Cookie Policy
Last updated: August 13, 2026
1. What this policy covers
This Cookie Policy explains how Last Best Digital LLC d/b/a CriterionIQ ("CiQ," "we") uses cookies and similar technologies on criterioniq.com and the CiQ dashboard, our own website and product, for our own visitors, leads, and account holders. It does not cover the CiQ Loader, Tier 3 Pulse, or CiQ Identity Spine as deployed on a Client's website to measure that Client's own visitors, see Section 5 below.
2. What are cookies
Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. We also use similar technologies (local storage, pixels, and tracking scripts) that work in comparable ways. This policy uses "cookies" to mean all of these.
3. Categories of cookies we use
Strictly necessary. Required for the site and dashboard to function: session and authentication cookies (via Clerk) that keep you logged in, load-balancing and security cookies (via Cloudflare), and cookies that remember basic preferences. These can't be turned off without breaking the product.
Advertising & marketing. CriterionIQ runs its own Conversion API Gateway / Loader on criterioniq.com itself, the same product we sell, to build retargeting audiences on connected advertising platforms, whether or not an active campaign is currently spending. This includes first-party cookies and click identifiers (e.g., _fbp/_fbc, _ttp, _gcl_au) used for match quality, and hashed conversion/identity signals relayed server-side to each connected platform, currently including Meta, Google, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
4. Cookie table
| Cookie / technology | Provider | Category | Purpose | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clerk session cookie | Clerk, Inc. | Strictly necessary | Keeps you logged into the CiQ dashboard | Session, refreshed while logged in |
__cf_bm | Cloudflare, Inc. | Strictly necessary | Bot management and security at the edge | 30 minutes |
cf_clearance | Cloudflare, Inc. | Strictly necessary | Confirms a visitor has passed Cloudflare's security check | Up to 30 days |
_fbp / _fbc | Meta (set via CiQ's first-party Loader) | Advertising | Browser/click identifiers used for Meta match quality and retargeting audience building | ~90 days |
_ttp | TikTok (set via CiQ's first-party Loader) | Advertising | Browser identifier used for TikTok match quality and retargeting | ~13 months |
_gcl_au | Google (set via CiQ's first-party Loader) | Advertising | Conversion linkage identifier used for Google Ads retargeting | ~90 days |
li_fat_id | LinkedIn (set via CiQ's first-party Loader) | Advertising | Match-quality identifier for LinkedIn retargeting | ~30 days |
bcookie | LinkedIn (set via CiQ's first-party Loader) | Advertising | Browser identifier for LinkedIn retargeting | ~2 years |
5. Cookies on Client websites (the CiQ Loader / Tier 3 / Spine)
This is a different thing from the cookies described above. When a Client deploys CriterionIQ's Loader and CiQ Identity Spine on their own website, cookies like _ciqid and the Shopify durability bridge (_shopify_y) are set on the Client's domain, for the Client's own visitors, under the Client's own consent configuration (Consent Mode v2, GPC enforcement), not under this policy. CiQ processes that data as the Client's processor under the Client's Data Processing Agreement. Each Client is responsible for disclosing those cookies in their own privacy and cookie policy, this is spelled out in the DPA (Section 2.1 and the "what the click does and does not do" note).
6. Model cookie disclosure for your Clients (copy-paste ready)
Below is a short block a Client can drop into their own cookie/privacy policy to disclose what the CiQ Loader sets on their site. It's written from the Client's perspective (first person as "we," meaning the Client).
Analytics and advertising cookies delivered via CriterionIQ. We use CriterionIQ's measurement and tag-delivery platform to understand how visitors use our site and to power our advertising. Through this platform, the following cookies and identifiers may be set on your device:
_ciqid: a durable, first-party identifier CriterionIQ uses to recognize your browser across visits to our site and to measure ad campaign performance on our behalf.device_anonand related identifiers, used for cross-device and household-level measurement, so we can understand when the same customer engages with us from more than one device.- Advertising click identifiers (such as
fbclid,ttclid,gclid, or equivalents) and platform match-quality cookies (such as_fbp,_ttp,_gcl_au), used to measure and improve the performance of our ads on the platforms we advertise on.- Where applicable, a Shopify-specific durability cookie (
_shopify_y) linking your CriterionIQ identifier to your Shopify customer record.Before any personal identifier (such as your email address or phone number) is sent to an advertising platform, it is irreversibly hashed. We, not CriterionIQ, determine which advertising platforms receive this data and honor your cookie/consent choices and Global Privacy Control signals through CriterionIQ's consent enforcement tools. For more detail on how CriterionIQ processes this data on our behalf, see our Data Processing Agreement with CriterionIQ.
7. Managing cookies
You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will prevent the dashboard from working.
8. Changes to this policy
We may update this Cookie Policy as our tools and integrations change. Material changes will be communicated the same way as material changes to our Data Processing Agreement (see DPA Section 15.4).
9. Contact
Questions about this policy: [email protected].