Cookies on memo.bank
When you visit a website, cookies, which are small files, can be saved on your computer, phone, or tablet through your web browser.
Definition
Cookies are somewhat the digital equivalent of a room number in a hotel. When you arrive at a hotel, the person at the reception assigns you a room and gives you a key that bears your room number. This number is unique and allows the hotel to identify you throughout your stay — every time you order Bloody Marys at the bar, or in the morning when you go to have your breakfast, for example. If the hotel concierge does their job well and takes notes, they will record your preferences, saving you the trouble, on your next stay, of having to specify that you like your Whisky without ice.
Just like your room number, cookies allow a website to identify you and collect information about your browsing habits. Used properly, cookies can save you time, for example by avoiding the need to specify on each visit that you prefer to see the french version of the site rather than its english counterpart. Misused, cookies are nothing more than another digital surveillance tool; they resemble those loyalty cards you carry around everywhere, allowing a store to track your purchases in minute detail, without offering you anything in return.
Use
At Memo Bank, we use cookies to collect information about how you use our site, which allows us, for example, to know which pages you visit.
The information we collect through cookies is not personally identifiable; it does not allow us to identify you personally. Cookies do not “see” individuals in flesh and blood; they can only record technical information, such as the browser you are using or the city from which you are connecting.
Cookies that analyze your browsing
To better understand how you use our site and improve it over time, we use Google Analytics, a service provided by Google, which we utilize through Google Tag Manager. We do not allow Google to share the data we collect through Google Analytics with third parties.
Google Analytics places cookies on your devices to collect non-personally identifiable information about:
- the link (URL) you clicked to arrive at our site;
- the pages you visit on our site and the time you spend on each of them;
- the links you click during your visit to our site.
The list of cookies potentially used by Google Analytics is available on this page, along with the expiration period of each cookie used.
Cookies that assist our marketing team
Google Ads
Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) is Google’s advertising service. We use it to make Memo Bank appear in Google search results for people looking for services like ours. Just like Google Analytics, we use Google Ads through Google Tag Manager.
Google Ads uses cookies to collect information that allows us to:
- to know how many people have clicked on our ads in their Google search results (conversion cookies);
- to avoid serving you the same advertisement twice in a row (personalization cookies);
- to display advertisements for Memo Bank on third-party websites that serve as advertising relays for Google (remarketing cookies).
The list of cookies used by Google Ads is available on this page, under the “advertising” section.
Similar to Google Ads, we use LinkedIn’s advertising service to make ourselves known to business leaders who have a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn’s advertising cookies allow us, for example, to know if you have seen one of our ads on LinkedIn and if you have possibly visited our site after seeing it.
Further explanations about the use of advertising cookies by LinkedIn are available on this page.
Hubspot
To measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns, we use HubSpot, an online marketing and communication service. The cookies provided by HubSpot allow us to collect information each time you fill out a form on our site.
The list of cookies potentially used by HubSpot is available on this page, with, for each cookie used, the expiration period of the cookie in question.
Cookies that record your preferences
We use an in-house cookie that records your choice when you click the “Accept” button on the banner informing you that we use cookies on our site. This way, you don’t have to click the “Accept” button every time you reload a page on our site.
This cookie is called MB_COOKIES_BANNER_DISMISSEDand its expiration period has been set to 12 months, following the recommendations of the CNIL in this regard.
Session identifiers for our clients
It’s not strictly a cookie, but we record a session identifier in the browser of our clients — and our clients only. This identifier is stored in the browser’s memory, but without going through a cookie. Instead of using a cookie, we store session identifiers in the browser’s localStorage, a kind of vault where web application developers can store information temporarily (which disappears when you close your browser) or permanently (which persists even when you close your browser). Just like a dictionary associates words with definitions, localStorage associates keys with values, or information.
Here are the keys we store in the browser of our clients:
state, a key that we associate with a session identifier, which is a number that allows us to identify you, and with the language you have chosen, to avoid asking you to choose one each time you log in to your Memo Bank account.last-keep-alive-timestamp, a key that serves as a timestamp, to know when your last action on your Memo Bank account took place, in order to automatically log you out if you remain inactive for too long. Think of it like a valet who comes to lock your door every time you leave home without locking it yourself.
How to avoid cookies
Refusing personalized advertisements
Google Ads
Google Ads uses cookies to collect information about your browsing, with the aim of personalizing the advertisements you see in your Google search results, and on third-party sites that are part of the Google advertising network. These cookies also allow Google to reconcile your browsing information when you are logged into your Google account on multiple devices (such as your computer and your mobile phone).
You can disable personalized advertising by:
- on Google services;
- on websites that use Google’s advertising services.
LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn Ads uses cookies to collect information about your interactions with the ads you may encounter on and off LinkedIn. If you have a LinkedIn account, you can ask LinkedIn not to track the actions you take after seeing an advertisement.
Ask websites not to track you
If you do not want a website to track you, meaning to follow you during your visit, you can enable the Do Not Track mode in your browser. Think of it as being on a “do not call” list. Once the Do Not Track mode is activated, all the sites you visit will know that you do not wish to be tracked. It is up to them then to respect your choice; some do, others do not.
At Memo Bank, we respect the wishes of visitors who do not wish to be tracked. If we detect that someone does not wish to be tracked, we then disable the cookies from Google Analytics and HubSpot.
Install an extension that filters cookies
In addition to or instead of the Do Not Track mode, you can install an extension (in your browser) that can detect the cookies present on a site and block the most intrusive ones. Think of it as a shield. If you’re interested in this topic, we recommend installing Privacy Badger.
Ask your browser to block all cookies
Since cookies are installed in your browser, you can configure it to filter certain cookies, such as third-party advertising cookies. You can even go as far as asking your browser to block all cookies, without exception, but this setting prevents most sites from functioning properly—since some “useful” cookies are then also blocked.
