Cookies
1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They allow a website to remember certain information, such as your language settings, login details or other personal preferences. The next time you visit the site, this information can be retrieved to provide you with an optimal and personalized user experience.
Cookies are essential components of modern websites. They ensure that basic functions, such as storing a shopping cart or recognizing a logged-in user, work smoothly. In addition, they are used to monitor the performance of a website, compile statistics or display targeted advertising.
A cookie usually contains the following information:
A name that is unique and allows identification.
A value that represents stored data.
Additional attributes, such as expiration date or the creator of the cookie.
It is important to know that cookies are not software, do not contain viruses and cannot directly access your data. They simply store text data that can be retrieved by the website or a third party.
2. What types of cookies are there?
Cookies can be categorized into different types based on their function and purpose:
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Essential Cookies
These cookies are indispensable for the operation of the website. Without them, basic functions could not be performed. For example, these cookies enable:
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Saving items in a shopping cart, even when you navigate between different pages.
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Logging into secure areas and managing your user session.
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Preventing fraudulent activities and ensuring the stability of the website
Functional Cookies
These cookies collect data on how users interact with the website. This includes information such as:
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Page load times and general technical performance.
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Whether errors occurred or certain pages did not load properly.
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Which areas of the website are visited most frequently.
This information helps us improve the user experience and stability of the website. Functional cookies are therefore essential for continuously optimizing the website.
Preference Cookies
These cookies store your individual preferences and settings to personalize your experience. Examples of stored data include:
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Your preferred language on the website.
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Location settings you have provided, such as your city or region.
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Customized font sizes or design preferences you have selected for the website.
Advertising Cookies
Advertising or targeting cookies are used to show you personalized advertisements. They store information about:
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Which products or services you viewed on our website.
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Which ads you have already seen to avoid repetitions.
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Your browsing behavior to create interest profiles.
These cookies are often provided by third parties, such as ad networks or analytics platforms. While these cookies can be useful, some users find them intrusive. For this reason, they can be blocked or disabled in most browsers.
3. Control over cookies
You have full control over how cookies are managed in your browser. Regardless of which website the cookies come from, you can always:
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Clear cookies to remove stored data.
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Block cookies to prevent them from being saved.
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Allow only certain types of cookies, such as necessary cookies.
You can manage cookies using your browser settings. If you do not want to accept cookies at all, you can set your browser to inform you about each cookie. This allows you to decide individually whether you want to accept or reject a cookie.