Cookie Policy
Effective Date: December 14, 2023
This website (https://clearvpn.com/ ; the “Website”, “MacPaw Website”) uses cookies.
At MacPaw we believe in being clear and open about how we collect and process data about you. This page is designed to inform you about our practices regarding cookies and explain to you how you can manage them.
You already know everything there is to know about cookies and just want to adjust your settings?
No problem. Head to update your website cookies settings and head to your account settings in your app to adjust your privacy preferences there.
You want to know more about cookies and how we use them?
Happy to explain! Keep on reading.
Note: This Cookie Policy does not address how we process your personal information outside of our usage of cookies. To learn more about how we process your personal information, please read our Privacy Policy.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files sent from the Website and stored on your computer while you are browsing. These small text files can be accessed by us (MacPaw Way Ltd., MacPaw Inc., MacPaw Labs Ltd.m or our other affiliates’) or by third parties (our partners), whose cookies were placed on your device. The information stored can then be sent back to our servers on a subsequent visit. A cookie typically contains the name of the domain (internet location) from which the cookie originated, the “lifetime” of the cookie (i.e., when it expires) and a randomly generated unique number or similar identifier. A cookie also may contain information about your device, such as user settings, browsing history and activities conducted while using our services.
A distinction shall be made between first-party and third-party cookies. First-party cookies include the cookies that are placed by us on the Website. Third-party cookies are set by partners of the MacPaw through the Website, and are necessary for the operation of the Website and to improve your experience of interacting with the Website.
MacPaw’s use of cookies
Like other providers of online services, we use several types of cookies to ensure the proper running of the Website. This helps us to improve your experience when browsing, to analyze website traffic on the Website, to provide and secure services available on the Website. MacPaw also uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content and ads; measure the advertisement campaign’s success; provide social media features and gain insights from your click behaviour on the Website.
MacPaw also shares information about your use of the Website with social media, advertising, and analytics, security, livechat sevices partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.
MacPaw places only functional (necessary) cookies on your device automatically. All other types of cookies are placed on your device only after you give us your consent.
Types of cookies we use
This Website uses several types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third-party services that appear on our pages. Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us, and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.
General info on types of cookies used
| Cookie type | Description |
|---|---|
| Functional (always required) | These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you our services, such as enabling you to log in, remembering your preferences and keeping you safe by detecting malicious activity |
| Livechat (always required) | These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with a possibility to refer to our support team via Website’s live form and then for the support team to contact you in order to provide the answer to your request. |
| Analytics | These cookies help us understand how our services are being used and help us customize and improve our services for you. |
| Advertising | These cookies are used to determine how effective our marketing campaigns are and make the ads you see more relevant to you. They perform functions like helping us understand how much traffic our marketing campaigns drive on our services, preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, selecting advertisements relevant to you and measuring the number of ads displayed and their performance, such as how many people interacted with a given ad. |
Detailed info on types of cookies used
Functional
Functional cookies help make a Website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation, access to secure areas of the Website and saving your cookie-preferences (for example, saving your choice to reject cookies). The Website cannot function properly without these cookies.
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sc | eSputnik | Sets a specific user ID that provides a subscription function for installing newsletters on the site. This cookie also allows us to track unique visits and calculate conversion rates by comparing the number of unique visits to the number of end users who subscribe to our newsletters. | Up to 2 years | Cookie |
| start_url | .clearvpn.com | This cookie records the first URL that a user opens. This parameter allows us to understand which page the user viewed first in the purchase process | Up to 7 days | Cookie |
| _cfuvid | .clearvpn.com | Set when a Website uses this option in a Rate Limiting Rule, and is only used to allow the Cloudflare WAF to distinguish individual users who share the same IP address. Visitors who do not provide the cookie are likely to be grouped together and may not be able to access the site if there are many other visitors from the same IP address. | Up to 1 day | HTTP Cookie |
| __cf_bm | CloudFlare | Support Cloudflare Bot Management. As part of bot management service of Cloudflare, this cookie helps manage incoming traffic that matches criteria associated with bots, namely to read and filter the requests of the bots. | Session (30 minutes) | Cookie |
| _hjSessionUser_# | Hotjar | Store a unique user ID. This cookie ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. | 1 year | HTTP Cookie |
| _gid | Google Analytics | Store and count pageviews. | 1 day | Cookie |
| _hjFirstSeen | Hotjar | Store first visit to the site. | 30 minutes | HTTP Cookie |
| _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress | Hotjar | This cookie is used to count how many times a website has been visited by different visitors - this is done by assigning the visitor an ID, so the visitor does not get registered twice. | Session | HTTP Cookie |
| _ga_# | Google Analytics | Used by Google Analytics to collect data on the number of times a user has visited the website as well as dates for the first and most recent visit. | 2 years | HTTP Cookie |
| _ga | Google Analytics | Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. | 2 years | HTTP Cookie |
| _hjSession_# | Hotjar | Collects statistics on the visitor’s visits to the website, such as the number of visits, average time spent on the website and what pages have been read. | 1 day | HTTP Cookie |
| _hjIncludedInSessionSample_# | Hotjar | Collects statistics on the visitor’s visits to the website, such as the number of visits, average time spent on the website and what pages have been read. | 1 day | HTTP Cookie |
| CONSENT | google.com | Used to detect and to store a user’s state regarding his/her cookie choices via the cookie banner. This cookie is necessary for compliance of the website. | 2 years | HTTP Cookie |
| Opticks Sensor | http://optickssecurity.com/ | Advertising fraud prevention | SessionHTTP | Javascript |
| Opticksid | http://optickssecurity.com/ | Advertising fraud prevention | SessionHTTP | Cookie |
Livechat
These cookies are necessary to provide you with a possibility to refer to our support team via Website’s live form and then for the support team to contact you to provide the answer to your request.
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| intercom-session-# | Intercom | Sets a specific ID for the user which ensures the integrity of the website’s chat function. | 7 days | HTTP Cookie |
| intercom-device-id-# | Intercom | Sets a specific ID for the user which ensures the integrity of the website’s chat function. | 270 days | HTTP Cookie |
| intercom-id-# | Intercom | Allows the website to recognize the visitor, in order to optimize the chat-box functionality. | 270 days | HTTP Cookie |
| cf_clearance | .support.clearvpn.com | Clearance Cookie stores the proof of challenge passed. It is used to no longer issue a challenge if present. It is required to reach an origin server. | Up to 1 year | HTTP Cookie |
| __cfruid | .support.clearvpn.com | This cookie is a part of the services provided by Cloudflare - Including load-balancing, deliverance of website content and serving DNS connection for website operators. | Session | HTTP Cookie |
| _help_center_session | support.clearvpn.com | Cookie that helps us to identify new visitors. | Session | HTTP Cookie |
| dicbo_id | clearvpn.com | This cookie functions as a "click_id" for Outbrain’s advertising services. It is specifically designed to track and record the clicks on advertisements provided by Outbrain. This tracking enables Outbrain to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and to provide insights into user interactions with these ads. The data gathered through this cookie is crucial for optimizing ad performance, ensuring that users see more relevant and targeted advertisements based on their engagement. | 30 minutes | HTTP Cookie |
Analytics
Analytic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.
MacPaw uses Google Analytics and ensures conformity with the strictest privacy settings. For more information on Google Analytics and how to opt please review their policy here: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
MacPaw uses Hotjar and ensures conformity with the strictest privacy settings. For more information on Hotjar and how to opt please review their policy here https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Google Analytics | Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the Website. | 2 years | HTML |
| _ga_# | Google Analytics | Used by Google Analytics to collect data on the number of times a user has visited the website as well as dates for the first and most recent visit. | 2 years | HTML |
| _gat | Google Analytics | Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate | 1 day | HTTP Cookie |
| _gid | Google Analytics | Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. | 1 day | HTML |
| _dc_gtm_# | Google Analytics | Cookies used for analytics help collect data that allows services to understand how users interact with a particular service. These insights allow services both to improve content and to build better features that improve the user’s experience. | 1 minute | HTML |
| _gac_# | Google Analytics | Contains campaign related information on the user. | 90 days | HTML |
| _gac_gb_# | Google Analytics | Contains campaign related information on the user. | 90 days | HTML |
| _gac_gb | Google Analytics | Contains campaign related information on the user. | 90 days | HTML |
| _gcl_aw | Google Analytics | Contains campaign related information on the user. | 90 days | HTML |
| _gcl_au | Google Adsense | Is used to store and track conversions. | Persistent | HTML |
Advertising
Advertising cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third-party advertisers.
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _fbp | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers. | 3 months | HTML |
| _fbc | Meta Platforms, Inc. | Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers. | 3 months | HTML |
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | youtube.com | It is used to detect and resolve problems with the YouTube service. | 6 month | HTML Local Storage |
| _gid | Google Analytics | This cookie is for Google Analytics | 1 day | HTML |
| _ga | Google Analytics | Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the Website. | 2 year | HTTP Cookie |
How to remove cookies?
You can remove cookies stored in your computer via your browser settings. To learn more about how to control cookie settings through your browser:
- Click here to learn more about managing cookie settings in Mozilla Firefox;
- Click here to learn more about managing cookie settings in Google Chrome;
- Click here to learn more about managing cookie settings in Microsoft Internet Explorer;
- Click here to learn more about managing cookie settings in Safari;
- Click here to learn more about managing cookie settings in Microsoft Edge.
If you want to learn more about cookies or how to control, disable, or delete them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org for detailed guidance. In addition, certain third-party advertising networks, including Google, permit users to opt out of or customize preferences associated with your Internet browsing. To learn more about this feature from Google, click here.
Updating this cookie policy
If there are any material changes to this Policy, you will be notified by the posting of a prominent notice on our Website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on the Policy. Your continued use of the Website constitutes your agreement to be bound by such changes to this Policy. Your only remedy, if you do not accept the terms of this Policy, is to discontinue use of and access to the Website.