What PubExa stores on your device

When the PubExa plugin is active on a site you visit, it creates and stores one first-party identifier, pubexa_vid:

• It is stored both as a cookie (valid for up to 1 year) and in your browser’s local storage.
• It is a random value generated in your browser. It contains no name, email, or other directly identifying information.
• It is first-party to the website you are visiting — it is not a cross-site tracking cookie, and we do not use it to build a profile of you across unrelated websites.
• Its purpose is to recognise the same browser across page views and visits, so we can measure ad performance correctly and detect invalid or fraudulent traffic (for example, the same browser generating artificial clicks).

If the website also enables the PubExa cookie banner, you may also see a small pubexa_cookie_ok cookie that simply remembers you dismissed the banner.

What PubExa receives and stores on its server

When an ad is requested, shown, clicked, or dismissed, the plugin sends the following to the PubExa ad server, where it is stored:

• The pubexa_vid identifier described above.
• Your IP address — but we do not store your raw IP address. At the moment we receive it, we convert it into a salted one-way hash and store only that hash. The hash lets us recognise repeat activity from the same network for fraud prevention without retaining your actual IP address.
• Your browser’s user-agent string (browser and device type).
• The page URL the ad appeared on (and referrer), the site’s identifier, and the identifiers of the specific ad and ad request.
• Approximate country, derived from your network, for ad relevance.

Why do we use these

• Serving ads and basic functionality.
• Measurement — counting impressions and clicks accurately.
• Fraud and invalid-traffic prevention — detecting artificial or duplicated activity, which protects advertisers and publishers.

How long do we keep it

• The pubexa_vid cookie lasts up to 1 year; the local-storage value remains until you clear it.
• The fraud-prevention signals described above (hashed IP, user-agent, identifier, page URL, event records) are retained for up to 90 days and then automatically deleted.

Your choices

• You can clear or block the pubexa_vid cookie and local-storage value at any time through your browser settings, and you can use your browser’s privacy and cookie controls.
• Where the website operator uses a consent tool, your choices there apply.
• Because PubExa stores an identifier and processes the data above, this is not “essential-only” technology — you can decline it, and the website operator is responsible for collecting consent where the law requires it.

Who is responsible

PubExa provides the advertising technology and this notice. The website operator (the publisher) decides whether to run PubExa on their site and is responsible for obtaining any consent their visitors are legally owed; PubExa offers an optional built-in consent banner they may use.

Contact

Questions about this notice: please use our support page.