies
      You can turn off third party Adobe Flash Player cookies by visiting the following link: 

      http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/disable-local-shared-objects-flash.html

   2. Turning off third party performance cookies
      You can opt out of having your anonymous browsing activity recorded by the third party performance cookies described in “How we use cookies” above by visiting the relevant companies’ websites at the following links:

      Google Analytics - https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

      ClickTale - http://www.clicktale.net/disable.html

      Maxymiser - http://www.oracle.com/marketingcloud/opt-status.html

      Please bear in mind that, if you disable the above performance cookies, we will not be able to learn what people like or dislike about our sites. This makes it harder for us to improve our sites and make the experience better for you.

   3. Turning off third party targeting/advertising cookies
      You can turn off the third party targeting/advertising cookies described in “How we use cookies” above by visiting the following links:
      
      Adnetik / Digilant - http://www.digilant.com/privacy-policy/#collection_and_use
      
      Cognitive Match - http://www.cognitivematch.com/consumer-opt-out/

      Double Click - http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ads/#toc-optout/

      You will also have the option of turning off third party targeting/advertising cookies each time you see an advertisement that has been personalised to you.
      
      Note that the third parties listed above may need to set a cookie in order to remember that their targeting/advertising cookies should not be assigned to you in the future. If you change or delete your browser’s cookie file, or change or upgrade your browser or Device, then you might need to opt out again.

4. Updates to this policy

We have made every effort to ensure that this is a complete list of all the cookies currently in use by the Stars Interactive Group websites, and aim to keep this Cookie Policy updated. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we make. Notwithstanding the foregoing there may be occasions when the list is incomplete or out-of-date. If you require confirmation of the cookies currently in use by us on any particular date, please contact Support.

Last updated: August 2018