Cookie Policy

Effective Date: January 1, 2024
Last Updated: January 1, 2024

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device when you visit a website. They help websites remember information about your visit, making your next visit easier and the site more useful to you.

2. How We Use Cookies

CookTimePro uses cookies for the following purposes:

2.1 Essential Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function properly. They enable basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website.

Session Cookies: Temporary cookies that expire when you close your browser
Security Cookies: Help protect against cross-site request forgery

2.2 Analytics Cookies

These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously.

Google Analytics: Tracks page views, user interactions, and site performance
Page Views: Which pages are visited most often
Navigation Patterns: How users move through the site
Performance Metrics: Page load times and error rates
User Behavior: Click patterns and engagement metrics (anonymized)

Note: Analytics cookies are only loaded after you give explicit consent.

2.3 Marketing Cookies

These cookies are used to deliver advertisements that are more relevant to you and your interests.

Google AdSense: Delivers personalized advertisements
Ad Targeting: Shows relevant cooking and food-related advertisements
Retargeting: May show CookTimePro content on other websites you visit
Ad Performance: Measures effectiveness of advertisements
User Profiling: Creates anonymous profiles for better ad targeting

Note: Marketing cookies are only loaded after you give explicit consent.

2.4 Functional Cookies

These cookies enable enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or third-party providers.

Theme Preferences: Remember if you prefer light or dark mode
Language Settings: Store your preferred language
Cooking Preferences: Remember your preferred units (metric/imperial)
Recent Searches: Remember your recent recipe searches
Accessibility Settings: Remember your accessibility preferences

3. Third-Party Cookies

We use services from third parties that may set cookies on your device. These include:

Google Analytics: Website analytics and performance tracking (analytics cookies)
Google AdSense: Advertisement delivery and personalization (marketing cookies)
Content Delivery Networks: To efficiently deliver images and content (essential/functional)
Font Services: Google Fonts for typography (functional cookies)

Third-party analytics and marketing cookies are only loaded after you provide explicit consent through our cookie banner.

4. Cookie Duration

Cookies can be either:

Session Cookies: Deleted when you close your browser
Persistent Cookies: Remain on your device for a set period or until you delete them

5. Managing Cookies

5.1 Browser Settings

You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed.

5.2 How to Disable Cookies

Instructions for popular browsers:

Chrome: Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data
Firefox: Settings > Privacy & Security > Cookies and Site Data
Safari: Preferences > Privacy > Cookies and website data
Edge: Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions

6. Impact of Disabling Cookies

If you disable cookies, please note that some features of our website may not function properly:

Your preferences (theme, units) won't be remembered
You may need to re-enter information more frequently
Some interactive features may not work as intended

7. Local Storage

In addition to cookies, we use local storage to save your preferences and improve performance. This includes:

Saved recipes and cooking notes
Recent searches
UI preferences

8. Do Not Track

CookTimePro respects Do Not Track signals. When we detect a DNT signal, we limit our use of analytics cookies and do not share data with third-party analytics services.

9. Updates to This Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions about our use of cookies, please contact us using our contact form.

11. Cookie Consent Management

We provide a cookie consent management system that allows you to control which types of cookies you accept:

11.1 Consent Banner

When you first visit our website, you'll see a cookie consent banner that allows you to:

Accept All: Accept all cookie categories including analytics and marketing
Reject Non-Essential: Only accept essential cookies, reject analytics and marketing
Manage Preferences: Choose specific cookie categories you want to allow

11.2 Cookie Preferences

You can access detailed cookie preferences at any time by:

Clicking "Cookie Settings" in our website footer
Changing your preferences for each cookie category
Viewing detailed descriptions of how each type of cookie is used

11.3 Consent Withdrawal

You can withdraw your consent at any time by:

Using our Cookie Settings link
Clearing your browser cookies and refreshing the page
Changing your browser settings to block cookies

11.4 Technical Implementation

Our consent system:

Conditional Loading: Only loads Google Analytics and AdSense after explicit consent
Local Storage: Stores your preferences locally for future visits
Cross-Page Respect: Respects your choices across all pages of our website
Consent Expiry: Automatically expires consent after 365 days
Event-Driven: Uses modern JavaScript events to manage consent changes
Accessibility: Full keyboard navigation and screen reader support

12. More Information

For more information about cookies in general, visit: www.allaboutcookies.org