Cookie Policy
Learn how Bluetick uses cookies and similar technologies to deliver, improve, and secure our social ranking platform.
On this page
Manage Preferences
Change your consent choices anytime using our interactive preferences tool.
1. What Are Cookies
Cookies are small text files placed on your computer, tablet, or smartphone when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work efficiently, provide personalized experiences, protect user sessions, and report aggregate analytics to website operators.
Bluetick uses both first-party cookies (set directly by Bluetick) and third-party cookies (set by our trusted analytics and advertising partners such as Google).
2. Cookie Categories
We classify our cookies into four distinct functional tiers:
- Strictly Necessary Cookies: Essential for authentication, CSRF security, account sessions, and remembering your privacy choices. These cannot be switched off in our systems.
- Preferences Cookies: Allow the platform to remember settings you have selected (such as language, theme, or active filters).
- Analytics & Performance Cookies: Help us measure visitor volume, page views, and navigation patterns so we can improve platform speed and ranking feed usability.
- Advertising Cookies: Used by Google AdSense and advertising partners to display relevant advertisements that fund platform operations without compromising independent ranking results.
3. Active Cookies Inventory
| Cookie Name | Category | Provider | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID |
Necessary | Bluetick (1st party) | Session | Maintains secure user authentication and login state across requests. |
csrf_token |
Necessary | Bluetick (1st party) | Session | Cryptographic token preventing cross-site request forgery attacks. |
bluetick_consent |
Necessary | Bluetick (1st party) | 1 Year | Stores your cookie consent preferences and granular category choices. |
_ga, _gid |
Analytics | Google Analytics | 2 Years / 24h | Distinguishes unique users and measures platform interaction anonymously. |
__gads, __gpi |
Advertising | Google AdSense | 13 Months | Serves and measures advertising frequency without influencing community votes. |
4. Third-Party Analytics & Advertising
We integrate Google Analytics and Google AdSense. In compliance with GDPR and POPIA, analytics and advertising scripts are gated behind your explicit consent. No non-essential tracking cookies are loaded unless you choose to accept them.
5. Managing Your Preferences
You can change your consent preferences at any time by clicking the "Cookie Settings" button on this page or through the "Manage Cookie Preferences" link in the website footer.
Alternatively, all modern browsers allow you to manage cookie settings in their security and privacy options. Disabling strictly necessary cookies may prevent logging in or voting on rankings.
6. Policy Updates & Contact
We may update this policy periodically to reflect technology or regulatory changes. If you have questions about our cookie usage, please contact our Data Protection Officer at [email protected].