Cookie Policy
Latest update: March 2024
Access the previous version of our Cookie Policy.
Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (“CPA Canada”) is a not-for-profit national accounting organization whose mission is to enhance the influence, relevance and value of the accounting profession by acting in the public interest, supporting the Chartered Professional Accountants (“CPAs”) who are members of CPA Canada (our “Members”), and contributing to economic and social development.
This Cookie Policy contains information on how we use cookies and similar technologies on our websites (“Sites”). It should be read in conjunction with our Privacy Policy.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a very small text document stored on your computer or other device (and maintained by your browser) when you visit a website. It often includes a randomized unique identifier so that a website can “recognize” this cookie again on your next visit. Cookies ensure that websites can properly function, improve browsing and the user experience, and/or provide certain information to the owners of these websites, particularly in terms of audience measurement.
What is interested-based advertising and do we conduct any?
Interest-based advertising (also known as targeted or behavioral advertising) means that your preferences and interests are collected through cookies or otherwise, and then used to serve you advertising and marketing materials that are relevant to you (based on those preferences and interests).
Without interest-based advertising, you would still be getting ads when browsing the Internet. However, these ads would not be personalized based on your preferences and interests and so, they would be less relevant to you and less effective for us.
We perform interest-based advertising. For instance, we use Google Ads and Google’s DoubleClick to provide you with ads based on your browsing history and search requests. We also use YouTube to provide you with personalized ads based on your viewing content. Learn how to manage your ad settings when using YouTube.
Do we use cookies and for what purposes?
We install our own cookies and third party cookies on your browser or device through our websites. Some of these cookies are uninstalled automatically at the end of your browsing session. Others are persistent which means that they remain installed for up to 24 months unless you uninstall them. Learn how to manage your preferences regarding our use of cookies.
We use cookies for our websites to function as intended, to conduct marketing, to analyze our performance and to ensure that our websites are secure. Cookies are also useful to identify bugs and errors.
We collect cookies in each of the following categories:
Essential Cookies: Essential cookies are necessary to operate the core functions of our websites. These include login cookies, session ID cookies, language cookies as well as security cookies.
Functional Cookies: Functional cookies are used to provide you with certain website functionality, and to remember website preferences, consents and configurations. For example, we use Contentsquare to save user consents and other preferences.
Analytical Cookies: Analytical cookies are used to generate aggregated statistical data about traffic and behavior of our websites’ users. For instance, we use Google Analytics and Contentsquare to determine how visitors use our websites, such as with the number of visitors, from where our visitors come from on the web, the pages they visited and how much time was spent on our websites. We only see this data in an aggregated and traffic-based format and we cannot see each visitor’s data individually.
Marketing Cookies: We use marketing cookies to serve you ads and marketing materials that better align your interests. We also use analytic cookies to understand our marketing cookies and limit the number of times you see an ad, measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and adjust content.
The cookies we use may be deposited either directly by our Sites and therefore managed by CPA Canada (first-party cookies); or by partners and service providers, which are therefore managed by third parties (third-party cookies).
Learn more about the sorts of cookies we use at the end of this policy.
How can I manage my cookie preferences?
From time to time, when you arrive at one of our Sites, you will be given the opportunity to allow all cookies, to accept only some cookies or to reject all cookies (via a cookie banner). The latter option may result in certain personalized services not being provided and you may not be able to take full advantage of all the features offered by our Sites.
Quebec users have all nonessential cookies disabled by default.
You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser, such as by uninstalling and blocking certain cookies. Click on your browser below to obtain instructions.
You can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, which prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms.
To know more about why you are seeing an ad, how to control and/or opt-out of marketing cookies and tracking technologies for interest-based advertising, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada website for more information on the AdChoices Tools. You can also consult Google Ads.
Some of the cookies that we use are essential or recommended for the use of the Services and you may not be able to access and use all the Services without these cookies.
Where do we store your personal data? How do we safeguard your personal data?
Please review our Privacy Policy for information about how we store and safeguard personal data.
How to contact us?
If you want to exercise your rights, or if you have a question or complaint about how we collect, use or disclose your personal data, you can communicate with us by email at [email protected] or by writing to us at:
Attention: Senior Privacy Compliance Officer
CPA Canada
277 Wellington Street
Toronto, Ontario M5V 3H2
TO LEARN MORE …
Below is an indicative list of the cookies used on our Sites, how long they are retained and the service provider involved, where relevant.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
| Cookies | Cookie purpose | Host | Lifespan |
| 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 users browser, when consent is not given. The cookie has a normal lifespan of one year, so that returning visitors to the site will have their preferences remembered. It contains no information that can identify the site visitor. | www.cpacanada.ca | 364 days |
| cf_ob_info | This cookie is associated with sites using CloudFlare. It is used to improve page load times and to override any security restrictions based on the visitors IP address. It does not contain any user identification information. | www.cpacanada.ca | A few seconds |
| ARRAffinity | This cookie is set by websites run on the Windows Azure cloud platform. It is used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session. | www.cpacanada.ca | Session |
| 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 one year lifespan and contains no personal information. | www.cpacanada.ca | 364 days |
| cf_use_ob | This cookie is associated with sites using CloudFlare. It is used to improve page load times and to override any security restrictions based on the visitors IP address. It does not contain any user identification information. | www.cpacanada.ca | A few seconds |
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 to 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.
| Cookies | Cookie purpose | Host | Lifespan |
| _ga | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the site's analytics reports. By default, it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customizable by website owners. | cpacanada.ca | 729 days |
| _cs_nnnnnnnnnnnnn | This is a session cookie. This is a pattern type cookie where a random 13-digit number is appended to the prefix _cs_. | www.cpacanada.ca | Session |
| MR | This is a Microsoft MSN 1st party cookie which we use to measure the use of the website for internal analytics. | c.clarity.ms | 6 days |
| _clsk | Used by Microsoft Clarity to connect multiple page views by a user into a single Clarity session recording. | cpacanada.ca | A few seconds |
| _gclxxxx | Google conversion tracking cookie | cpacanada.ca | 89 days |
| _uetvid | This is a cookie utilized by Microsoft Bing Ads and is a tracking cookie. It allows us to engage with a user that has previously visited our website. | cpacanada.ca | 389 days |
| _ga_xxxxxxxxxx | cpacanada.ca | 729 days |
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set 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 adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
| Cookies | Cookie purpose | Host | Lifespan |
| _fbp | Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real-time bidding from third-party advertisers | cpacanada.ca | 89 days |
| GoogleAdServingTest | This cookie is used to determine what ads have been shown to the website visitor. | www.cpacanada.ca | Session |
| __gpi | Display of personalized advertisements in the Google advertising network based on your pseudonymized surfing behavior collected via Google. Measuring and optimizing the success of our Google Ads advertising campaigns. | cpacanada.ca | 389 days |
| _uetsid | This cookie is used by Bing to determine what ads should be shown that may be relevant to the end user perusing the site. | cpacanada.ca | A few seconds |
| __gads | This cookie is associated with the DoubleClick for Publishers service from Google. Its purpose is to show adverts on the site, for which the owner may earn some revenue. | cpacanada.ca | 389 days |
| personalization_id | This domain is owned by Twitter. The main business activity is social networking services. Where Twitter acts as a third-party host, it collects data through a range of plug-ins and integrations, primarily used for tracking and targeting. | twitter.com | 729 days |
| MSPTC | This domain is owned by Microsoft - it is the site for the search engine Bing. | bing.com | 389 days |
| MUID | This domain is owned by Microsoft - it is the site for the search engine Bing. | bing.com | 389 days |
| li_gc | This domain is owned by LinkedIn, the business networking platform. It typically acts as a third-party host where website owners have placed one of its content sharing buttons on their pages, although its content and services can be embedded in other ways. Although such buttons add functionality to the website they are on, cookies are set regardless of whether the visitor has an active LinkedIn profile or agreed to their terms and conditions. For this reason, it is classified as a primarily tracking/targeting domain. | linkedin.com | 726 days |
| AnalyticsSyncHistory | This domain is owned by LinkedIn, the business networking platform. It typically acts as a third-party host where website owners have placed one of its content sharing buttons on their pages, although its content and services can be embedded in other ways. Although such buttons add functionality to the website they are on, cookies are set regardless of whether the visitor has an active LinkedIn profile or agreed to their terms and conditions. For this reason, it is classified as a primarily tracking/targeting domain. | linkedin.com | 29 days |
| lidc | This domain is owned by LinkedIn, the business networking platform. It typically acts as a third-party host where website owners have placed one of its content sharing buttons on their pages, although its content and services can be embedded in other ways. Although such buttons add functionality to the website they are on, cookies are set regardless of whether the visitor has an active LinkedIn profile or agreed to their terms and conditions. For this reason, it is classified as a primarily tracking/targeting domain. | linkedin.com | A few seconds |
| UserMatchHistory | This domain is owned by LinkedIn, the business networking platform. It typically acts as a third-party host where website owners have placed one of its content sharing buttons on their pages, although its content and services can be embedded in other ways. Although such buttons add functionality to the website they are on, cookies are set regardless of whether the visitor has an active LinkedIn profile or agreed to their terms and conditions. For this reason, it is classified as a primarily tracking/targeting domain. | linkedin.com | 29 days |
| li_sugr | This domain is owned by LinkedIn, the business networking platform. It typically acts as a third-party host where website owners have placed one of its content sharing buttons on their pages, although its content and services can be embedded in other ways. Although such buttons add functionality to the website they are on, cookies are set regardless of whether the visitor has an active LinkedIn profile or agreed to their terms and conditions. For this reason, it is classified as a primarily tracking/targeting domain. | linkedin.com | 89 days |
| bcookie | This domain is owned by LinkedIn, the business networking platform. It typically acts as a third-party host where website owners have placed one of its content sharing buttons on their pages, although its content and services can be embedded in other ways. Although such buttons add functionality to the website they are on, cookies are set regardless of whether the visitor has an active LinkedIn profile or agreed to their terms and conditions. For this reason, it is classified as a primarily tracking/targeting domain. | linkedin.com | 730 days |
| This domain is owned by Facebook, which is the world's largest social networking service. As a third-party host provider, it mostly collects data on the interests of users via widgets such as the 'Like' button found on many websites. This is used to serve targeted advertising to its users when logged into its services. In 2014, it also started serving up behaviorally targeted advertising on other websites, similar to most dedicated online marketing companies. | www.facebook.com | Session | |
| SRM_B | This domain is owned by Microsoft - it is the site for the search engine Bing. | c.bing.com | 389 days |
| MR | This domain is owned by Microsoft - it is the site for the search engine Bing. | c.bing.com | 6 days |
| bscookie | This domain is owned by LinkedIn, the business networking platform. It typically acts as a third-party host where website owners have placed one of its content sharing buttons on their pages, although its content and services can be embedded in other ways. Although such buttons add functionality to the website they are on, cookies are set regardless of whether the visitor has an active LinkedIn profile or agreed to their terms and conditions. For this reason, it is classified as a primarily tracking/targeting domain. | www.linkedin.com | 730 days |
| test_cookie | This domain is owned by Doubleclick (Google). The main business activity is: Doubleclick is Google's real-time bidding advertising exchange. | doubleclick.net | A few seconds |
| IDE | This domain is owned by Doubleclick (Google). The main business activity is: Doubleclick is Google's real-time bidding advertising exchange. | doubleclick.net | 389 days |
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | This cookie is used as a unique identifier to track viewing of videos. | youtube.com | 179 days |
| VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA | YouTube is a Google-owned platform for hosting and sharing videos. YouTube collects user data through videos embedded in websites, which is aggregated with profile data from other Google services in order to display targeted advertising to web visitors across a broad range of their own and other websites. | youtube.com | 179 days |
| CONSENT | YouTube is a Google-owned platform for hosting and sharing videos. YouTube collects user data through videos embedded in websites, which is aggregated with profile data from other Google services in order to display targeted advertising to web visitors across a broad range of their own and other websites. | youtube.com | 729 days |
| YSC | YouTube is a Google-owned platform for hosting and sharing videos. YouTube collects user data through videos embedded in websites, which is aggregated with profile data from other Google services in order to display targeted advertising to web visitors across a broad range of their own and other websites. | youtube.com | Session |