Cookie Policy

Effective Date: April 22, 2025

This Cookie Policy explains how The Kidney Foundation of Canada (“The Kidney Foundation”, “we”, “our”, or “us”, as appropriate) uses cookies and similar technologies. This Cookie Policy explains the cookie usage for any website, web application or mobile browser, operated by The Kidney Foundation that links to this Cookie Policy (collectively, the “Websites” or “Website” individually”), and any other services, or other technologies provided by The Kidney Foundation (“Services”) where information may be collected through the use of cookies and similar technologies. The Kidney Foundation is committed to protecting the personal information collected when you use our Services.

What are cookies and similar technologies?

1. Cookies

A cookie is a small data file, often including a unique identifier, which is sent to your computer, mobile phone or tablet device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the webserver so the Website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website. The cookie will collect information relating to your use of our Services, information about your device, e.g. the device’s IP address and browser type, broad location and, if you arrived at our site visa link from third party site, the URL of the linking page. If you have registered for our mailing list, it may also collect your name and email address, which may be transferred to data processors for verification purposes.

Cookies record information about your online preferences and help us to tailor our Services to your interests. Information provided by cookies can help us to analyse your use of our Services and help us to provide you with a better user experience. Information tracked through these mechanisms includes but is not limited to: (i) your IP address; (ii) the type of web browser and operating system being used; (iii) the pages of the Website a user visits; (iv) personal information of a user, including but not limited to: name, email address, third party login information, date of birth, location information, phone number, gender, and web browser ID; and (iv) other sites a user visited before visiting the Website. For more information on The Kidney Foundation’s handling of user data, including personal information, please visit The Kidney Foundation’s Privacy Policy, available at kidney.ca/Privacy-Policy.

2. Cookieless Technologies

Similar cookieless technologies known as “local storage” or “server-side tracking” may also be used in our Services as an alternative to cookies. This is technology which is like cookies and performs very similar functions, such as caching data to enable us to improve our Services, allowing you to use our Services, tracking activity to enable us and our advertisers to advertise to you in accordance with this policy. Where we refer to “cookies” in this policy, we mean cookies or similar cookieless tracking technologies.

We also utilize Google’s consent mode (“Google Consent Mode”) and Meta Conversions API (“Meta CAPI”) to obtain your consent to collecting your data and allow our processing of your data securely on our servers. Google Consent Mode is a cookieless technology that ensures compliance with your consent preferences, collecting either full data or anonymized data based on the consent you provide on our Websites. META Conversions API (“Meta CAPI”) allows us to optimize advertisements that you see on our Websites. Meta CAPI does not use cookies and instead utilizes server-side tracking with new conversion tags, which centralizes data processing on our server, enhances data security, accuracy, and compliance with applicable privacy regulations. Please note that Meta CAPI will only collect information about you where you have provided consent to do so through the applicable META platform.

In addition to cookies, our Services may also use web beacons, clear GIFs, page tags and web bugs. These are all types of technology implemented by Websites or third party ad servers to allow them to analyse your use of our Websites and help improve your experience of the Services.

What are the different types of cookies?

• Session cookies are only stored for the duration of your visit to a website and are deleted from your device when you close your browser;
• Persistent cookies are saved on your device for a fixed period of time after the browser has closed and are used where we (or a third party) need to identify you for a later browsing session. The fixed period of time is typically 30 seconds for targeting or behavioural advertising cookies and may be up to 13 months for analytical, performance and measurement cookies;
• First party cookies are set by the website you are visiting; and
• Third party cookies are cookies used within our Services which are set by other organisations. These include cookies from external analytics services which help us to understand the use of our sites, or by advertisers so that they can track the effectiveness of their advertisements.

What are cookies used for?

1. Essential Cookies

Essential cookies include both functional cookies and “strictly necessary” cookies. Where functional cookies are essential to the running of our Services. They are used to remember your preferences on our Websites and to provide enhanced, more personal features. The information collected by these cookies is usually anonymized, so we cannot identify you personally. Functional cookies do not track your internet usage or gather information which could be used for selling advertising, but they do help with serving advertising. These cookies are usually session cookies which will expire when you close your browsing session.

Strictly necessary cookies are essential for the running of our Services. Without these cookies, parts of our Websites would not function. These cookies do not track where you have been on the internet and do not remember preferences beyond your current visit and do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing purposes. These cookies are usually session cookies which will expire when you close your browsing session.

2. Analytical, Performance and Measurement Cookies

Analytical, performance cookies and measurement cookies are used to monitor the performance of our Services, for example, to determine the number of page views and the number of unique users a website has. Web analytics services may be designed and operated by third parties. The information provided by these cookies allows us to analyse patterns of user behaviour and we use that information to enhance user experience or identify areas of the website which may require maintenance. The information is anonymous (i.e. it cannot be used to identify you and does not contain personal information such as your name and email address) and it is only used for statistical purposes.

How does The Kidney Foundation use cookies?

The Kidney Foundation uses cookies in combination with other information we maintain for a number of purposes, including the following:

1. Essential and “Strictly Necessary” Cookies

We use these cookies to enable certain online functionality including:

• access your information so we can provide you with customised content and experiences, or remember the last page you visited on the Services;
• identify returning users and allow them to be presented with a personalised version of the site;
• maintain your settings and authenticate your identity when you access the Services again; and
• to support security measures and to assist in identifying possible fraudulent or abusive activities.

If you object to the use of essential and functional cookies, please scroll down to: How can users manage or opt out of cookies?

2. Non-Essential Cookies

The Kidney Foundation uses a variety of analytical performance and measurement cookies, including: statistics cookies, preference cookies and marketing cookies. We use these cookies to measure users’ behaviour to better develop our Services. By using analytics services provided by third parties such as Google Analytics and Meta Capi, we can analyse and measure which pages are viewed and how long for and which links are followed, and we can use this information to provide more content which is of interest. We also use this analysis to report on our performance and to sell advertising.

If you object to the use of analytical performance and measurement cookies, please see below: How can users manage or opt out of cookies?

3. Other Third Party Cookies

You may notice on some pages of our Websites that cookies have been set by third parties that are not related to The Kidney Foundation. When you visit a page with content embedded from, for example, YouTube or Facebook, these third party service providers may set their own cookies on your device. The Kidney Foundation does not control the use of these third party cookies and cannot access them due to the way that cookies work, as cookies can only be accessed by the party who originally set them. Please check the third party websites for more information about these cookies.

We also include web beacons in our emails to track the success of our marketing campaigns. This means that if you open an email from us, we can see which of the pages of our Website you have visited. Our web beacons do not store additional information on your device but, by communicating with our cookies on your device, they can tell us when you have opened our email.

If you object to the use of web beacons, please see below: How can users manage or opt out of cookies?

How can users manage or opt out of cookies?

Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their device a little intrusive, in particular when the information is stored and used by a third party. For example, you may object to being served advertising which is targeted to your interests based on your browsing history. If you would prefer to opt out of cookies, it is possible to control cookies by following the steps below, however you should be aware that you might lose some features and functionality of our Websites, apps or Services if you do so.

Cookies, including those which have already been set, can be deleted from your hard drive. You can also change the preferences/settings in your web browser to control cookies. Some internet browsers have a ‘Do Not Track or ‘DNT’ setting; this sends a signal to websites asking them not to track your browsing. The following links may be helpful:

Cookie setting in Firefox
Cookie setting in Safari
Cookie setting in Internet Explorer
Cookie setting in Chrome

In some cases, you can choose to accept cookies from the primary site, but block them from third parties. In others, you can block cookies from specific advertisers, or clear out all cookies. Deleting or blocking cookies may reduce functionality of the site. To learn more about how to reject cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org/ or go to the help menu within your internet browser. If you experience any problems having deleted cookies, you should contact the supplier of your web browser.

For more information about third party cookies generated by advertisers please visit www.youronlinechoices.com.

Please be aware that these are third party websites, and The Kidney Foundation does not accept any liability for the instructions given on these sites.

Opting out of Non-Essential Cookies and Cookieless Technologies:

If you would like to opt out of our Non-Essential Cookies, including statistics cookies, preference cookies and marketing cookies, and Cookieless Technologies, please do so by engaging with our cookie banner and updating your preferences.

Opting out of Web Beacons:

You can normally render web beacons and other tracking technologies ineffective by switching off cookies in your browser. There are also browser add-ons and extensions that specifically block web beacons. If you object to web beacons in emails, we recommend that you follow the instructions for deleting existing cookies and disabling future cookies above. We will still know how many of our emails are opened and we will automatically receive your IP address, a unique identifier of your device or other access device; but we will not identify you as an individual.

Further information and contact details:

Please contact The Kidney Foundation if you would like more information on the cookies that we use and their purposes at the following email address: [email protected].