Bazaarvoice cookies
This article describes the cookies operated by Bazaarvoice in relation to the services we provide on our clients’ websites. Please contact Bazaarvoice Support 
if you have additional questions about Bazaarvoice cookies.
Cookie terminology
The following describes the cookies used by Bazaarvoice:
- First-party cookies—These cookies are set by the domain name that appears in the browser address bar. Users will see these cookies displayed as “*.clientdomain.com” or “.clientdomain.com”. We may set and read data from those cookies and act as a proxy.
- Third-party cookies—A third-party cookie is set by a website from a domain other than the one a user is visiting.
Note: Bazaarvoice no longer uses third-party cookies.
- Session cookies—Session cookies help with navigation and usability on websites. They only record information during one visit to a website and then are erased. Session cookies are enabled by default in order to provide the best user experience possible. These cookies expire when the browser is closed. Session cookies may be used as first-party cookies.
- Persistent cookies—These remain in operation, even when you have closed the browser. We use persistent cookies for analytics, compliance, and authenticity functions. They stay on a user’s computer and record information every time they visit your page. They are stored on the hard drive of the user’s computer until the user manually deletes them from a browser folder or until they expire, which can be months or years after they were placed on the computer. Persistent cookies may be used as first-party cookies.
Partners and third-party cookies
Bazaarvoice partners with third party companies to provide select services such as fraud detection and analytics. These partners may use third-party cookies to operate their services. All of these are dependent upon the services implemented on the client site. These include the following:
- Iovation - Fraud detection
- Inauth - Fraud detection
- Magento (opt)
- Demandware (opt)
- Marketo (opt)
- Google Analytics
- Salesforce DMP (KRUX)
- Crosswise
- Mixpanel
- Mousestats
Cookies by function
Bazaarvoice cookies can be best explained by function. Cookies are used for operational, performance, or tracking purposes.
Refer to the cookie consent topic for information on how to set up cookies.
Operational cookies
Operational cookies are cookies that are strictly necessary for the operation of the services that Bazaarvoice provides. They make it possible for you to browse and use our website. If a user disables these cookies in their browser, the website will not function correctly. They are used for maintaining the user’s state, reloading content on refresh, managing display segments, A/B testing, and other usability features.
Depending on the client’s implementation, one or more of the following operational cookies may be leveraged to operate Bazaarvoice services. All cookies listed below were created by Bazaarvoice to support the services we provide.
| Ratings & Reviews domain | Name | Configurable by client | Duration | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <clientdomain>.com |
bv_segment BVImpl<site> |
No | 2 hours | Used for client-driven A/B tests. <site> is the ID of the current configuration used, most often main_site. |
|
display.ugc.bazaarvoice.com |
bvf_<id> | No | Session | Identifies items for which a user has submitted feedback, such as Helpfulness vote. <id> is the ID of the user-generated content (UGC) that the user left feedback on. |
|
clientdomain.com |
_gd<time stamp> | No | Expires instantly | Used to find out the most common domain. Its value is empty and remains unread. |
The following operational cookies are only set if the client is implemented on the legacy Ratings & Reviews platform (PRR) and can be disregarded otherwise:
| Ratings & Reviews legacy (PRR) domain | Name | Configurable by client | Duration | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <clientdomain>.com |
bv_segment BVImpl<site> |
No | 2 hours | Used for client-driven A/B tests. <site> is the ID of the current configuration used, most often main_site. |
| <clientdomain>.com | bvf_<id> | No | Session | Identifies items for which a user has submitted feedback, such as Helpfulness vote. <id> is the ID of the user-generated content (UGC) that the user left feedback on. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | social-answering | Yes | 1 year (default) | Identifies the last time a user was offered to become a social answerer. Used to avoid repeatedly asking a user when they have recently declined. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | ai | Yes | 1 year (default) | Anonymous ID—Identifies anonymous users when they submit subsequent feedback or content. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | rm | Yes | 1 year (default) | Remember Me—Set by consumers to remember their credentials. Configurable on hosted authentication sites only. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com |
prr-sip qa-sip sy-sip cp-sip |
No | Session | Submission in process for reviews, Q&A, and profile. Used to reload submitted content if a user refreshes. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com |
These are feedback cookies: pfv_<id> rfv_<id>, rhf_<id>, rif_<id> qfv_<id>, qhf_<id>, qif_<id> afv_<id>, ahf_<id>, aif_<id>, abaf_<id> sfv_<id> shf_<id>, sif_<id>, srf_<id> cfv_<id>, chf_<id>, cif_<id> |
No | Session | Enabled when Feedback is configured. Indicates that the user has left feedback of the specified type on the specified content. This helps the UI visually indicate to the user that they can't submit more feedback on that content. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | r-commented-<id> | No | Session | Enabled when Comments are configured. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | s-commented-<id> | No | Session | Indicates that the user has previously submitted a comment on the specified content. This helps the UI visually indicate to the user that they can't submit another comment. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | goto | No | Session | Specifies a target for returning to the main page when the submission iFrame loses focus. Applies to older iFrame integrations only. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | bvReturnPosition | Yes | Session |
Maintains the page scroll position after a submission. If disabled, the scroll position after submitting content would be undefined and the page might appear to jump around randomly. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | bvOpenedQ<code> | Yes | Session |
Enabled when Questions & Answers (Q&A) are configured. Many Q&A pages display questions as a clickable list. You have to select a question to display its answers. This cookie records which questions have their answers displayed. If disabled, questions would appear to close their answer display for no apparent reason. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | bvProfileActiveTab_<id> | Yes | Session | Remembers which tab on a tabbed profile page was opened. If disabled, profile page tab selection might change in unexpected ways. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com |
bvScrollPositionX bvScrollPostitionY |
Yes | Session |
Remembers the scroll position of the page. Usually used after selecting page tabs. If disabled, the scroll position may become undefined and the page might appear to jump around randomly. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com |
bvScrollToElementID bvScrollToElementOffset |
Yes | Session |
Remembers which element (e.g. If disabled, page focus may appear to shift unpredictably. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | displayTypePreferred<code> | Yes | Session |
Placed if the client is configured with a separate mobile display site and a link to the site. The Bazaarvoice client-side code detects if the requesting page is coming from a mobile agent (for example, iPhone, Android) and checks this cookie. If the cookie contains the value "mobile", then the Bazaarvoice content is redirected to the mobile site. If disabled, redirection to the mobile site would not occur. |
| <clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com | bv-env | Yes | Session | Used for CAT (Client Acceptance Testing) environment so that changes that have not gone live yet can be demoed. |
Performance cookies
While not strictly necessary for the operation of the services, performance cookies are used to help improve the user experience, optimize services, and collect diagnostic information. If you disable these cookies, we will not be able to learn how you utilize our services, and our ability to improve the content and operation of our services will be impaired.
| Domain | Name | Configurable by client | Duration | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .<clientdomain>.com | bv_metrics | No | 2 hours | Performance diagnostic events for less than 1/1000th of users. |
|
<clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com .<clientdomain>.com |
BVBRANDID | Yes | 1 year | Allows internal Bazaarvoice web analytics to be correlated to the same user for interactions within a particular client domain. |
|
<clientdomain>.ugc.bazaarvoice.com .<clientdomain>.bazaarvoice.com |
BVBRANDSID | Yes | Session | Allows internal Bazaarvoice web analytics to be correlated to the same user browsing session for interactions within a particular client domain. |
Tracking cookies
Tracking cookies are distributed, shared, and read across two or more unrelated websites to gather information or to present customized data about users. Tracking cookies:
- Give us visibility into user activity across our Bazaarvoice Network
- Helps us to build a customer profile
- Provides a personalized experience
Because of the privacy impact of using tracking cookies, these cookies can only be implemented with a client’s approval. The use of tracking cookies allows our clients to benefit from ROI reporting that shows the value of Bazaarvoice services and gives greater insights into customer activity.
The list below details the primary cookies that power the Bazaarvoice Network analytics. These cookies are used across all client sites that have integrated with our display services.
| Domain | Name | Configurable by client | Duration | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
<clientdomain>.com |
NoCookie | No | 20 years | Set when a user opts out of tracking or indicates that they are under the age of 13 (COPPA requirement). If NoCookie=true on either the client site or Bazaarvoice site, then existing tracking cookies are unset. This value is honored as long as the cookie exists. |
|
<clientdomain>.com |
NoCookieEU | No | 20 years | Set only in the US to indicate whether or not the user is also opted out in the EU. When a user in the US opts out of tracking or indicates that they are under the age of 13 (COPPA requirement), we automatically opt them out in the EU as well. This value is honored as long as the cookie exists. |
|
.network.bazaarvoice.com .network-eu.bazaarvoice.com |
coppa_ | No | Forever | Stores contributor's ID whose age is under 13. |
Bazaarvoice allows individual users to opt out of tracking cookies and data collection. Please refer to the Bazaarvoice Privacy Policy , which explains this process in detail.
