Cookie Notice
Last Updated: April 26, 2023
The Centre for Effective Altruism ("CEA", "we" or "us") is a project of the Effective Ventures group — the umbrella term for Effective Ventures Foundation and Effective Ventures Foundation USA, Inc., which are two separate legal entities that work together. Under UK law, the Effective Ventures Foundation is the “data controller” for the personal data that we collect and process.
We use cookies on the EA Forum. This cookie notice applies only to the EA Forum. You may access and change your cookie preferences at any time by clicking here.
If you choose to reject cookies you are ultimately responsible for removing any that have already been set (such as if you previously accepted). See the instructions for doing so here.
This cookie notice is different to the cookie notice that covers other Effective Ventures Foundation websites. You can see the Effective Ventures Foundation cookie notice here.
What are cookies?
A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes a unique identifier. Cookies are created when your browser loads a particular website. The website sends information to the browser which then creates a text file. Every time you go back to the same website, the browser retrieves and sends this file to the website's server. Find out more about the use of cookies on www.allaboutcookies.org.
We also use other forms of technology (such as pixels and web beacons and, in apps, software development kits (usually referred to as SDKs)) which serve a similar purpose to cookies and which allow us to monitor and improve our Platforms and email communications. When we talk about cookies in this notice, this term includes these similar technologies.
Your use of our Platforms may result in some cookies being stored that are not controlled by us. This may occur when the part of the Platform you are visiting makes use of a third party analytics or marketing automation/management tool or includes content displayed from a third party website, for example, YouTube or Facebook. You should review the privacy and cookie policies of these services to find out how these third parties use cookies and whether your cookie data will be transferred to a third country. We've set out below which third party cookies we use.
What cookies do we use and what information do they collect?
Necessary cookies: these cookies are required to enable core functionality. This includes technologies that allow you access to our websites, services, applications, and tools; that are required to identify irregular site behaviour, prevent fraudulent activity and improve security; or that allow you to make use of our functions such as making donations, saved search or similar functions. These cookies expire after 24 months.
The cookies we use in this category are:
Set by us
| Name | Description |
|---|
| cookie_preferences | Stores the current cookie preferences (set by the user, or automatically if outside a country subject to GDPR) |
| cookie_consent_timestamp | Stores the time at which the user set their cookie preferences (once this is set the cookie preferences will never be changed automatically) |
| clientId | A unique identifier for this browser |
| loginToken | The user's login token |
| timezone | Stores the user's timezone |
| theme | Stores the user's theme preferences |
| hide_featured_resource | Controls whether the featured resource banner in the left sidebar is hidden |
| show_community_posts_section | Whether to show the community posts section on the EA Forum home page |
| show_quick_takes_section | Whether to show the quick takes section on the EA Forum home page |
| show_quick_takes_community | Whether to include quick takes tagged with community in the home page quick takes section |
| show_popular_comments_section | Whether to show the popular comments section on the EA Forum home page |
| hide_home_handbook | Whether to hide the EA Handbook on the EA Forum home page |
| show_post_podcast_player | Whether to show the podcast player on a posts pages |
| podcast_tooltip_seen | Stores whether the user has seen the podcast 'new feature' tooltip |
| hide_welcome_box | Controls whether the welcome box on a post page is hidden |
| hideMapFromFrontpage | Stores whether the user has hidden the map from the frontpage. |
| hide_collection_item_[*] | Stores whether a collection item has been hidden (for a specific collection item id) |
| hide_spotlight_item_[*] | Stores whether a spotlight item has been hidden (for a specific spotlight item id) |
| hide_forum_event_banner_[*] | Stores whether a forum event banner has been hidden |
| show_recommendations_section | Controls whether the recommendations ('Classic posts') section on the frontpage is shown or hidden |
| hide_import_eag_profile | Controls whether the EAG profile import banner is shown or hidden on the edit profile page |
| hide_more_from_the_forum_recommendations | Don't show the "More from the forum" recommendations section |
| hide_new_post_how_to_guide | Don't show the how-to guide on the new post page |
| hide_2021_book_banner | Don't show the 2021 book banner |
| new_posts_list_view_toggle | Tracks whether or not to show the "NEW" flag on the posts list view toggle |
| posts_list_view_type | Whether to display post lists as list items or card items |
| hide_subscribed_feed_suggested_users | Whether to hide the suggested users section on the subscribed tab feed |
| hide_survey_schedule_ids | Stores the ids of survey schedules that the user has hidden |
| hide_eag_banner | Don't show any EAG(x) banners |
| hide_ea_forum_survey_banner | Don't show the EA Forum survey banner |
| nav_menu_flag_[*] | Whether or not to show particular flags in the main navigation menu |
Set by Google
| Name | Description |
|---|
| __Host-GAPS | This cookie name is associated with Google. It is set by Google to identify the user and is used in support of the Google Identity application. |
Functional cookies: these cookies enable functionalities that are not strictly necessary for the website to be usable, such as allowing you to contact us for support via Intercom. These cookies expire after 24 months.
The cookies we use in this category are:
Set by us
| Name | Description |
|---|
| last_visited_frontpage | Stores the date of the user's last visit to the frontpage |
| admin_recombee_settings | Stores recombee settings for admins experimenting with latest posts |
| selected_frontpage_tab | Stores the selected tab for logged out users |
| llm_chat_conversation_open | Whether the LLM chat conversation UI is open |
| llm_chat_guide_open | Whether the LLM chat guide is open |
| llm_chat_expanded | Whether the LLM chat has expanded size |
Set by Intercom
| Name | Description |
|---|
| intercom-session-[*] | Session cookie used by Intercom |
| intercom-id-[*] | ID cookie used by Intercom |
| intercom-device-id-[*] | Device ID cookie used by Intercom |
| intercom-[*] | Miscellaneous cookies which may be set by Intercom |
Set by Hotjar
| Name | Description |
|---|
| _hjTLDTest | When the Hotjar script executes we try to determine the most generic cookie path we should use, instead of the page hostname. This is done so that cookies can be shared across subdomains (where applicable). To determine this, we try to store the _hjTLDTest cookie for different URL substring alternatives until it fails. After this check, the cookie is removed. |
| _hjSessionUser_[*] | Hotjar cookie that is set when a user first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behavior in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. |
| _hjIncludedInSessionSample_[*] | Whether the current user is included in the session sample. |
| _hjFirstSeen | Identifies a new user's first session on a website, indicating whether or not Hotjar's seeing this user for the first time. |
| _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress | This cookie is used by HotJar to detect the first pageview session of a user. This is a True/False flag set by the cookie. |
Analytics and performance cookies: these cookies help us improve or optimise the experience we provide. They allow us to measure how visitors interact with our Platforms and we use this information to improve the user experience and performance of our Platforms. These cookies are used to collect technical information such as the last visited Platform, the number of pages visited, whether or not email communications are opened, which parts of our website or email communication are clicked on and the length of time between clicks. They may also collect information to provide helpful features and e.g. be used to remember your preferences (such as your language preference), your interests and the presentation of the website (such as the font size). These cookies expire after 24 months.
The cookies we use in this category are:
Set by Google ReCaptcha
| Name | Description |
|---|
| (various) | Google ReCaptcha may set a number of cookies under the 'google.com' domain in order to check for suspicious activity. The full list of known possible cookies are: __Secure-3PSIDCC, __Secure-1PSIDCC, SIDCC, __Secure-3PAPISID, SSID, __Secure-1PAPISID, HSID, __Secure-3PSID, __Secure-1PSID, SID, SAPISID, APISID, NID, OTZ, 1P_JAR, AEC, DV, __Secure-ENID |
Set by Google
| Name | Description |
|---|
| _gid | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics. This appears to be a new cookie and as of Spring 2017 no information is available from Google. It appears to store and update a unique value for each page visited. |
| _ga | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. |
| _dc_gtm_UA[*] | Used by Google Tag Manager to control the loading of a Google Analytics script tag. |
Set by Datadog
| Name | Description |
|---|
| dd_cookie_test_ | Cookie used by Datadog to test if cookies are enabled |
| _dd_s | Main cookie used by datadog to track sessions |
