Cookie Policy

1. What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file stored on your device (computer, smartphone, or tablet) when you visit a website. It helps enable essential features, improve your browsing experience, or analyze usage. Similar technologies (like localStorage or server-side fingerprint defenses) may also be used for the same purposes.

2. Cookies used on Rankmates

a) Strictly necessary cookies

• Authentication cookies: required to securely log into your Rankmates account and maintain your session. Without these cookies, account features will not work properly.
• Cloudflare security cookies (CDN/WAF): used to protect the site (DDoS mitigation, bot management, rate limiting) and ensure availability. These may be short-lived and are essential for the service to function securely.

b) Advertising cookies (subject to your consent)

• Google AdSense: used to display personalized or contextual (non-personalized) ads. Cookies may be set to show ads relevant to your interests. They are only activated if you accept them; if you refuse, you will see only non-personalized/contextual ads.

c) Analytics (cookie-free)

Cloudflare Web Analytics provides aggregated traffic statistics and does not use cookies or persistent identifiers for tracking individual visitors.

3. Managing your consent

When you first visit Rankmates, a cookie banner informs you about our cookie usage:

• Strictly necessary cookies are always active.
• Advertising cookies (Google AdSense) are disabled by default and only set with your consent.
• You can change your preferences anytime via the Cookie Settings link at the bottom of the page.

4. Retention period

• Authentication cookies: kept only during your session or as long as you choose “Remember me”.
• Cloudflare security cookies: short-lived and limited to what is necessary for site protection (durations are defined by Cloudflare).
• Google AdSense cookies: up to 13 months, as defined by Google.

5. Sharing with third parties

Some data may be processed by our service providers:

• Cloudflare Privacy Policy
• Google Privacy Policy

6. Your rights

Under GDPR, you have the right to access, rectify, delete, or restrict your personal data. You can exercise these rights directly from your RankMates account space, or by contacting us at contact@rankmates.net.