Bitly Cookie Policy
Last updated and effective date: July 13, 2023
Bitly Inc. («Bitly», «we» or «us») use cookies and similar technologies on our website (https://bitly.com, the “Site”) or the services, features, content or applications offered by Bitly through the Site (collectively with the Site, the “Services”), or when you view or interact with a Bitly link (either our bit.ly links or one of our branded domains). This Cookie Policy explains why and how we use cookies and describes your rights to control our use of cookies on our Services and Bitly links. For more information on how we process your personal data with regard to our Services please see our Privacy Policy.
Identity and contract details of the data controller
The data controller responsible for processing of the personal data is Bitly Inc.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding privacy on our Site or services, please send us a detailed message to: privacy@bitly.com. We will make every effort to resolve your concerns.
You may also contact us at DPT 5006, 601 W. 26th St., 3rd Floor, Suite 357, New York, NY 10001-1101.
What cookies are
Cookies are pieces of text placed to your computer or mobile device through your web browser when you access a website. Your browser stores cookies in a manner associated with each website you visit. Please note that certain essential cookies are already stored as soon as you enter our website.
Cookies can be stored for different periods of time on your browser or device. Session cookies are temporary cookies which are deleted from your computer or device when you close your browser. Persistent cookies will be saved on your device until the cookie expires according to its expiration date or removed by you before that date. We use both session cookies and persistent cookies, as identified in our cookie banner. The cookies on our Site can be placed by us and by third parties, such as our service providers, who provide additional functionalities to our Site.
For the details of specific cookies that we use, please see our Cookie List.
How we use cookies
We use cookies and similar technologies to allow our website to work, understand our website traffic and help us to analyze how and when you visit our Site and use the Services through the web, and to tailor our communications to you. There are different types of cookies used for different purposes. When we use cookies and/ or similar techniques for processing personal data, the types of personal data processed may vary, depending on the categories of cookies or similar techniques.
Essential cookies
Essential cookies are necessary for our Site and Services to function properly and provide you with some of the features. The use of these cookies does not require your consent and they are automatically installed on your devices. We process personal data collected by the essential cookies based on our legitimate interests to ensure functionality and security of our Site and Services.
The essential cookies in our Site and Services are described in our Cookie List.
Marketing cookies
These cookies are used to collect information about how you use our websites to be able to tailor advertising based on your interests and behavior on our website. These cookies identify your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less tailored advertising.
The marketing cookies available in our Site and Services are described in our Cookie List. We use only marketing cookies to which you have consented. Please see below how to review and manage your consents.
We process personal data collected by the marketing cookies based on your expressed consent.
Performance cookies
Performance cookies collect data regarding how the Services are used, for example, which pages have been visited, which keywords have been used and which links have been clicked. The purpose of this processing is to provide, improve and optimize Bitly products and services. Performance Cookies connect our Services to Bitly Connections Platform and third-party platforms to help us to track the usage across Bitly products and services and in connection with third-party platforms. The performance cookies available in our Site and Services are described in our Cookie List. More information about third party cookies may be found below under the headline ‘Third party cookies’.
We install the performance cookies only based on your consent. Please see below how to review and manage your consents.
Cookies associated to Bitly Link
Bitly cookies also allow Bitly to track when you have clicked on a Bitly Link. Each click of a Bitly Link is tracked using a unique identifier assigned to you in one or more cookies stored by your web browser and associated with Bitly. We may associate the unique identifier in our cookies with the other information we automatically collect when you use the Services, as described in our Privacy Policy, including your IP address, Bitly Links you click, Bitly Links you create, and information with your Bitly Account if you have one.
We process personal data collected by the cookies associated to Bitly Link based on our legitimate interests to provide our Services, including to ensure their functionality and security.
Third party cookies
Our third-party partners (such as Facebook and Google) may use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags or similar technologies to collect or receive information from websites, including the Site, and elsewhere on the Internet and use that information to provide measurement services and target advertising (for example based upon your browsing activities and interests).
This Cookie Policy covers the use of cookies by Bitly only and does not cover the use of cookies by any Third Party Services. Bitly does not control when or how third parties place cookies on your computer, such as when you visit a website through a Bitly Link. You can manage other companies’ cookies used for online advertising by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Consumer Choice Page (http://www.aboutads.info/choices/).
If you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising click here (https://preferences-mgr.trustarc.com/) or if located in the European Union click here (https://www.youronlinechoices.eu/).
Payment services
If you elect to purchase a paid account, then payment is processed using Stripe. Cookies are essential to this payment process and more details can be found in Stripe’s Cookie Policy.
Managing your cookie settings
When entering our website, you can choose through the cookie banner which cookies you want to enable in addition to essential cookies.
You can withdraw your consent and change your cookie preferences anytime.
You may ask Bitly not to associate your web browser or IP address with visits to the Bitly.com website or Bitly Links that you create or click by clicking on the appropriate links below. If you would like to opt-out of the Bitly Links, please click on the opt-out choice for Bitly Links below. This will install a cookie on your browser that instructs our servers not to associate your IP address and browser with Bitly Links you create, click, or view. If you clear your cookies in your browser, you will need to click on the opt- out choice again after each time you clear your cookies. To be clear, these cookie-based opt-outs must be performed on each device and browser that you wish to have opted-out. Cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on mobile applications. However, on many mobile devices, application users may limit tracking via their device settings. Please note that if you use these opt-out mechanisms, we will still automatically collect the IP addresses of computers or mobile devices that click on or create Bitly Links; we just won’t associate them with your browser or Bitly account.
Cookies on Bitly.com: Click here
Cookies on Bitly Links: Click here (https://bit.ly/a/optout)
Cookies for Google Analytics: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB
Cookies for Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
Most browsers have an option for turning off the cookie feature, which will prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, as well as (depending on the sophistication of your browser software) allowing you to decide on acceptance of each new cookie in a variety of ways. If you disable cookies, you will not be able to use some features of the Services. We do not currently recognize do-not-track signals. The following links provide information on changing your cookie preferences in some of the most used browsers:
Updates to this policy
We may change and update this cookie policy from time to time. Any changes to this policy will be posted on this page. You can see the last date updated at the top of this policy.
If we introduce new cookies or other changes, we’ll inform you and request your consent accordingly, as required by data protection laws.