About Cookies

Cookies and other technologies employed by TheFans and its partners

What are cookies?

Cookies are pieces of data that websites you visit can set on your browser and device hard drive. The term may also be used to refer to other technologies that when employed in a certain manner may be able to track the online behaviour of a web user.

TheFans and its partners use a number of technologies to support and improve the app experience we offer. Some of these technologies are used to identify users when they are on TheFans app and others may be used to track unique web users. This page was developed to describe the technologies we use, including how they work, our purposes for using them and your choices about their use.

Technology TheFans Uses

Local Shared Objects (LSOs), which are also known as “flash cookies”, are used to

To learn more about LSOs and how to manage them visit Adobe

Browser Cookies are used by TheFans primarily to

There are a number of ways to manage browser cookies on your device. Most major browsers offer choices for whether and how you might receive future cookies and for deleting cookies already on your machine. Here are links for some of the larger browsers:

Html eTags is a technology that allows a web service to validate the temporary storage (cache) of web documents like html pages and images. They are used by TheFans or service providers working on TheFans's behalf to optimise web caching for each user.

You may be able to remove eTags from your browser by following your browser instructions for clearing cache.

Beacons, pixel tags, clear gifs are all terms for similar technology that often works in the same way. Small strings of (software) code that track events such as when a web user visits a page or opens an email. They are used by TheFans to measure the effectiveness of our email campaigns, deliver more relevant content and manage advertising for TheFans's app.

Generally you should be able manage beacons and pixel tags in the same way that you manage cookies – using your browsers preferences (see browser links above).

NOTE: There are several browser plugins available to web users who want to be better informed about and have more control over these technologies. Two popular ones are Ghostery and Abine

Other Companies' Technology TheFans uses within its app and sites

Analytics

TheFans analyzes traffic and other end user activity to improve the user experience. TheFans and companies working its behalf 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.

One of our analytics partners is Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses browser cookies to generate statistics about visitors to websites, such as the number of page views or times of peak traffic. If you don’t want your anonymous browser data to be collected by Google Analytics when you visit sites that use Google Analytics, you can install an opt-out in your web browser.

To learn more or inform Google that you do not want data about your website visit sent to Google, go here

Ads for TheFans app (TheFans as an advertiser)

TheFans works with web publishers and advertising networks (“Advertising Partners”) to deliver interest-based ads to users that have visited TheFans sites, used TheFans app or accessed TheFans's content including photos&videos (“TheFans Users”). This practice is also referred to as online behavioral advertising and here’s a brief description of how it works at TheFans.

Our Advertising Partners use software that recognizes pixels and cookies (identifiers) that are placed on the browsers of TheFans Users. When the ad software recognizes these identifiers, they deliver ads for TheFans's products and services to TheFans Users who are on other web sites. Many of these ads for TheFans's products will include an icon the ad recipient can click to learn more about the ad, why she received it and how to exercise choice. The icon displayed may range from the ad choices icon to a question mark (“?”) in the corner of the ad unit.

As you know TheFans is a free service. One of the ways we generate revenue, which supports our ability to develop and publish fun app, is by publishing ads. Our advertising partners may serve targeted or personalized ads that are intended to be more relevant to you.

Advertising in Web App and Emails

Tracking Pixels, Web Bugs, Pixel Tags, Browser Cookies – these are all references to technology that we permit others to set or read within our service. These technologies may be used to identify the interests and behavior of web users and target advertising to them based on those interests. They are also used to limit the number of times a user may see a particular ad or prevent certain ads from being shown at all.

Advertising in Mobile App

When you use our mobile app we or our advertising partners may use one or more of several different identifiers for your device, including UDID and Mac Address, to target and deliver ads in our app. This means that your device identifier may be accessed by third party ad networks and used to (a) help manage the number and types of ads you see; (b) to track the source of installs related to ads seen in other developer apps, and; (c) identify the interests and behavior of users and target advertising to them based on those interests.

Identifiers TheFans uses

IP Addresses are numbers assigned to the device you use to access the internet. TheFans, like many other web services, automatically collects IP Addresses from visitors to its app and sites. TheFans puts this information to several uses including providing security features and identifying general user locations, which may be used to target advertising.

Mobile Identifiers are numbers that identify devices or access points for devices that access TheFans's mobile offerings. When you use our mobile app we may use one or more of several different identifiers for your device, including UDID and Mac Address, to identify you and your app account and to recognize users from one TheFans app to another. If you elect to participate in an SMS program we will use and may store your mobile phone number.

Facebook and other social networks

In many instances users must be logged in to Facebook or other social networks to access our app. We typically collect and store the social network user ID and use it for several things including identifying specific users and accounts.

TheFans IDs

When you create an account with TheFans or establish a profile (like on TheFans.io) we will generate and assign a TheFans ID to your account.

NOTE: The social networks that offer TheFans app may use tracking technology of their own to recognize users and provide certain products and features. To learn more about Facebook’s practices visit Facebook.