Cookie Policy

What cookies and similar technologies are

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves in your browser. Websites also use similar technologies: browser storage, and “pixels” or “tags”, which are small pieces of code that send information to another company when a page loads or an email is opened. In this policy, “cookies” covers all of these. In Quebec, cookies are also called témoins de connexion.

This policy explains which cookies JoinAStudy.ca uses and how you control them. It is part of our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle personal information in general.

How we use cookies

We sort cookies into three groups:

• Necessary: needed for the website to work, to keep forms safe from spam and to remember your choices. These are always on and are never used to track you across other websites.
• Analytics: help us understand how many people visit and which pages are useful. Off until you turn them on.
• Marketing (advertising): help us measure whether our ads on Facebook and Instagram bring people to the website. Off until you turn them on.

When you first visit, a banner asks what you allow. “Accept all” and “Reject non-essential” are equally easy to choose, and you can pick categories one by one with “Manage choices”. Until you choose, only necessary cookies run.

Pages that are always tag-free

Some pages reveal health information simply by being visited. On these pages, advertising tags never load, even if you accepted marketing cookies:

• medical condition pages and health guides;
• study pages and study landing pages;
• research site pages;
• the study-matching questionnaire and every page that contains a form;
• search results.

Google Analytics also never loads on study pages, research site pages, the study-matching questionnaire or any page with one of our study, community or contact forms, even if you accepted analytics cookies. Elsewhere, Google Analytics receives the address of the page without other details from the web address, except advertising campaign tags.

We never send the answers you give in our forms to an analytics or advertising company.

The cookies we use

Necessary (always on)

Analytics (off until you allow them)

If you allow analytics, Google Analytics records which of our pages you read, including articles and health guides, and whether you signed up for our newsletter or study alerts. It does not receive your name, email address or form answers, and we do not use it for advertising.

Marketing (off until you allow them)

When the Meta Pixel runs, Meta may also read or set its own cookies on facebook.com, and may link the information to your Facebook or Instagram account and use it for its own purposes under Meta’s Privacy Policy. Google’s use of information from Google Analytics and reCAPTCHA is explained in How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Maps

Research site pages can show a Google map. The map loads only when you click to show it. Google may then set its own cookies under Google’s Privacy Policy.

In our emails

Our emails, including the newsletter we send through Mailchimp, may contain a tiny image and tracked links that tell us whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. We use this only to improve our emails. Most email apps let you block images, which stops the open tracking.

Counts we keep without cookies

To improve our forms, we count how many people open, start and finish them, step by step. These counts are stored on our own server in Canada, and they do not use cookies, IP addresses or any other identifier.

We count the answers to our cookie banner the same way: how many visits show it and how many people accept, reject or choose categories, as daily totals for each language. These totals tell us whether the banner is clear, and they contain nothing about who made a choice.

Your choices

• Change your choices at any time with the button on this page or the “Cookie choices” link at the bottom of every page. Your choice is saved for 6 months. We ask again after that, or sooner if we change the cookies we use.
• Turning a category off stops those cookies from being used from your next page view. You can delete cookies already saved in your browser through your browser’s settings.
• Browser settings let you block or delete cookies. If you block necessary cookies, our forms may not work.
• Other tools: you can manage ads on Meta through Meta’s ad preferences, and block Google Analytics on all websites with Google’s opt-out add-on.

Changes and contact

We update this policy whenever we add, remove or change a cookie, and we change the date at the top. Questions? Email our Privacy Officer at privacy@joinastudy.ca.