Cookie definition
A cookie is an information file that the HOSTINO websites server sends to the device (computer, smartphone, tablet, etc.) of whoever accesses the pages, to store and retrieve information about the browsing carried out from that device.
There are many guides explaining what cookies are and what they are used for. For our part, we will explain how these cookies affect HOSTINO web pages, but if more documentation is needed on the subject, you can consult the documentation published by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Scope of this policy
This cookie policy is applicable to hostino.ae, the other Hostino domains and subdomains, which are the following:
Types of cookies
There are different types of cookies and they can be classified according to the following criteria: (i) according to the entity that manages them, (ii) according to their purpose, and (iii) according to how long they remain active.
According to the entity that manages them, cookies can be first-party, in which case they are cookies stored on the user's device by Hostino, or third-party, stored from a domain or web page external to Hostino, for example, Google, Cloudflare, etc., which processes your personal data in accordance with their cookie policy and privacy policy.
According to their purpose, they can be:
- Strictly necessary or technical cookies: these are necessary for user navigation (for example, enabling functions and services, controlling traffic, etc.).
- Analytical cookies: these allow the tracking and analysis of user behaviour on the website to measure site activity.
- Preference and personalisation cookies: these allow information to be remembered so that the user can have a personalised experience.
According to the time period that cookies remain active, they can be session cookies, which collect and store data only during the user session, or persistent cookies, in which case the data remains stored on the device and can be accessed and processed during a period defined by the cookie controller.
Use of cookies
Hostino, LLC, a company registered in the State of Delaware, USA (hereinafter, Hostino), uses various types of cookies, which are detailed below, for functional and statistical purposes, to detect fraudulent activities, and to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and services.
Technical or necessary cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be disabled in our systems.
Consent cookies (Hostino)
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
cc_cookie | Hostino | Stores the user's cookie consent preferences. Allows remembering the user's decisions about which cookie categories they accept or reject. | 12 months |
cc_necessary | Hostino | Indicates that the user has accepted strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are essential for the website to function. | 12 months |
cc_functionality | Hostino | Stores the user's consent for functionality cookies that enable enhanced features and personalisation. | 12 months |
cc_analytics | Hostino | Stores the user's consent for analytical cookies that allow the tracking and analysis of user behaviour. | 12 months |
cookieConsent | Hostino | Local storage entry that records the user's analytics consent status and timestamp. Used to persist the consent decision across sessions and to conditionally load tracking scripts (e.g., Google Tag Manager). | Persistent (localStorage) |
Shopping cart cookies
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
hostino_country | Hostino | Stores the user's country code to personalise content, prices, and regional settings of the shopping cart. It is set when the user accesses with the ?c= parameter in the URL or is selected manually. | 12 months |
hostino_currency | Hostino | Stores the user's preferred currency to display prices in the selected currency in the shopping cart and during the checkout process. Allows maintaining the currency preference between sessions. | 12 months |
hostino_language | Hostino | Stores the user's language preference (fr, en, es, nl, ar) to display the shopping cart interface in the selected language. Allows maintaining the language preference between sessions. | 12 months |
WHMCS | WHMCS | Session cookie set by the WHMCS system to maintain the user's session during the purchase process. Contains the session identifier necessary to manage the shopping cart, authentication, and order processing. | Session |
Security cookies (Cloudflare)
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
SESSION | Cloudflare | Sets a unique identifier for the user's session. Allows the website to obtain data for functional and statistical purposes through Cloudflare KV. | Session |
__cf_bm | Cloudflare | Cloudflare security cookie used to identify malicious bots and protect the website against automated attacks. | 30 minutes |
__cfruid | Cloudflare | Unique user identifier for Cloudflare's Rate Limiting service. Helps prevent abuse and denial of service attacks. | Session |
cf_clearance | Cloudflare | Authorisation cookie that confirms the user has passed Cloudflare's security verification (Challenge). | 30 minutes |
mirage_cache_manifest | Cloudflare | Cloudflare cookie that stores the cache manifest to optimise static resource loading and improve website performance. | Persistent |
reCAPTCHA cookies (Google)
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
_grecaptcha | Google reCAPTCHA | Google reCAPTCHA cookie that provides protection against spam and malicious bots in website forms and actions. | 6 months |
rc::a | Google reCAPTCHA | Google reCAPTCHA cookie that stores information about the user's reCAPTCHA verification status. | Session |
rc::b | Google reCAPTCHA | Google reCAPTCHA cookie that stores information about the user's browser for reCAPTCHA verification. | Session |
rc::c | Google reCAPTCHA | Google reCAPTCHA cookie that stores the reCAPTCHA verification token after the user completes verification. | Session |
Payment processing cookies (Stripe)
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
__stripe_mid | Stripe | Stripe fraud-prevention cookie that uniquely identifies the device during the checkout and payment process. | 1 year |
__stripe_sid | Stripe | Stripe session cookie used to maintain the payment session and detect fraudulent transactions during checkout. | 30 minutes |
Session storage (order.hostino.com)
| Key | Provider | Description | Duration |
whmcs_session_id | Hostino | Session storage entry that holds the WHMCS session identifier required for API communication during the ordering and checkout process. | Session (sessionStorage) |
Analytical cookies
These are cookies that allow the tracking and analysis of user behaviour on the websites to which they are linked, including the measurement of ad impressions.
Google Analytics
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
_ga | Google Analytics | Google Analytics cookie that distinguishes unique users. Used to calculate visitor, session, and campaign statistics. | 2 years |
_ga_* | Google Analytics 4 | Google Analytics 4 cookie that stores the measurement ID and session state. Allows event and conversion tracking. | 2 years |
_gid | Google Analytics | Google Analytics cookie that distinguishes unique users in a 24-hour session. Used to distinguish users in short-term analysis. | 24 hours |
_gat | Google Analytics | Google Analytics cookie that limits the request rate to prevent Analytics server overload. | 1 minute |
dataLayer | Google Tag Manager | JavaScript variable that stores data for Google Tag Manager. Allows centralised management of tags and tracking scripts. | Session |
Advertising cookies
These are cookies related to the advertising that the user receives and that collect information about their browsing behaviour to show relevant advertisements.
Google Ads and DoubleClick
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
_gcl_au | Google Ads | Google Ads conversion cookie used to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and attribute conversions to the correct campaigns. | 90 days |
_gcl_aw | Google Ads | Google Ads cookie that triggers the dissemination or recycling of advertisements based on user behaviour. | 90 days |
_gcl_dc | Google Ads | Google Ads DoubleClick cookie used for conversion tracking and advertising campaign optimisation. | 90 days |
_gcl_ls | Google Ads | Google Ads cookie that stores and tracks user interactions with advertisements to improve ad relevance. | 90 days |
ads/ga-audiences | Google Ads | Cookie used by Google Ads to create remarketing audiences based on user browsing behaviour. | 90 days |
IDE | Google DoubleClick | Google DoubleClick cookie used to display relevant advertisements to the user and measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. | 1 year |
test_cookie | Google DoubleClick | Test cookie used by Google DoubleClick to verify whether the user's browser supports cookies. | 15 minutes |
__gads | Google Ads | Google Ads cookie that stores information about the advertisements shown to the user and their interaction with them. | 13 months |
__gpi | Google Ads | Google Ads cookie that stores the publication ID for ad management. | 13 months |
Preference and security cookies (Google)
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
NID | Google | Google cookie that stores user preferences and other information, especially language preferences and the number of search results per page. | 6 months |
CONSENT | Google | Google cookie that stores the user's consent status for the use of cookies and personal data according to Google policies. | 2 years |
1P_JAR | Google | Google cookie that transfers data to Google to make advertising more attractive. Used to personalise advertisements according to user preferences. | 1 month |
AEC | Google | Google cookie that ensures that requests within a browsing session are made by the user and not by other sites. Protects against CSRF attacks. | 6 months |
SIDCC | Google | Google security cookie that protects against identity theft and verifies that requests come from legitimate users. | 1 year |
SID | Google | Google session cookie that maintains the authenticated user's session and stores Google account information. | 2 years |
HSID | Google | Google security cookie used together with SID to verify user identity and protect against account theft. | 2 years |
SSID | Google | Google session cookie that stores information about the user's session to maintain authentication. | 2 years |
APISID | Google | Google cookie that stores information about user preferences for Google APIs. | 2 years |
SAPISID | Google | Google security cookie used to authenticate requests to Google APIs and protect against unauthorised use. | 2 years |
OGPC | Google | Google cookie that stores Google Maps and other Google services configuration preferences. | 1 month |
OTZ | Google | Google cookie that stores information about the user's time zone to personalise content and services. | 6 months |
Secure cookies (Google __Secure-*)
| Cookie | Provider | Description | Duration |
__Secure-1PAPISID | Google | Secure Google cookie that stores authentication information for Google APIs with the __Secure- security prefix. | 2 years |
__Secure-1PSID | Google | Secure Google cookie that stores the user's session ID with the __Secure- security prefix. | 2 years |
__Secure-1PSIDCC | Google | Secure Google cookie that protects against identity theft with the __Secure- security prefix. | 1 year |
__Secure-3PAPISID | Google | Secure third-party Google cookie that stores authentication information for Google APIs. | 2 years |
__Secure-3PSID | Google | Secure third-party Google cookie that stores the user's session ID. | 2 years |
__Secure-3PSIDCC | Google | Secure third-party Google cookie that protects against identity theft. | 1 year |
Cookie management through the browser
The user may – at any time – choose which cookies they want to work on this website also through browser settings; for example:
- Chrome, by following these instructions.
- Edge, by following these instructions.
- Firefox, by following these instructions.
- Safari, by following these instructions.
- Opera, by following these instructions.
Web browsers are tools responsible for storing cookies and from here the USER can exercise their right to delete or disable them.
Neither this website nor its legal representatives can guarantee the correct or incorrect handling of cookies by the aforementioned browsers.
In some cases, it is necessary to install cookies so that the browser does not forget the USER's decision not to accept them.
Additional notes
Orderv2 project cookies
The orderv2 project (WHMCS shopping cart) uses specific cookies to manage user preferences, including country, currency, and language. These cookies are essential for the shopping cart to function and are set with a duration of 12 months to maintain user preferences between sessions. The WHMCS cookie is set by the WHMCS backend and is necessary to maintain the shopping cart session.
Server session cookies
The website uses Cloudflare KV to store session data on the server. This data is not stored as cookies in the user's browser, but on Cloudflare's infrastructure.
Third-party cookies
Some third-party services (Google Maps, YouTube embeds, Stripe, PayPal, etc.) may set their own cookies when the user interacts with these services integrated into the website. In particular, when a payment gateway is selected during checkout, the corresponding provider (Stripe or PayPal) may set cookies required for payment processing and fraud prevention.
Preference management
Users can manage their cookie preferences at any time through the cookie consent panel available on the website, accessible from the cookie banner or from the link in the footer.
Cookie policy acceptance
Acceptance of this cookie policy implies that the USER has been informed clearly and completely about the use of data storage and retrieval devices (cookies) and that HOSTINO has the USER's consent for their use, when this is the basis that legitimises the processing of their personal data.
In this latter case, the USER can revoke their consent at any time by adjusting their cookie preferences in the cookie wall.
Questions or enquiries
For any questions or enquiries about this cookie policy, the USER can contact HOSTINO by email at: [email protected].
