This website uses its own cookies and third-party cookies to provide visitors with a much better browsing experience and services tailored to their needs and interests.
Cookies play an important role in facilitating the access and delivery of the many services the user enjoys on the Internet, such as:
- Customizing certain settings such as the language in which a site is viewed, the currency in which certain prices or tariffs are expressed, the storage of options for various products (measures, other details, etc.) in the shopping cart (and saving of these options) – the flexibility of the “shopping cart” (accessing old preferences by clicking the “forward” and “back” buttons).
- Cookies provide site owners with valuable feedback on how their sites are used by users so they can make them more efficient and accessible to users.
- Allow multimedia or other applications from other sites to be included in a particular site to create a more valuable, useful, and enjoyable browsing experience;
- Improve the efficiency of online advertising.
What is a “cookie”
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer, mobile terminal or other equipment a visitor uses to access the Internet.
The cookie is completely “passive” (does not contain software, viruses or spyware, and cannot access information on the user’s hard drive).
In itself, cookies do not require personal information to be used and, in most cases, do not personally identify Internet users.
Main categories of cookies
There are 2 large categories of cookies:
- Session cookies – they are temporarily stored in the web browser’s cookie folder to save them until the user exits the site or closes the browser window (e.g. when logging on / off on a web browser) mail account or social networking sites).
- Persistent cookies – they are stored on the hard drive of a computer or device (generally depends on the default cookie lifetime). Persistent cookies include those placed on a website other than the one the user is currently visiting – are known as ‘third party cookies’ – which can be used anonymously to store a user’s interests to deliver the most relevant advertising to users.
What are the benefits of cookies?
A cookie contains information that links a web browser (user) and a specific webserver (website). If a user accesses that site again, they can read the already stored information and react accordingly. Cookies provide users with a pleasant browsing experience and support the efforts of many websites to provide user-friendly services (such as online privacy preferences, site language options, shopping carts, or relevant advertising).
What is the lifetime of a cookie?
Cookies are managed by web servers. The life of a cookie may vary significantly, depending on the purpose for which it is placed. Some cookies are used only for one session (session cookies) and are no longer retained once the user has left the web site and some cookies are retained and reused each time the user returns to that website (” permanent cookies “). However, cookies can be deleted by a user at any time through browser settings.
What are cookies placed by third parties
Certain sections of content on some sites may be provided through third parties / suppliers (e.g., a video or an advertisement). These third parties may also place cookies through the site, and they are called “third party cookies” because they are not placed by the owner of that website. Third-party vendors must also comply with the applicable law and the site’s privacy policies.
How cookies are used by this site
A visit to this site may place cookies for purposes of:
- Site performance cookies;
- Visitor analysis cookies;
- Cookies for geotargeting;
- Recording cookies;
- Cookies for advertising;
- Advertiser cookies.
Performance cookies
This type of cookie retains the user’s preferences on this site, so they no longer need to be set at every site visit.
Examples:
- Volume settings for video player;
- Streaming video speed with which your browser is compatible.
Cookies for Visitor Analysis
Every time a user visits this site, third-party analytics software generates a user’s analysis cookie. This cookie tells us if you’ve visited this site before. The browser will tell us if you have this cookie, and if not, we will generate one. It allows the monitoring of the unique users who visit us and how often they do it. As long as you are not registered on this site, this cookie cannot be used to identify individuals; they are only used for statistical purposes. If you are registered, we may also know the details you have provided us, such as your email address and username – subject to the confidentiality and provisions of the Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, and the provisions of the law in force with regard to the protection of personal data.
Cookies for geotargeting
These cookies are used by software that determines where you come from. It is completely anonymous and is used only to target the content – even when you are on our page in Romanian or another language, you receive the same advertisement.
Cookies for registration
When you register on this site, we generate a cookie that tells us if you are registered or not. Our servers use these cookies to show us the account with which you are registered and if you have permission for a particular service. It also allows us to associate any comment you posted on our website with your username. If you did not select “Keep me”, this cookie will be deleted automatically when you close the browser or computer.
Cookies for advertising
These cookies let us know whether or not you have viewed an online ad, what type of ad, and how long it has been since you saw the ad message. These cookies are also used to target online advertising. We also use cookies belonging to a third party for better targeting of advertising (for example to show ads about vacations, if the user visited the site recently an article about holidays). These cookies are anonymous; they store information about the viewed content, not about the users. We also set anonymous cookies through other sites that we advertise. By allowing these, we can use them to recognize you as a visitor to that site. If you later visit our site, we will be able to deliver your advertising based on this information.
Advertiser cookies
Much of the advertising you find on this site belongs to third parties. Some of these parties use their own anonymous cookies to analyze how many people have been exposed to an ad or to see how many people have been exposed multiple times to the same ad. The companies that generate these cookies have their own privacy policies and this site does not have access to read or write these cookies. Third-party cookies can be used to show your target advertising on other sites, based on your browsing on this site.
Other cookies from third parties
On some pages, third parties can set their own anonymous cookies to track the success of an application or customize an application. Due to the use of this site, this site cannot access these cookies, just as third parties cannot access the cookies owned by this site. For example, when you share an article using the social network button on this site, that social network will record your activity.
Why are Internet cookies important?
Cookies are the central focus of the Internet’s efficient operation, helping to generate a friendly browsing experience and tailored to the preferences and interests of each user. Denying or disabling cookies can make some sites impossible to use. Denying or disabling cookies does not mean you will not receive online advertising – but only that it will no longer be able to take into account your preferences and interests highlighted by the navigation behavior in which the most likely the advertising you receive will be less relevant to you.
Examples of important uses of cookies (which do not require authentication of a user through an account):
- Content and services tailored to the user preferences – news, weather, sports, maps, public and governmental services, entertainment sites and travel services.
- Offers tailored to users’ interests – password retention, language preferences (e.g. display of Romanian search results).
- Retaining Child Protection Filters for Content on the Internet (family mode options, safe search functions).
- Limit ad serving frequency – limit the number of impressions of an ad for a particular user on a site.
- Providing more relevant advertising to the user.
- Measurement, optimization, and analytics features – such as confirming a certain level of traffic on a website, what type of content is viewed, and how a user reaches a website (e.g., search engines, directly from other websites etc.). Websites run these analyzes of their use to improve sites for the benefit of users.
Security and confidentiality issues
Cookies are NOT Viruses! They use plain text formats. They are not made of pieces of code so they cannot be executed or can run themselves. Consequently, they cannot duplicate or replicate on other networks to run again. Because they cannot perform these functions, they cannot be considered viruses. Cookies can still be used for negative purposes. Because it stores information about users’ preferences and browsing history, both on a particular site and on several other sites, cookies can be used as a form of Spyware. Many anti-spyware products are aware of this and consistently mark cookies to be deleted in antivirus / anti-spyware removal / scanning procedures.
In general, browsers have built-in privacy settings that provide different cookie acceptance levels: auto-expiration and auto-delete after the user has visited a specific site. Since identity protection is very valuable and is the right of every Internet user, it is advisable to know what issues can be created by cookies. Because they transmit constantly, in both directions, information between the browser and the website, if an attacker or an unauthorized person interferes with the data transmission, the information contained in the cookie can be intercepted. Although very rare, this can happen if the browser connects to the server using an unencrypted network (e.g. an unsecured Wi-Fi network).
Other cookie-based attacks involve bad cookie settings on servers. If a website does not require the browser to use only encrypted channels, attackers can use this vulnerability to mislead browsers to send information via unsecured channels. Attackers then use the information for purposes of unauthorized access to certain sites. It is very important to be careful in choosing the most appropriate method of protecting personal information.
Tips for safe and responsible cookie-based navigation
Due to their flexibility and the fact that most of the most visited sites and the largest ones use cookies, they are almost inevitable. Disabling cookies will not allow the user to access the most popular and used sites, including YouTube, Gmail, Yahoo, and others.
Here are some tips to make sure you’re browsing without worries using cookies:
- Customize your browser settings about cookies to reflect a comfortable level of cookie security for you.
- If you do not mind cookies and are the only person using your computer, you can set long expiration dates to store your browsing history and personal data.
- If you share access to your computer, you can consider setting your browser to delete individual browsing data each time you close your browser. This is a way of accessing sites that place cookies and deleting any visitor information at the end of the browsing session.
- Install and constantly update your antispyware applications.
Many of the applications for detecting and preventing spyware include detecting attacks on sites.
This prevents the browser from accessing websites that could exploit browser vulnerabilities or download dangerous software. Make sure your browser is always up to date. Many of the cookie’s attacks are exploited by exploiting the weaknesses of the old versions of browsers.
Cookies are everywhere and cannot be avoided if you want to enjoy access to the best and greatest websites on the Internet – local or international. With a clear understanding of how they work and the benefits they bring, you can take the necessary security measures so you can surf the Internet with confidence.
How can I stop cookies?
Disabling and refusing to receive cookies can make some sites unfeasible or difficult to visit and use. Also, refusing to accept cookies does not mean you will not receive / see online advertising anymore.
You can set the browser as to block cookies, or you can set the browser to accept cookies from a particular site. For example, if you are not registered using cookies, you will not be able to leave comments.
All modern browsers offer the ability to change cookie settings. These settings are usually found in your browser’s “options” or “favorites” menu.
To understand these settings, the following links may be useful, otherwise, you can use the browser’s “help” option for more details.