Cookie Notice
When you visit the Canadian Institute for Health Information (“CIHI”) website, located at cihi.ca (the “Website”), CIHI and some of its authorized third-party service providers use cookies to collect information about you. This Cookie Notice sets out how CIHI and third parties we authorize use cookies when you interact with our Website.
This Cookie Notice should be read along with our Website Privacy Notice, which describes how CIHI collects, uses and discloses personal information collected through the Website, as well as the rights Website visitors have with respect to their personal information. For more information about how CIHI processes your personal information, please read CIHI’s Personal Information Privacy Policy (PDF).
What are cookies?
Cookies are small pieces of data (a text file) that are saved on your computer or cellphone when you visit a website so that information can be saved between visits, such as your login credentials or language preferences.
Cookies may be temporary (or “session”) cookies, which are only in use while you visit our Website and are deleted when you close your browser, or permanent cookies, which stay on your device’s permanent storage after you leave our Website until you delete them manually or your browser deletes them after a period of time.
Cookies that are set by us are called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies, which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting.
What kinds of cookies are used on the Website?
Our Website primarily uses the following 4 types of cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies
- Analytics and performance cookies
- Functional cookies
- Marketing and targeting cookies
Following is a detailed list of the cookies we use on our websites and the purposes for which we enable each cookie or tracking technology.
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be deactivated in our systems. They are usually set only in response to actions made by you that amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to alert you about these cookies or to block them, but some parts of the site will then not work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information, and all information collected is anonymous.
| Cookie provider | Cookie name | Function | First party or Third party |
|---|---|---|---|
| CIHI Custom | CIHISSO | Used to identify the user’s single sign on (SSO) state based on true/false variables. | First party or Third party |
| CIHI Custom | CIHISSOUSR | Used to identify the user for SSO. | First party |
| CIHI Custom | JSESSIONID | Used to identify sessions for CIHI applications. | First party |
| MicroStrategy | ASP.NET_SessionId | Used to identify sessions on the MicroStrategy server. | First party |
| PeopleFluent | _LMSSession | Used to identify sessions on CIHI’s learning management server and may be used to set preferences as well. | First party |
| PeopleFluent | LOGINCOOKIE | Used to identify/verify the user, track activity and support personalization. | First party |
| Njoyn | ASPSESSIONID | Used to identify sessions on the Njoyn server and may be used to set preferences as well. | Third party |
| YouTube | YSC | Registers a unique ID to keep statistics on which YouTube videos the user has seen and how the videos have been interacted with. | Third party |
| Qlik | X-Qlik-Session-pub | Used to maintain a connection between the CIHI site and the Qlik Sense server. | First party |
| CIHI Custom | clientLanguage | Use to identify a user’s language preference. | First party |
| MicroStrategy | bSet | Used to store CIHI tool (Portal, Insight, eReporting) interface settings, such as the state of the report details section, view filter panel, accordion and other controllable objects. | First party |
| MicroStrategy | MSTR_AUTH | Set when access to MicroStrategy-based apps has been authenticated. This is a secondary token that mitigates session fixation and hijacking. | First party |
| AWS | AWSALBTG | Used to enable the AWS load balancer to bind a user’s session to a specific target (stickiness). | First party |
| AWS | AWSALBTGCORS | Used to enable the AWS load balancer to bind a user’s session to a specific target (stickiness). | First party |
| Njoyn | BNI_persistence | Used by our recruitment management solution to run the website functionality/content requests. | Third party |
| Njoyn | has_js | Used to determine whether the user’s browser has Java Script enabled. | Third party |
| Njoyn | Tbtoken | Indicates a successful login on the recruitment management solution. | Third party |
| Highcarts | _cfuvid | This domain is owned by Highsoft, a company based in Norway. It provides a data visualization/charting service that can be embedded in a website. | Third party |
| OneTrust | OptanonAlertBoxClosed | This cookie is set by websites using certain versions of the cookie law compliance solution from OneTrust. It is set after visitors have seen a cookie information notice and, in some cases, only when they actively close the notice down. It enables the website not to show the message more than once to a user. The cookie has a 1-year lifespan and contains no personal information. | First party |
| OneTrust | OptanonConsent | This cookie is set by the cookie compliance solution from OneTrust. It stores information about the categories of cookies the site uses and whether visitors have given or withdrawn consent for the use of each category. This enables site owners to prevent cookies in each category from being set in the user’s browser when consent is not given. The cookie has a normal lifespan of 1 year so that returning visitors to the site will have their preferences remembered. It contains no information that can identify the site visitor. | First party |
| Marketo | _mkto_trk | Stores and tracks interactions. | Third party |
| MicroStrategy | MSTRDEVICEID | Unique ID of the client device. | First party |
Analytics and performance cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies, we will not know when you have visited our site and will not be able to monitor its performance.
We use various tools for these purposes. For instance, we use Google Analytics and Hotjar:
- Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to learn more about the visitors to our Website and their activities on our Website. To provide this service, Google Analytics may collect certain information about you from your computer, including but not limited to information regarding your visit (such as the pages you visit and length of your visit), information about your device (such as your IP address), how you got to the Website and other information about you. You can learn more about how Google uses your data when you use our third parties’ sites or apps, including how to opt out from Google Analytics tracking you, on Google’s Privacy and terms page.
- Hotjar: We use Hotjar to help us better understand our visitors’ experience (e.g., how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like), which enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. To provide this service, Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices. This includes a device’s IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only) and the preferred language used to display our Website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. To block Hotjar cookies, visit Hotjar’s Do Not Track page.
| Cookie provider | Cookie name | Function | First party or Third party |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotjar | _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress | Used to detect the first page view/session of a user. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjFirstSeen | Set to identify a new user’s first session. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjIncludedInPageviewSample | Set to let Hotjar know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by our Website’s page view limit. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjIncludedInSessionSample | Set to let Hotjar know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by our Website’s daily session limit. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjid | Set when the user first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. Used to persist the Hotjar User ID, which is unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behaviour in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. | First party |
| Hotjar | hjClosedSurveyInvites | Set once a user interacts with an External Link Survey invitation modal. Used to ensure that the same invitation does not reappear if it has already been shown. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjDonePolls | Set once a user completes a survey using the On-site Survey widget. Used to ensure that the same survey does not reappear if it has already been filled in. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjMinimizedPolls | Set once a user minimizes an On-site Survey widget. Used to ensure that the widget stays minimized when the user navigates through our Website. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjShownFeedbackMessage | Set when a user minimizes or completes Incoming Feedback. This is done so that the Incoming Feedback will load as minimized immediately if the user navigates to another page where it is set to show. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjSessionTooLarge | Causes Hotjar to stop collecting data if a session becomes too large. This is determined automatically by a signal from the WebSocket server if the session size exceeds the limit. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjSessionRejected | If present, this cookie will be set to 1 for the duration of a user’s session, if Hotjar rejected the session from connecting to our WebSocket server due to server overload. This cookie is applied only in extremely rare situations to prevent severe performance issues. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjSessionResumed | Set when a session/recording is reconnected to Hotjar servers after a break in connection. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjRecordingLastActivity | Gets updated when a user performs an action that Hotjar records. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjTLDTest | Hotjar tries to store this cookie for different URL substring alternatives in order to try to determine the most generic cookie path to use instead of the page hostname. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjUserAttributesHash | User Attributes sent through the Hotjar Identify API are cached for the duration of the session in order to know when an attribute has changed and needs to be updated. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjCachedUserAttributes | This cookie stores User Attributes that are sent through the Hotjar Identify API whenever the user is not in the sample. Collected attributes will be saved to Hotjar servers only if the user interacts with a Hotjar Feedback tool, but the cookie will be used regardless of whether a Feedback tool is present. | First party |
| Google Analytics | _ga | Used to distinguish users. | First party |
| Google Analytics | _gid | Used to distinguish users. | First party |
| Google Analytics | _gat | Used to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_<property- id>. | First party |
| Google Analytics | AMP_TOKEN | Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a non-identifiable Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. | First party |
| Google Analytics | _gac_<property-id> | Contains campaign-related information for the user. If CIHI has linked its Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, Google Ads website conversion tags will read this cookie unless users are opted out. Currently CIHI is not active with Google Ads, but it has been in the past. CIHI’s Google Analytics account is linked with Google Ads. | First party |
| Google Analytics | __utma | Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exist. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | First party |
| Google Analytics | __utmt | Used to throttle request rate. | First party |
| Google Analytics | __utmb | Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exist. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | First party |
| Google Analytics | __utmc | Used in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user was in a new session/visit. | First party |
| Google Analytics | __utmz | Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached the site. The cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | First party |
| Google Analytics 4 | _ga | Used to distinguish users. | First party |
| Google Analytics 4 | _gid | Used to distinguish users. | First party |
| Google Analytics 4 | _ga_<container-id> | Used to persist session state. | First party |
| Google Analytics 4 | _gac_gb_<container-id> | Contains campaign-related information. If CIHI has linked its Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, Google Ads website conversion tags will read this cookie unless users opt out. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjSessionUser_xxxxxx | Is set when a user first lands on a page with the Hotjar script. It is used to persist the Hotjar User ID, unique to that site on the browser. This ensures that behaviour in subsequent visits to the same site will be attributed to the same user ID. | First party |
| Hotjar | _hjSession_xxxxxx | Holds the current session data. This ensures that subsequent requests within the session window will be attributed to the same Hotjar session. | First party |
| Microsoft Clarity | _clsk | Used by Microsoft Clarity to connect multiple page views by a user into a single Clarity session recording. | First party |
Functional cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be used by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. All information these cookies collect is anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly.
| Cookie provider | Cookie name | Function | First party or Third party |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | PREF | Used to store information such as a user’s preferred page configuration and playback preferences (e.g., auto play, shuffle content, player size). | Third party |
Marketing and targeting cookies
These cookies may be used through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant ads on other sites. They do not store directly personal information but are based on uniquely identifying your internet browser and device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
| Cookie provider | Cookie name | Function | First party or Third party |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | Used to measure bandwidth on pages with integrated YouTube videos and to determine whether a user is presented with the new or old player interface. | Third party |
| __cf_bm | Bot detection provided by Cloudflare. | Third party | |
| NID | This domain is owned by Google Inc. Although Google is primarily known as a search engine, the company provides a diverse range of products and services. Its main source of revenue, however, is advertising. Google tracks users extensively through both its own products and sites, and the numerous technologies embedded into many millions of websites around the world. It uses the data gathered from most of these services to profile the interests of web users and sell advertising space to organizations based on such interest profiles, as well as to align ads to the content on the pages where its customer’s ads appear. | Third party | |
| _rdt_uuid | This cookie is set by Reddit and is used to track the views of embedded videos and performance of the advertisements. | First party | |
| UserMatchHistory | LinkedIn Ads ID syncing. | Third party | |
| bcookie | Browser Identifier cookie to uniquely identify devices accessing LinkedIn to detect abuse on the platform. | Third party | |
| bscookie | Used to remember that a logged-in user has been verified by 2-factor authentication and has previously logged in. | Third party | |
| li_sugr | Used to make a probabilistic match of a user’s identity. | Third party | |
| AnalyticsSyncHistory | Used to store information about the time a sync took place with the lms_analytics cookie. | Third party | |
| YouTube | TESTCOOKIESENABLED | YouTube is a video-sharing platform owned by Google. It uses cookies for various purposes, including improving user experience, tracking user preferences and serving targeted advertisements. | Third party |
| _fbp | Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real-time bidding from third-party advertisers. | First party | |
| YouTube | VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA | YouTube is a video-sharing platform owned by Google. It uses cookies for various purposes, including improving user experience, tracking user preferences and serving targeted advertisements. | Third party |
| lidc | To facilitate data centre selection. | Third party | |
| Google Analytics 4 | _gat_UA-XXXXXX-X | Google analytics cookies. | First party |
| Google AdSense | _gcl_au | Used by Google AdSense to experiment with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services. | First party |
| fr | To provide ad delivery or retargeting. | Third party | |
| Microsoft Bing | _uetsid | This cookie is used by Bing to determine which ads should be shown that may be relevant to the end user perusing the site. | First party |
| bidr.io | bito | This cookie is generally provided by bidr.io and is used for advertising purposes. | Third party |
| doubleclick.net | IDE | Doubleclick is Google’s real-time bidding advertising exchange. This cookie is used for retargeting and conversion tracking. | Third party |
| Microsoft Bing | MSPTC | This cookie registers data on a user. The information is used to optimize advertisement relevance. | Third party |
| Microsoft Bing | MUID | This cookie is used to track a user’s visits across sites for advertising, site analytics and other operations. | Third party |
| doubleclick.net | test_cookie | Doubleclick is Google’s real-time bidding advertising exchange. These cookies are set by a third party (DoubleClick) and are used for serving targeted advertisements that are relevant to you across the web. Targeted advertisements may be displayed to you based on your previous visits to this website. | Third party |
| Microsoft Bing | _eutvid | This is a cookie utilized by Microsoft Bing Ads and is a tracking cookie. It allows us to engage with a user who has previously visited our website. | First party |
Third party Website cookies
When using our Website, you may be directed to other websites for such activities as surveys, job applications and viewing content hosted on those sites such as an embedded video or news article. These websites may use their own cookies. We do not have control over the placement of cookies by other websites you visit, even if you are directed to them from our Website.
How can I manage my cookies preferences?
You have many choices with regards to the management of cookies on your device. All major browsers allow you to block or delete cookies from your system.
Our websites offer a cookie banner where you can customize your cookie category preferences for a more tailored approach to cookie management.
By activating non-essential cookies using the cookie banner, you are consenting to the use of these cookies while on our websites. You can withdraw your consent at any time (except concerning strictly necessary cookies) in our Cookies Preference Centre, where you can change which cookies and tracking technologies you want to activate.
For cookies and similar technologies that are classified as strictly necessary, due to the essential nature of such technologies in our application, you will not be able to disable them in our Preference Centre. The banner and Preference Centre in each application domain have the objective of providing you with notice and transparency about our usage of strictly necessary cookies or similar technologies in order to provide the services requested.
Contact us
If you have questions, concerns or complaints regarding this Cookie Notice, please contact us:
Chief Privacy Officer
Canadian Institute for Health Information
495 Richmond Road, Suite 600
Ottawa, Ontario K2A 4H6
Phone: 613-694-6526
Email: privacy@cihi.ca
If you would like CIHI information in a different format, visit our Accessibility page.