Blackhawk Network Cookie Notice

Last Updated: September 10, 2020

Introduction

This Cookie Notice (“Notice”) applies to how Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc., and its affiliates (“Blackhawk,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) use cookies on our websites, in our apps, in emails that we may send you in relation to your usage of our gift card and branded payment services. It applies whether you are an individual consumer (“business to consumer”) or you are interacting with us as part of your job (“business to business”).

This Cookie Notice is incorporated into the Blackhawk Network Privacy Notice and is an important part of our promises to you regarding how we use your personal data. If you have any questions about our data practices, you are encouraged to review our Privacy Notice. If you still have unanswered questions, you may contact us at privacy@bhnetwork.com.

Our Use of Cookies

We use browser cookies, tracking pixels, local storage objects, advertising-related device identifiers (such as the Android Advertising ID and the Apple ID For Advertising (IDFA)), and similar technologies (collectively, “cookies” unless otherwise noted), to distinguish you from other users of our sites. 

Using cookies helps us provide you with a better user experience, helps us to understand and improve how our services perform, lets us personalize your experience on our sites, and helps our advertising partners deliver more relevant advertisements to you on our sites and on other sites that you visit.

Your Consent

Where required by law, we will provide you a notice regarding our use of cookies. In certain instances, applicable laws require that we refrain from setting cookies until you have made an explicit choice. In other instances, applicable law may allow us to offer you the chance to opt-out of certain types of cookies. 

If we are not required to offer you an explicit choice, we will consider your continued use of our site to be an indication that you have given your consent to placement of cookies on your browser by us and our third-party service providers. 

Whether you have given explicit consent, or your use of the site indicates your implied consent, this Cookie Notice includes information on how you may block or disable cookies or withdraw previously granted consent.

Please note, cookies are used throughout our sites and disabling or blocking them may prevent you from using certain parts of our site.

Withdraw Your Consent at Any Time

Where required by law, you will have the opportunity to choose to accept or reject cookies. That process is the means by which you must express to us that you are withholding, or have withdrawn, your consent.

If you do not wish to accept cookies in connection with your use of the website, you will need to delete, and block or disable cookies via your browser settings. See below for more information on how to do this. Please note that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of the website, and may prevent you from being able to access certain features on the website.

What Is a Cookie?

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your device. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit the website.

Key Concepts

There are a few key concepts that you should understand about cookies:

First- and Third-party cookies: Whether a cookie is 'first' or 'third' party refers to the domain placing the cookie:

  1. First-party cookies are those set by a website that is being visited by the user at the time (e.g., cookies placed by our website domain).
  2. Third-party cookies are cookies that are set by a domain other than that of the website being visited by the user. If a user visits a website and another entity sets a cookie through that website, this would be a third-party cookie.

Persistent cookies: These cookies remain on a user’s device for the period of time specified in the cookie. They are activated each time that the user visits the website that created that particular cookie.

Session cookies: These cookies allow website operators to link the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close the browser window. Session cookies are created temporarily. Once you close the browser, all session cookies are deleted.

How to Delete and Block our Cookies

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies), you may not be able to access all or parts of the website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit the website.

Changing your Cookie Settings: The browser settings for changing your cookies settings are usually found in the 'options' or 'preferences' menu of your internet browser. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful. Otherwise you should use the 'Help' option in your internet browser for more details.

More information. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

What Cookies Do We Use and Why?

Categories of Cookies

Our websites generally use four categories of cookies:

  1. Strictly necessary
  2. Performance
  3. Functionality
  4. Targeting

Some cookies may fulfill more than one of these purposes.

'Strictly Necessary' cookies let you move around the website and use essential features like secure areas. Without these cookies, we cannot provide the requested services.

We use these Strictly Necessary cookies to:

  1. Identify you as being logged in to the website and to authenticate you
  2. Make sure you connect to the right service on the website when we make any changes to the way it works
  3. For security purposes
  4. Make sure you connect to the right service on the website when we make any changes to the way it works

Accepting these cookies is a condition of using the website. You may be able to block certain of these cookies using your browser’s settings. However, as the name implies, blocking Strictly Necessary cookies may result in diminished functionality on our website and certain activities that depend on our ability to perform required security or anti-fraud activities. We cannot guarantee that our website will function properly if you block Strictly Necessary cookies.

'Performance' cookies collect information about how you use the website, e.g., which pages you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies do not collect any information that could identify you and are only used to help us improve how the website works, understand the interests of our users and measure the effectiveness of our advertising.

We use Performance cookies to:

  1. Carry out web analytics: Provide statistics on how the website is used
  2. Perform affiliate tracking: Provide feedback to affiliated entities that one of our visitors also visited their site
  3. Obtain data on the number of users of the website that have viewed a product or service
  4. Help us improve the website by measuring any errors that occur
  5. Test different designs for the website

Some of our Performance cookies are managed for us by third parties. You may be able to block certain of these cookies using your browser’s settings.

'Functionality' cookies are used to provide services or to remember settings to improve your visit.

We use 'Functionality' cookies for such purposes as:

  1. Remember settings you've applied such as layout, text size, preferences and colors
  2. Remember if we've already asked you if you want to fill in a survey
  3. Remember if you have engaged with a particular component or list on the website so that it won’t repeat
  4. Show you when you're logged in to the website
  5. To provide and show embedded video content

Some of these cookies are managed for us by third parties. You may be able to block certain of these cookies using your browser’s settings. However, as the name implies, blocking Functionality cookies may result in diminished functionality on our website.

‘Targeting’ cookies are used to track your visit to the website, as well on other websites, apps and online services. They enable our advertising network partners to recognize when you are visiting other pages on other websites and allows them to deliver targeted ads or other marketing messages.

Targeting cookies may be used to:

  1. Display targeted ads within our website or other websites.
  2. To improve how we deliver personalized ads and content, and to measure the success of ad campaigns on the website.

Most of the targeting cookies used on our site are managed for us by third-parties advertising network partners and service providers. The opt-out instructions (described below) will allow you to manage those targeting cookies.

Service Providers

Blackhawk utilizes a number of service providers in conjunction with our online advertising and marketing activities. This list includes, but is not limited to, the following companies:

Facebook

Facebook Connect and Facebook Login: A single sign-on service that allows you to use your Facebook account to log into certain sites. When you use Facebook to access a site, you authorize Facebook to share your name and to link your activity on the site to your Facebook account. The service also enables you to use features such as “Like” buttons and to post activity to your Facebook news feed. For more information about what Facebook collects when you use Facebook buttons on the website, please see: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

Facebook Ads. Facebook allows businesses to coordinate the display of targeted ads both on Facebook and elsewhere. For more information about what Facebook collects and your choices around Facebook Ads, please see: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/ 

Twitter 

For more information about what Twitter collects when you use Twitter buttons on the website or visit pages on the website that include these buttons, please see: https://twitter.com/en/privacy.    

LinkedIn 

For more information about what LinkedIn collects when you use LinkedIn buttons on the website or visit pages on the website that include these buttons, please see: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy .

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. It uses cookies to help us analyze how users use our sites. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. We have activated the “IP masking” feature in the Google Analytics code (“gat._anonymizeIp();”) to ensure an anonymized collection of IP addresses. When active, Google will truncate/anonymize the last octet of the IP address for Member States of the European Union as well as for other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases, the full IP address is sent to and shortened by Google servers in the USA. On behalf of the website, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on your activity for us and third parties who help operate and provide services related to the website. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of these cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser as discussed in this notice. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the website. Furthermore you can prevent Google’s collection and use of data (cookies and IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB

Further information about Google Analytics can be found by reading the Google Analytics Terms of Service, the Google Privacy Policy, How Google Uses Cookies, and Google’s Business and Data Compliance Center.

Rakuten Advertising

Our company uses Rakuten Advertising as our digital agency of record, helping us manage a number of marketing activities, including our advertising and retargeting activities, affiliate marketing, paid search, and other activities for many of our sites. Rakuten Advertising utilizes a variety of cookie and non-cookie technologies to assist in our online marketing and advertising activities, including to track the web pages, applications, advertisements and products viewed by you for statistical analysis and to serve targeted advertising content to you on our behalf, and they may share that anonymized or pseudonymized targeting data with advertising exchanges, advertising networks, data providers, and other partners. If you wish to learn more, please visit the Rakuten Advertising Services Privacy Policy and the Rakuten Advertising Cookie Policy. If you wish to opt out, Rakuten participates in the DAA WebChoices Tool or the NAI Consumer Opt Out programs.

NextRoll

Our site uses NextRoll’s “NextRoll Pixel” technology to help us recognize your device and understand how you use our site. This helps us improve our services to reflect your interests. It also allows us to serve you advertisements, on our site and on other sites, that are more likely to be of interest to you. We may also share pseudonymized data, such as cryptographically “hashed” email addresses, with NextRoll in order to allow our partners to recognize and deliver you ads across devices and browsers. If you wish to learn more about NextRoll’s privacy practices, please see the NextRoll Privacy Notice (California consumers should click here). If you wish to opt out of NextRoll activities, you can use either the DAA WebChoices Tool, the NAI Consumer Opt Out or NAI Mobile Choices.

Learn More about Online Advertising and How to Opt Out

Our partners and service providers may use a variety of cookie and non-cookie technologies that may be outside of the capabilities of your browser to block. For this reason, many third-party ad services and networks utilize a number of industry-wide opt out tools that can assist you in controlling your privacy. The following tools are free of charge and available to all users:

United States users can learn more about Interest Based Advertising and Online Behavioral Advertising by visiting Your Ad Choices, a site created by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). You may opt out of third-party ad targeting by DAA member ad networks by visiting the DAA WebChoices Tool at https://optout.aboutads.info/

For US users, the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) also offers information about Interest Based Advertising at their site: https://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/. They also offer a free opt out service at NAI Consumer Opt Out.

EU and EEA residents can learn more about Online Behavioral Advertising by visiting Your Online Choices, a site created by the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA). You may opt out of third-party ad targeting by EDAA member ad networks by visiting their site: https://www.youronlinechoices.eu/.

Canadian residents can learn more about Online Behavioral Advertising by visiting YourAdChoices.ca, a site created by the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (DAAC). You may opt out of third-party ad targeting by DAAC member ad networks by visiting their site: https://youradchoices.ca/en/tools/.

For More Information

For US residents, the Federal Trade Commission has a helpful page that explains Online Tracking.

For Canadians, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada provides a list of Frequently Asked Questions About Cookies which includes useful information about Online Behavioral Advertising.

For UK and EU residents, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office has a useful primer on Cookies.

The private organization AllAboutCookies.org also provides a good introduction to cookies, online advertising, and how to protect yourself.