COOKIES POLICY
Advocy is owned and operated by Advocy LLC (“Advocy”, “we”, “us”, and “our”). This Cookie Policy explains how we use cookies and similar technologies in the course of our business, including through our websites that link to this Cookie Policy, such as http://www.Advocy.com, or any website or mobile application owned, operated or controlled by us, including the Advocy Platform (collectively, “Advocy Sites” or “Advocy Site”), and when our users open or interact with emails delivered through the Advocy Platform. It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them. This Cookie Policy is and will be treated as part of our Terms of Service, and is automatically incorporated therein. Capitalized terms used and not otherwise defined in this Cookie Policy have the meanings given to those terms in our Privacy Policy or User Agreement.
In some cases we may use cookies and other tracking technologies described in this Cookie Policy to collect Personal Information, or to collect information that becomes Personal Information if we combine it with other information. For more information about how we process your Personal Information, please consult our Privacy Policy.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by online service providers in order to (for example) make their websites or services work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
Cookies set by the website owner, service provider or platform provider (in this case, Advocy) are called “first-party cookies.” Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third-party cookies”. Third-party cookies enable third-party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website, service or platform you are using (such as advertising, interactive content and analytics). The third parties that set these third-party cookies can recognize your computer both when it visits the website, service or platform in question and also when it visits certain other websites, services or platforms.
Why do we use cookies and other tracking technologies?
We use first-party and third-party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Advocy Platform to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” or “strictly necessary” cookies. Other cookies enable us and the third parties we work with to track and target the interests of visitors to our Advocy Sites, and we refer to these as “performance” or “functionality” cookies. For example, we use cookies to tailor content and information that we may send or display to you and otherwise personalize your experience while interacting with our Advocy Sites and to otherwise improve the functionality of the Advocy Platform. We also enable Senders of emails using the Advocy Platform to employ cookies and similar tracking technologies in connection with their use of the Advocy Platform in order to allow us and Senders using the Advocy Platform to track their Recipients. Finally, third parties serve cookies through our Advocy Sites and the Advocy Platform for advertising, analytics, and other purposes. This is described in more detail below.
Cookies served through our Advocy Sites
The specific types of first and third-party cookies served through our Advocy Sites and the purposes they perform are described in further detail below:
Essential Website Cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with access to our Advocy Sites and to use some of its features, such as access to secure areas. Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the Advocy Sites, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our Advocy Sites function. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings, as described under the heading "How can I control cookies?" in this Cookie Policy.
Performance and Functionality Cookies
These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Advocy Site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and to see how visitors move around the Advocy Site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated. Although important to us, these cookies are nonessential to the use of the Advocy Site. However, without these cookies, certain functionality may become unavailable.
Analytics and Customization Cookies
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our Advocy Sites are being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our Advocy Sites and application for you in order to enhance your experience. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages.
Advertising (Targeting) Cookies
These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They also perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests. For further information, see the section of the Cookie Policy entitled "Targeted online advertising."
Other tracking technologies
We and our third-party partners may use other, similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons, SDKs, pixels (or “clear gifs”) and other tracking technologies. Pixels are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enable us to recognize when someone has visited our Advocy Sites or, in the case of web beacons, opened an email that has been sent to them using the Advocy Platform. This allows us, for example, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within our Advocy Sites to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to our Advocy Sites from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to serve targeted advertisements to you and others like you, to improve site performance, and to measure the success of marketing campaigns. While you may not have the ability to specifically reject or disable these tracking technologies, in many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly; accordingly, in those instances, declining cookies will impair the functionality of these technologies.
Targeted online advertising
We have engaged one or more third-party service providers to track and analyze both individualized usage and volume statistical information from interactions with our Advocy Sites. We also partner with one or more third parties (such as advertisers and ad networks) to display advertising on our Advocy Sites and/or to manage and serve advertising on other sites.
These third parties use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and similar tracking technologies to collect and use certain information about your online activities, either on our Advocy Sites and/or other sites or mobile apps, to infer your interests and deliver you targeted advertisements that are more tailored to you based on your browsing activities and inferred interests (“Interest Based Advertising”).
Our third-party service providers may also use cookies or web beacons to collect information about your visits to our Advocy Sites and/or other sites to measure and track the effectiveness of advertisements and our online marketing activities (for example, by collecting data on how many times you click on one of our ads). The information collected by these third parties does not include personal information that enables you to be specifically identified (e.g. by reference to your name or email address).
Cookies served through the Advocy Platform
Sender email messages
We automatically place single pixel gifs, also known as web beacons, in every email sent by Senders using the Advocy Platform. These are tiny graphic files that contain unique identifiers that enable us and the Senders to recognize when their Recipients have opened an email or clicked certain links. These technologies record each Recipient’s email address, IP address, date, and time associated with each open and click for a campaign. We use this data to create reports for the Senders about how an email campaign performed and what actions were taken by their Recipients.
How can I control cookies?
You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject cookies. You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept or refuse cookies. If you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our Advocy Sites though your access to some functionality and areas of our Advocy Sites may be restricted. As the means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser controls vary from browser-to-browser, you should visit your browser’s help menu for more information.
Disabling Most Interest Based Advertising: Most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of Interest Based Advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or http://www.youronlinechoices.com.
Mobile Advertising: You can opt out of having your mobile advertising identifiers used for certain types of Interest Based Advertising, including those performed by us, by accessing the settings in your Apple or Android mobile device and following the most recent published instructions. If you opt out, we will remove all data about you and no further data collection or tracking will occur. The random ID we (or our third-party partners) had previously assigned to you will also be removed. This means that if at a later stage, you decide to opt-in, we will not be able to continue and track you using the same ID as before, and you will for all practical purposes be a new end user to our system.
Do Not Track: Some Internet browsers - like Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari - include the ability to transmit “Do Not Track” or “DNT” signals. We do not track users unless they enable the “remember me” feature on the Advocy signup page, in which case we store their email/username using browser cookies. If you set DNT, then you will be unable to utilize the “remember me” feature for future log-ins to Advocy. Advocy takes privacy and meaningful choice seriously and will make efforts to continue to monitor developments around DNT browser technology and the implementation of a standard. To learn more about “DNT”, please visit All About Do Not Track.
How often will you update this Cookie Policy?
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Policy regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.
The date at the bottom of this Cookie Policy indicates when it was last updated.
Where can I get further information?
If you have any questions about our use of cookies or other technologies, please email us at info@advocy.com. If you are unable to receive a response from the aforementioned email, please email support@advocy.com.
Updated December 1, 2022