The use of cookies

The website www.Outfitflow.ro uses cookies. The following information is intended to inform the user of more details about the placement, use and administration of cookies used by this site.

This website uses its own and third-party cookies to provide visitors with a much better browsing experience and services adapted to everyone's needs and interests.

Cookies play an important role in facilitating the access and delivery of multiple services that the user enjoys on the Internet, such as:

- Customizing certain settings such as: the language in which a site is viewed, the currency in which certain prices or tariffs are expressed, keeping the options for various products (measurements, other details, etc.) in the shopping cart (and memorizing these options) - generating thus the flexibility of the shopping cart (access to old preferences by accessing the forward and back button).

- Cookies provide site owners with valuable feedback on how their sites are used by users, so that they can make them even more efficient and accessible for users.

- Allow multimedia or other applications from other sites to be included in a certain site to create a more valuable, useful and pleasant browsing experience.

- Improve the effectiveness of online advertising.

What is a cookie?

An internet cookie (term also known as browser cookie or HTTP cookie or simply cookie) is a small file, consisting of letters and numbers, which will be stored on the computer, mobile terminal or other equipment of a user from which the Internet is accessed. The cookie is installed through the request issued by a web server to a browser (eg: Internet Explorer, Chrome) and is completely passive (it does not contain software programs, viruses or spyware and cannot access the information on the user's hard drive).

A cookie consists of 2 parts: the name and the content or value of the cookie. Moreover, the duration of existence of a cookie is determined; technically, only the web server that sent the cookie can access it again when a user returns to the website associated with that web server.

The cookie stores important information that improves the Internet browsing experience (eg: language settings in which a website is accessed; keeping a user logged in to the webmail account; online banking security; keeping products in the shopping cart).

Cookies themselves do not require personal information to be used and, in most cases, do not personally identify Internet users.

Types of cookies:

- Session cookies - are temporarily stored in the cookie folder of the web browser so that it remembers them until the user leaves the respective website or closes the browser window (eg when logging in/out of an account webmail or on social networks).

- Persistent cookies - they are stored on the hard drive of a computer or equipment (and generally depends on the preset lifetime for the cookie). Persistent cookies also include those placed by a website other than the one the user is visiting at the time - known as third party cookies - which can be used anonymously to remember interests to a user, so that the most relevant advertising for users is delivered.

What are the advantages of cookies?

A cookie contains information that connects a web-browser (the user) and a specific web-server (the website). If a browser accesses that web-server again, it can read the information already stored and react accordingly. Cookies provide users with a pleasant browsing experience and support the efforts of many websites to offer comfortable services to users, for example: online privacy preferences, website language options, shopping carts or relevant advertising.

What is the lifetime of a cookie?

Cookies are managed by web servers. The lifetime of a cookie can vary significantly, depending on the purpose for which it is placed. Some cookies are used exclusively for a single session (session cookies) and are no longer retained once the user leaves the website and some cookies are retained and reused every time the user returns to that website (cookies permanent). However, cookies can be deleted by a user at any time through the browser settings.

What are cookies placed by third parties?

Certain sections of content on some sites may be provided through third parties/suppliers (eg: news box, a video or an advertisement). These third parties can also place cookies through the website and they are called third party cookies because they are not placed by the owner of the respective website. Third-party providers must also comply with the law in force.

How cookies are used by this site

A visit to this website may place cookies for the purposes of:

- Website performance cookies. This type of cookie remembers the user's preferences on this site, so that there is no need to set them each time the site is visited.

- Visitor analysis cookies. Every time a user visits this site, the analytics software provided by a third party generates a user analysis cookie. This cookie tells us if you have visited this site before. The browser will tell us if you have this cookie, and if not, we will generate one. It allows the monitoring of unique users who visit us and how often they do so. As long as you are not registered on this site, this cookie cannot be used to identify individuals, they are used only for statistical purposes. If you are registered, we can also know the details you have provided us, such as your e-mail address and name - these being subject to confidentiality and the provisions of the Terms and Conditions, the Privacy Policy as well as the provisions of the legislation in force with regarding the protection of personal data.

- Cookies for geotargetting. These cookies are used by a software that determines which country you come from. It is completely anonymous and is only used to target content.

- Registration cookies. When you register on this site, we generate a cookie that tells us if you are registered or not. Our servers use these cookies to show us the account you are registered with and if you have permission for a specific service. It also allows us to associate any comment, contact request or schedule that you post on our site with your username.

- Cookies for advertising. These cookies allow us to find out whether or not you viewed an online ad, what its type is and how much time has passed since you saw the ad message. We also use these cookies to target online advertising. We can also use cookies belonging to a third party, for better targeting of advertising, to show, for example, ads about accessories, if the user has recently visited an article on the site about accessories. These cookies are anonymous, they store information about the viewed content, not about users. We also set anonymous cookies through other sites on which we advertise. By receiving them in this way, we can use them to recognize you as a visitor of that site if you later visit our site, we will be able to deliver advertising based on this information.

- Cookies of advertising providers. You can find advertising belonging to third parties on this site. Some of these parties use their own anonymous cookies to analyze how many people have been exposed to an advertising message, or to see how many people have been exposed to the same advertisement several times. The companies that generate these cookies have their own privacy policies, and this site does not have access to read or write these cookies. Third-party cookies can be used to show you targeted advertising on other sites as well, based on your browsing on this site. These cookies may come from the following third parties: Zontera.com, doubleclick.com, Gemius and others.

- Other third-party cookies. On some pages, third parties can set their own anonymous cookies, in order to track the success of an application or to customize an application. Due to the way of use, this site cannot access these cookies, just as third parties cannot access the cookies owned by this site. For example, when you share an article using the button for social networks on this site, that social network will record your activity. Third-party cookies used on this site are: Google Analytics, Google Remarketing, Facebook Login, Facebook Pixel, Adroll SmartPixel, Zopim, Marketizator, Hotjar.

Do cookies contain personal data?

Cookies themselves do not require personal information to be used and, in most cases, do not personally identify Internet users. The personal data collected through the use of Cookies can only be collected to facilitate certain functionalities for the user. Such data are encrypted in a way that makes it impossible for unauthorized persons to access them.

Deleting cookies

In general, an application used to access web pages allows cookies to be saved on the terminal by default. These settings can be changed so that the automatic administration of cookies is blocked by the web browser or the user is informed every time cookies are sent to his terminal. Detailed information about the possibilities and ways of managing Cookies can be found in the settings area of ​​the application (web browser). Limiting the use of cookies may affect certain functionalities of the web page and may make certain sites impractical or difficult to visit and use. Also, refusing to accept cookies does not mean that you will no longer receive/see online advertising.

Security and privacy issues

Cookies are not viruses! They use plain text formats. They are not made up of pieces of code, so they cannot be executed or auto-run. Consequently, they cannot be duplicated or replicated on other networks to run or replicate again. Since they cannot perform these functions, they cannot be considered viruses.

Cookies can still be used for negative purposes. Because they store information about the preferences and browsing history of users, both on a specific site and on several other sites, cookies can be used as a form of Spyware. Many anti-spyware products are aware of this fact and constantly mark cookies to be deleted during anti-virus/anti-spyware deletion/scanning procedures.

In general, browsers have integrated privacy settings that provide different levels of cookie acceptance, validity period and automatic deletion after the user has visited a certain site.

Other security aspects related to cookies:

- Since identity protection is very valuable and represents the right of every internet user, it is advisable to know what possible problems cookies can create. Because through them, information is constantly transmitted in both directions between the browser and the website, if an attacker or unauthorized person intervenes during data transmission, the information contained in the cookie can be intercepted. Although very rare, this can happen if the browser connects to the server using an unencrypted network (ex: an unsecured WiFi network).

- Other cookie-based attacks involve wrong cookie settings on servers. If a website does not require the browser to use only encrypted channels, attackers can use this vulnerability to trick browsers into sending information through unsecured channels. The attackers then use the information to gain unauthorized access to certain websites. It is very important to be careful in choosing the most suitable method of personal information protection.