Viber Media S.à r.l., its subsidiaries and affiliated companies (collectively, “Viber,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) maintain our website www.viber.com and our other related mobile applications, services and tools (collectively, the “Services”). We, along with our advertising partners and vendors, use a variety of technologies to learn more about how people use the Services. You can find out more about these technologies and how to control them in the information below. This policy forms part of the Viber Privacy Policy.
1. Cookies & Other Tracking Technologies: How We Use Them
Like many companies, we use tracking technologies on our Services (referred to together from this point forward as “cookies,” unless otherwise stated) including HTTP cookies, HTML5 and Flash local storage, web beacons/GIFs, embedded scripts and e-tags/cache browsers as defined below.
We may use cookies for a variety of purposes and to enhance your online experience, for example, by remembering your log-in status and viewing preferences from a previous use of our Services, for when you later return to the Services.
We use both session and persistent tracking technologies. Tracking technologies (e.g., cookies) can either be persistent (i.e., they remain on your computer until you delete them) or temporary (i.e., they last only until you close your browser).
We also use first and third-party cookies. First party cookies are used and controlled by us to provide services for the Services. Third-party cookies are controlled by third-parties, mostly for the purpose of advertising and analytics.
In particular, our Services use the following categories of cookies:
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Strictly Necessary Cookies: These are cookies which are needed to provide services and features you have specifically requested. We may use cookies and tracking technologies required to prevent fraudulent activity, improve security (both not applicable under German law), for system administration and/or allow you to make use of shopping-cart functionality. We are not required to obtain your consent for cookies that are strictly necessary.
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Analytics and Performance-Related Cookies: We may use cookies to assess the performance of our Services, including as part of our analytic practices to improve the content offered through the Services. These cookies may be used to prevent fraudulent activity and improve security.
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Functionality-Related Cookies: We may use cookies to tell us, for example, whether you have visited the Services before or if you are a new visitor and to help us identify the features in which you may have the greatest interest.
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Targeting-Related technologies: We may use tracking technologies to deliver content, including ads, relevant to your interests on our Services and third-party sites based on how you interact with our app, advertisements or content. Using such tracking technologies, we may share such activity data about you with third parties, to optimize our marketing efforts but we do this based on unique identifiers only. When you download the Viber desktop app, we may advise our advertising partners who already have a cookie placed on your device, that you are now using this service. We have set out further information about the use of cookies by our Ad Network partners below.
By using our Services you consent to the use of cookies and tracking technologies and the corresponding processing of information. You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting placed cookies and disabling cookies in your browser or changing settings on your mobile device. For further information about our use of cookies and tracking technologies and your opt-out choices, see Your Cookie Choices & How to Opt-Out. See here for details of each type of tracking technology used on Viber’s Services.
2.Use of Cookies & Tracking Technologies by Our Advertising Partners
To enable the limited advertisements on our service, we may share a unique advertising identifier that is not attributable to you, with our third party advertising partners, and advertising service providers (such as Appnexus, Polymorf and Google), along with certain technical data about you (your language preference, country, city, and device data), based on our legitimate interest. This includes partners managing our advertising placements and also advertisers themselves and their agencies or third parties managing their advertising demands.
The advertising networks and/or content providers that deliver ads on our Services or deliver our ads on third party sites may use cookies, pixels or other tracking technology to uniquely distinguish your web browser or device and keep track of information relating to serving ads on your web browser, or mobile app such as the type of ads shown and the pages on which the ads appear and also certain activities performed by you after clicking on the ads.
Some of these companies may combine information they collect from our Services with other information they have independently collected relating to your web browser’s activities across their network of websites. These companies collect and use this information under their own privacy policies, and are responsible for their practices concerning personal data. You can directly exercise your data subject rights with them.
You may opt-out of additional third-party advertising networks by going to the Network Advertising Initiative’s Website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp and following the directions there.
We are not responsible for the effectiveness of any such opt-out options. California residents may be entitled to know the effects of opt-out options under California Business & Professions Code Section 22575(b)(7). The effect of an opt-out, if successful, will be to stop targeted advertising, but it will still allow the collection of usage data for certain purposes (e.g., research, analytics and internal operation purposes for Services).
3. Your Cookie Choices & How to Opt-Out
You have the choice whether to accept the use of cookies and we have explained how you can exercise your rights, below.
Most browsers are initially set up to accept HTTP cookies. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies and how to disable existing cookies. For more information about HTTP cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ and www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.
Controlling the HTML5 local storage on your browser depends on which browser you use. For more information regarding your specific browser please consult the browser’s website (often in the Help section).
Please note, however, that without HTTP cookies and HTML5 local storage, you may not be able to take full advantage of all the features of our Services and some parts of the Services may not function properly.
Please note that rejecting cookies and tracking technologies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Services.
You can also disable analytics for mobile apps, including tracking by Adjust and Appsflyer, from the settings screen on your mobile device.
To opt out of interest-based ads on mobile devices, please follow these instructions for your mobile device: On Android open the Google Settings app on your device and select “ads” to control the settings. On iOS devices with iOS 6 and above use Apple’s advertising identifier. To learn more about limiting ad tracking using this identifier, visit the settings menu on your device. For EEA users, you can also turn off the “allow interest based and location based ads” setting on your Viber privacy settings – in which case we will not share your unique identifier with our third party advertisers.
To opt-out of exact location tracking when using our apps, you can use the settings of your device.
4. Cookies & Tracking Technologies Used on Viber’s Services
The following table sets out details of the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them.
We provide the chart below as a courtesy for all users outside of Germany, but we are not obligated to maintain or update it. We are not responsible for third-party sites and their privacy practices as it relates to opt-outs from tracking activities. The following third-parties that collect information from you on our Services have provided notices that you may obtain information on their policies and practices, and in some instances opt-out of certain of their activities, as follows:
|
Party |
Service |
For More Information |
Use of Tracking Technologies |
Privacy Choices |
|
DoubleClick |
Advertising |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ To opt-out, visit: |
|
|
Facebook Connect |
Widgets, Social |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ To opt-out, visit: |
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| Facebook Pixel | Conversion tracking, Retargeting | https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-pixel | https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/ | |
|
Google Analytics |
Google Analytics for Display Advertisers, Ads Preferences Manager, and Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on |
Information generated to better understand how to improve the Site. Identifies user when they return to specific websites store. Your IP-address anonymized by removing the last octet of the IP address prior to its storage. http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=2611283&answer=2700409 |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ |
|
Google Tag Manager |
Widgets, Tag Manager |
Yes |
||
|
Google+ Platform |
Widgets, Social |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ |
|
| Google Adwords | Conversion Tracking, retargeting | http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/ | Yes | For privacy information, go to:
https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads To opt out go to: https://adssettings.google.com/ |
|
Optimizely |
Beacons, A/B Testing, Site Optimization |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: http://www.optimizely.com/privacy To opt out: |
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Twitter Button |
Widgets, Social |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: http://twitter.com/privacy To opt out: https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-cookies |
|
|
Adjust |
InstaIls of applications, in app usage, conversion tracking, fraud prevention |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: https://www.adjust.com/privacy_policy/ To opt out: https://www.adjust.com/opt-out/ |
|
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Crashlytics |
App performance tracker |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: https://try.crashlytics.com/terms/privacy-policy.pdf |
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Mixpanel |
In-app analytics |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: https://mixpanel.com/privacy/ To opt out: https://mixpanel.com/optout |
|
|
Appsflyer |
Installs of applications, in app usage |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: https://www.appsflyer.com/privacy-policy/ |
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| Taboola
|
Conversion tracking | https://www.taboola.com/ | Yes | For privacy information go to:
https://www.taboola.com/privacy-policy To opt out go to: https://www.taboola.com/privacy-policy#users-2-6 |
| Liftoff | Conversion tracking, retargeting | https://liftoff.io/ | Yes | For privacy information go to:
https://liftoff.io/privacy-policy/ To opt out go to: https://liftoff.io/opt-out/ |
| Hotjar | Website tracking | https://www.hotjar.com/ | https://help.hotjar.com/hc/en-us/articles/115011789248-Hotjar-Cookies
to opt out go to: https://www.hotjar.com/legal/compliance/opt-out |
|
|
Unbounce |
Landing pages tracking |
Yes |
For privacy information, go to: https://unbounce.com/privacy/ |
5. Definitions
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Cookies/HTML5 Local Storage |
A cookie (sometimes referred to as local storage object or LSO) is a data file placed on a device. Cookies can be created through a variety of web-related protocols and technologies, such as HTTP (sometimes referred to as “browser cookies”), and HTML5. |
|
Web Beacons |
Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as “1×1 GIFs” or “clear GIFs”) may be included in our Services’ pages and messages. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code inserted into a page or email can act as a web beacon. Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. In contrast to HTTP cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. |
|
Embedded Script |
An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Services, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third-party service provider, is active only while you are connected to the Services, and is deactivated or deleted thereafter. |
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ETag, or Entity Tag |
A feature of the cache in browsers, an ETag is an opaque identifier assigned by a web server to a specific version of a resource found at a URL. If the resource content at that URL ever changes, a new and different ETag is assigned. Used in this manner ETags are a form of device identifier. ETag tracking may generate unique tracking values even where the consumer blocks HTTP, Flash, and/or HTML5 cookies. |
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Unique Device ID |
The unique series of numbers and letters assigned to your device. |
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Probabilistic Finger-printing |
Probabilistic tracking depends upon collecting non-personal data regarding device attributes like operating system, device make and model, IP addresses, ad requests and location data, and making statistical inferences to link multiple devices to a single user. Note that this is accomplished through proprietary algorithms owned by the companies performing probabilistic finger-printing. Note also that in the EU, IP Addresses are personal information.
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Device Graph |
Device graphs can be created by combining non-personal data regarding use of smartphones and other devices with personal log-in information to track interactions with content across multiple devices.
|
|
Unique Identifier Header (UIDH) |
Unique Identifier Header (UIDH) in the address information that accompanies Internet (http) requests transmitted over an ISP’s wireless network. For example, when a customer types the web address of a retailer on his or her phone, the request travels over the network and is delivered to the retailer’s website. The information included in that request includes things like the device type and screen size so that the retailer site knows how to best display the site on the phone. The UIDH is included in this information and can be used as an anonymous way for advertisers to be able to determine that the user is part of a group that a third party advertiser is attempting to reach. It is important to note that the UIDH is a temporary, anonymous identifier included with unencrypted web traffic. We change the UIDH on a regular basis to protect the privacy of our customers. We do not use the UIDH to collect web browsing information and it does not broadcast individuals’ web browsing activity out to advertisers or others. |
6. Social Plugins
We also use social plugins on our Site. The social plugins used on the Site are hosted by social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Your browser sends cookie data to a social media network when loading its related social plugin inside your browser. This data contains information on your use of the Site. In case you are registered with the social media network, the data will be associated with your data already stored in the social media network. To find out more on the social media networks and their corresponding social plugins, see the table in Section 4 of this Cookies and Tracking Technologies Policy.
7. Contact Us
For any queries in relation to this Cookies and Tracking Technologies Policy please contact us at privacy@viber.com, or you can also contact us in writing at Viber Media S.à r.l., Attention: Privacy Policy Administrator, 2, rue du Fossé, L-1536 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
In the event you read this policy in any language other than English, you agree that in the event of any discrepancies, the English version shall prevail.
Current Cookies policy PDF Viber Cookies Policy
Cookies policy 2016 Viber Cookies 2016