WEBMD HEALTH SERVICES GROUP, INC.
Cookie Policy
Cookie Notice
Last Updated: February 19, 2024
This Cookie Notice applies to WebMD Health Services Group, Inc. (“WebMD,” “we” or “us”) and our websites at www.webmdhealthservices.com and info.webmdhealthservices.com (together, the “Websites”). This Cookie Notice explains how we use cookies and similar technologies to recognize you when you visit our Websites, why we use them and rights to control our use of them.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files placed by a website and stored by your browser on your device. A cookie can later be read when your browser connects to a web server in the same domain that placed the cookie. 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. This unique number allows the web server to recognize your browser over time, each time it connects to that web server. A cookie also may contain other information, such as user settings. To learn more about cookies generally, visit allaboutcookies.org.
Cookies are widely used by website owners to make their websites work or to work more efficiently, to provide analytics data about the operation of their websites, and to personalize website content and advertising.
Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, WebMD) are called first-party cookies. Cookies set by any other party are called third-party cookies. Third-party cookies enable third-party features or functionality on or through our Websites, such as interactive content and analytics. Our partners that set third-party cookies on our Websites can recognize your computer both when it visits our Websites and also when it visits certain other websites.
Why does WebMD use cookies?
We use first-party cookies and third-party cookies on our Websites for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons for our Websites to operate – we refer to these as “essential” or “strictly necessary” cookies. Other cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our visitors to enhance the experience on our Websites.
The types of cookies served through our Websites and the purposes they perform are described below:
“Strictly necessary” cookies must be set to allow us to deliver our Websites to you and to provide specific services that you request from us.
“Performance” or “Analytics” cookies, which help us to collect information about how visitors use our Websites and helps us analyze and improve our Websites. Performance or analytics cookies will remain on your computer after you close your browser. For example, we use Google Analytics on our website to help us understand how users interact with our website; you can learn how Google collects and uses information at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. Other analytics partners are listed in the table at the end of this Cookie Notice.
“Advertising” cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.
Please see the table at the end of this Cookie Notice for more information about the specific cookies deployed on our Websites. And please see our Privacy Statement for additional information on how we use and protect the personal data we collect, including through cookies.
Does WebMD use other tracking technologies, like web beacons?
Cookies are not the only way to recognize or track visitors to a website. We use other data collection technologies from time to time, like web beacons (sometimes called “tracking pixels” or “clear gifs”). A web beacon is an electronic image that is contained on a webpage. When your browser opens a webpage that contains a web beacon, it automatically connects to the web server that hosts the image (typically operated by a third party). This allows that web server to log information about your device and to set and read its own cookies. Web beacons on our Websites enable us to monitor the traffic patterns of visitors from one page on our Websites to another, to deliver or read cookies, to understand whether you have come to our Websites from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, and to improve performance of our Websites. We also include web beacons in our promotional email messages or newsletters to tell us if you open and act on them and to measure the success of our email marketing campaigns.
Do you serve targeted advertising?
WebMD currently does not serve targeted advertisements on our Websites. WebMD may use information about your visits to our Websites to provide relevant advertisements on other websites about goods and services that may interest you. WebMD and third parties also may deploy technology that measures the effectiveness of advertisements by using cookies or web beacons to collect information about your visits to our Websites and other websites to provide relevant advertisements on other websites about goods and services that may interest you. The information collected through this process does not enable us or the third parties to identify your name, contact details or similar identifying details unless you choose to provide them.
How can I control cookies?
Browser cookie controls
Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can go to your browser settings to learn how to delete or reject cookies. If you choose to delete or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our website. If you choose to delete cookies, settings and preferences controlled by those cookies, including advertising preferences, may be deleted and may need to be recreated.
Mobile advertising ID controls
iOS and Android operating systems provide options to limit tracking and/or reset the advertising IDs.
Email web beacons
Most email clients have settings which allow you to prevent the automatic downloading of images, including web beacons, which prevents the automatic connection to the web servers that host those images.
Advertising controls
Our advertising and analytics partners may participate in associations that provide simple ways to opt out of analytics and ad targeting, which you can access at:
United States: NAI (http://optout.networkadvertising.org) and DAA (http://optout.aboutads.info/)
Canada: Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (https://youradchoices.ca/)
Europe: European Digital Advertising Alliance (https://www.youronlinechoices.com/)
How often will you update this cookie notice?
We may update this Cookie Notice from time to time to reflect changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please therefore re-visit this Cookie Notice regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.
The Effective Date at the top of this Cookie Notice indicates when it was last updated.
Where can I get more information?
If you have any questions about our use of cookies or other technologies, please contact privacy@webmd.com.