WHAT ARE COOKIES? Cookies are small pieces of data (text files) that are sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer, phone, tablet, or other device used to browse our Sites. Cookies can be set by us on our own Sites (which are called “first-party cookies”) or they can also be set by third parties other than Kongregate (which are called “third-party cookies”). Cookies allow us to identify and authenticate visitors, track aggregate behavior, and enable important site features. Third-party cookies enable third-party features or functionality (e.g., advertising, interactive content, and analytics) to be provided on or through the Sites. The parties that set these third-party cookies can recognize your device both when you visit the website in question and also when you visit certain other websites.
There are two types of cookies – more permanent “persistent” cookies and temporary “session” cookies. We use both types of cookies.
Persistent cookies are used in a number of ways, including to:
- Maintain your login information and remain available when you return to the Sites and are stored as a file on your computer or mobile device for a longer period of time.
- Allow you to move between pages on our Sites without having to re-enter information and to move between our Sites, Apps and/or our Platforms, known as “single sign-on.”
- Help us recognize you when you return to our Sites to use our services.
- Allow you access to stored information.
- Allow us to recommend other games or online content that suit your preferences.
- Ensure that you do not get asked to fill in the survey form repeatedly.
Session cookies are used in a number of way, including, to maintain your gaming state as you browse through the Site and are temporarily placed on your computer when you visit our Sites, but are erased when you shut down the page. We may use session cookies to allow you to move between pages on our Site without having to re-enter information.
We (and our authorized third parties) may use non-personal information from both persistent and session cookies for the following statistical purposes:
- To determine which are the most popular parts of our Sites.
- To monitor the use of our services and our Sites (frequency and time).
- To provide anonymous information to third parties so that more appropriate advertising can be directed at you.
- To track product success.
- To determine how frequently you and other users visit our Sites and purchases.
- To carry out surveys so that your interaction with our Sites and us can improve.
WHAT ARE THE CATEGORIES OF COOKIES WE USE AND WHY DO WE USE THEM? We use the information from cookies to make our Sites user-friendly and to enable us to provide you with personalized recommendations and improve the user experience when you visit our Sites. Below are the categories of cookies and similar technologies we use:
Essential Cookies. These cookies are strictly necessary for us to provide our Services. We use these essential cookies to:
- Authenticate and identify you as being logged in when they visit our Sites so we can provide our Services.
- Help us to enforce our Terms of Service and maintain the security of our services.
Without these cookies, we would not be able to recognize you and you would not be able to access our Services.
Performance and Functionality Cookies. These cookies are not strictly necessary, but allow us to personalize your online experience of our Sites. We use these performance and functionality cookies to:
- Remember which information you’ve already entered so you do not have to provide them again, e.g., when signing-up to our services.
- Remember Site preferences and customize Site content.
- Collect information (e.g., popular pages, viewing patterns, click-throughs) about our visitors' usage of our Services to conduct market research and carry out web analytics.
- Measure the effectiveness of our advertising and provide feedback to affiliates when one of our user also visits their sites.
- Help us improve our Sites and Services and measure errors.
If you choose to delete these cookies you will have limited functionality of our Services. Some of our performance and functionality cookies are managed for us by third parties.
Flash Cookies/LSOs. Third parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our website or to display advertising based upon your web browsing activity also use flash cookies or Local Shared Objects (“LSOs”), to collect and store information. We use these flash cookies to:
- Identify devices so we can prevent and respond to fraud or other illegal activity.
- Store game preferences so we can present the game experience you want.
- Store game assets (files) on your device so you can have faster load times.
Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing LSOs. If you do not want Flash Cookies stored on your device, you can adjust the settings of your Flash player to block Flash Cookies storage using the tools contained in the “Website Storage Settings Panel.” You can also control Flash Cookies by going to the “Global Storage Settings Panel.”
Please note that setting the Flash Player to restrict or limit acceptance of Flash Cookies may reduce or impede the functionality of some Flash applications, including, potentially, Flash applications used in connection with Kongregate’s services or online content.
Web Beacons, Pixel Tags and Clear Gifs. We automatically collect aggregate anonymous information through web beacons, pixel tags and clear gifs, which are terms for similar technology. These small strings of (software) code track events such as when a user visits a page or opens an email and allow advertising networks to provide anonymized, aggregated auditing, research and reporting for us and for advertisers. These web beacons, pixel tags and clear gifs help measure the effectiveness of our email campaigns, deliver more relevant content, and manage advertising for Kongregate’s games. They also provide additional functionality to the Platform and help us analyze usage of our Sites more accurately. In many instances, beacons, pixel tags, and clear gifs work in conjunction with cookies to function properly, so declining cookies will impair their functioning.
To learn more about how behavioral advertising works and your ability to opt out, visit the Network Advertising Initiative (NIA), the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), or Your Online Choices.
Targeted Advertising Cookies. Kongregate works with third-party publishers and advertising networks to deliver interest-based ads to users that have visited Kongregate Platforms, played Kongregate’s Apps or otherwise accessed Kongregate’s Services. This practice is often referred to as “online behavioral advertising” or “targeted advertising.” Our authorized advertising partners use software that recognizes pixels and cookies (identifiers) that are placed on the browsers of users. These cookies use information about your usage of our Sites and other Services, e.g., the pages you visit or your response to ads, to deliver ads that are more tailored to you, both on and off our Sites. When the ad software recognizes these identifiers, they deliver ads for Kongregate’s Services to Kongregate users who are on other websites. The number and names of third party cookies, pixels and other technologies change, these tables may be updated from time to time. These third party cookies are governed by the respective sites and are not controlled by us.
For more information about and to opt out of interest based ads from many ad networks, go to:
Please note this does not opt you out of being served ads. If you would like more information about third party advertisers please click here.
Targeted Advertising IDs for Mobile Apps. There are no cookies in mobile apps. When you play our mobile games, we or our third party advertising partners may use one or more of several different identifiers for your mobile device, including Apple Identifier For Advertising (IDFA) or Android Advertising ID (AAID), to target and deliver ads to you in our games or on other apps. This means that your device identifier may be accessed by third-party ad networks and used to:
- help manage the number and types of ads you see;
- track the source of installs related to ads seen in other apps; and
- identify your interests and behavior and target advertising to you based on those interests and behavior.
If you do not want to receive interest-based in-application advertisements on your mobile device, you may adjust the ad tracking settings on your device (such as turning on “Limit Ad Tracking”). You can also reset the “Advertising Identifier” (such as an IDFA) from your mobile device’s settings page, which will prevent continued use of existing behavioral data tied to your previous “Advertising Identifier.” Further, depending on the platform provider (such as Apple or Google), you may be able to download apps, such as the Digital Advertising Alliance’s “AppChoices” app, that offer to provide you with controls regarding the collection and use of cross-app data for behavioral advertising.
Analytics. Kongregate analyzes traffic and other end user activity to improve the user experience. Kongregate and its service providers and business partners may use web server log files and tracking technologies to collect and analyze certain types of technical information, such as cookies, IP addresses, device type, and usage information, including time spent on particular pages or number of clicks. These cookies help us to understand the effectiveness of our websites, services, and/or marketing campaigns. Our analytics partners use browser cookies to generate statistics about visitors to websites, such as the number of page views or times of peak traffic. Our third party analytics partners include, without limitation, the following:
Please note that the collection and use of information by third party advertisers is not covered by this Cookie Policy. Please follow the links below for further information concerning the privacy policies and opt-out choices offered by these third parties.