🍪 Cookie Policy

This Cookie Policy explains how What Is My Country uses cookies and similar technologies to recognize you when you visit our website. It explains what these technologies are, why we use them, and your rights to control our use of them.

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by website owners to make their websites work more efficiently and to provide reporting information.

Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, What Is My Country) are called "first-party cookies." Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called "third-party cookies."

2. How We Use Cookies

We use first-party cookies for the following purposes:

Essential Cookies (Always Active)

These cookies are strictly necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services.

Cookie Name	Purpose	Duration
FCCDCF, euconsent-v2	Set by Google's consent management platform to remember your privacy choices from the consent message	Persistent (up to 13 months)
theme_preference	Remembers your light/dark mode preference	Persistent (1 year)

Analytics Cookies (Optional - Requires Consent)

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site.

Note: Analytics and advertising storage are governed by Google Consent Mode. In the EEA and UK they stay disabled until you grant consent through Google's consent message; in other regions you can withdraw consent or opt out at any time via the "Your Privacy Choices" link in the footer.

3. Local Storage

In addition to cookies, we use browser local storage to store certain preferences locally on your device:

• Theme Preferences: Your preferred color scheme (light/dark mode)
• UI State: Temporary interface state for better user experience

Local storage data is stored only on your device and is not transmitted to our servers.

4. Third-Party Cookies

We use the following third-party services, which may set cookies subject to your consent choices (see Section 6):

• Google Analytics (GA4): measures site usage. Governed by Google Consent Mode; analytics storage stays disabled until consent is granted where required.
• Google AdSense: serves advertising and may set advertising/measurement cookies. In the EEA and UK, personalized advertising requires consent collected via Google's certified consent message; where consent is not granted, Google serves non-personalized ads. California residents can opt out of the sale/sharing of personal information via the "Your Privacy Choices" link.
• Yandex Advertising Network: serves advertising on our Russian-language pages.

You can review how Google uses advertising cookies at policies.google.com/technologies/ads and manage personalized-ad settings at adssettings.google.com. Embedded Google Fonts and links to external services (e.g., VPN providers) are governed by those providers' own policies.

5. How Long Do Cookies Stay on My Device?

The length of time a cookie will stay on your computer or mobile device depends on whether it is a "persistent" or "session" cookie:

• Session Cookies: Temporary cookies that are deleted when you close your browser
• Persistent Cookies: Remain on your device until they expire or you delete them manually

Our cookies are typically persistent and remain for up to 1 year.

6. How to Control Cookies

Consent Message

Visitors in the EEA, the UK, and applicable US states are shown Google's consent message before personalized analytics or advertising cookies are used. You can grant or refuse consent there, and Google records your choice.

You can review or change your choices at any time using the Privacy Settings link in the site footer, which reopens the consent message.

Browser Settings

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can set your browser to:

• Block all cookies
• Accept only first-party cookies
• Delete cookies when you close your browser
• Notify you when a website tries to set a cookie

Here are links to cookie settings for popular browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari
• Microsoft Edge

Note: Blocking all cookies may prevent you from using certain features of our website.

7. Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers include a "Do Not Track" (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not want to be tracked. We respect DNT signals and do not track users who have enabled this feature.

8. GDPR and CCPA Compliance

Our use of cookies complies with:

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): We obtain explicit consent before setting non-essential cookies for users in the European Economic Area
• CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act): We provide clear information about cookies and allow you to opt-out of optional tracking
• ePrivacy Directive: We follow EU cookie laws requiring consent for non-essential cookies

9. Updates to This Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. Please revisit this page periodically to stay informed about our use of cookies.

The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page indicates when this policy was last revised.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about our use of cookies or this Cookie Policy, please contact us:

Email: privacy@whatismycountry.com

Website: https://whatismycountry.com