Cookie policy

What cookies are

A cookie is a small text file that a website, or a service the website uses, asks your browser to save on your device. The next time your browser talks to that same service, it sends the cookie back. That is all a cookie does. It lets a service recognise a browser it has seen before.

Some cookies are very useful. They keep you signed in, remember that you picked a language, or hold the items in a shopping basket while you finish browsing. Others are used to count visits, to measure how well an advert performed, or to remember which topics a browser seems interested in so that ads can be tailored. The same technology can be harmless in one use and quite intrusive in another, which is why the purpose of a cookie matters more than the cookie itself.

A cookie usually contains a name, a value and an expiry date. The value is often a random-looking string of letters and numbers, and it does not by itself say who you are. It becomes more meaningful when a service links it to other information, such as the pages you looked at or the device you use. That is the part privacy laws care about.

You will often hear two other terms. A first-party cookie is set by the website you are visiting. A third-party cookie is set by a different company whose content or code is loaded on that page, such as an advertising network. Cookies can also be session cookies, which disappear when you close the browser, or persistent cookies, which stay until they expire or you delete them.

The main kinds of cookies

Cookies are normally grouped by what they do. The names differ slightly from one policy to another, but the idea is the same.

Strictly necessary

These make a service work. They might keep a connection secure, remember a form you are filling out or balance traffic between servers. A site can use them without asking you, because without them the service you asked for would not function.

Preferences

These remember choices you made, such as a language, a text size or a dark theme. They make a site more comfortable but are not essential to its basic operation.

Statistics

These count visits and show which pages are popular, usually in a summary form. They help site owners understand what readers find useful. Some are anonymous and some are not, depending on the tool.

Advertising

These are used to show adverts, to limit how often you see the same one, to measure whether an advert worked and, in some cases, to tailor ads to your apparent interests. They are often set by third parties and can follow a browser across many websites.

What applies to this site

Ranking Hours is a publishing website made of ordinary pages. It has no accounts, no shopping basket and no login. The code on our own pages does not create cookies of its own. Features such as the menu and the question-and-answer boxes work without storing anything on your device, and the small tool on our rating system page does its sums in your browser and does not save or send what you type.

At the time of writing, our pages do not include an analytics tool of their own. If we add one, we will say so here and describe what it collects.

Two kinds of outside service can still be involved when you open a page:

• Advertising from Google AdSense. The pages load a script from Google that can display ads. When ads are shown, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies, device identifiers and similar technology to deliver the ads, limit repetition, measure results, detect fraud and, depending on your region and choices, personalise what you see.
• Web fonts from Google Fonts. Many pages load their text style from Google's font servers. Fetching a font file is a normal web request, so Google receives technical details such as your IP address and browser type, as it would for any file it serves. This is not a tracking cookie in itself, and Google describes how it handles such data on its own pages.

Our hosting provider and the networks that carry the traffic also see basic technical information, such as your IP address and the pages requested, in the ordinary course of delivering a website. That is how the internet works, and it is covered in more detail in our privacy policy.

At a glance

How ads and cookies fit together

Adverts pay for a lot of the free content on the web, and Ranking Hours is no exception. It helps to understand what the technology does, because the word "tracking" covers a wide range of behaviour.

At the simplest level, an advert can be chosen from the page you are reading. A page about air conditioners may show an advert related to home appliances. This is sometimes called contextual advertising, and it does not need to know anything about you.

A step further, an ad system can use a cookie to avoid showing you the same advert ten times, or to count how many different people saw it. This does not require a profile of your interests, but it does require some way of recognising a browser.

The most data-heavy form is personalised advertising. Here a provider builds a picture of the kinds of topics a browser seems interested in, based on the sites it visits, and uses that to choose ads. Many people dislike this, and in some regions the law requires your permission first. Whether ads on this site are personalised for you depends on your location, your browser settings, your Google account settings and any consent choice you make. Google also offers non-personalised ads, which rely mostly on the page content and general location.

We do not receive a list of the people who saw an ad, and we do not combine ad cookies with any personal details about you. Google provides its own explanations of how it uses cookies in advertising, and we recommend reading them if you want specifics:

• How Google uses cookies
• How Google uses information from sites that use its services
• Google's privacy policy

Because those services belong to Google, their details can change without notice to us. We try to keep this page in line with them, and when something material changes, we update the date at the top.

How to control cookies

Every major browser lets you see, block and delete cookies. The menus change over time, but the path is usually the same: open the browser settings and look for "Privacy", "Privacy and security" or "Cookies". Here is where to look in the most common ones.

• Chrome (computer or Android). Settings, then Privacy and security, then Third-party cookies. You can block them completely, block them in private windows or delete existing ones.
• Safari (iPhone, iPad, Mac). Safari already limits cross-site tracking by default. On iPhone, open Settings, then Safari, and look for the privacy options. On a Mac, open Safari, then Settings, then Privacy.
• Firefox. Settings, then Privacy and security, where you can choose standard, strict or custom protection and clear stored data.
• Edge. Settings, then Cookies and site permissions, then Manage and delete cookies and site data.
• Samsung Internet and other mobile browsers. Look for a privacy or security section in the browser's settings menu, where cookie options are usually found.

Other ways to limit tracking include using a private or incognito window, which deletes cookies when you close it, and installing a content blocker or privacy extension from a source you trust. Some browsers also support a setting called Global Privacy Control, or an older "Do Not Track" signal. These tell sites you prefer not to be tracked. Support is uneven, because there is no single rule that makes every service honour them, but turning them on does no harm.

If you use several devices or browsers, you need to set your choices on each one. Cookies are stored per browser, so a choice made in one place does not carry over to another.

Controlling ads specifically

Apart from cookie settings, you can manage the advertising you see directly with the companies involved.

• Google Ad Settings lets you turn off ad personalisation on your Google account and see the topics Google has linked to you.
• The Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out covers many participating advertising companies, mainly for users in the United States.
• Your Online Choices offers a similar tool for visitors in Europe.
• The Network Advertising Initiative opt-out lets you opt out of interest-based ads from many member companies.

On a phone or tablet, you can also limit ad tracking in the device settings. On Android, look for the Ads or Privacy section and choose to delete your advertising ID or opt out of personalisation. On iPhone, look under Privacy and Security for the tracking and Apple advertising options.

An opt-out does not remove ads. It changes how ads are chosen, so you will usually still see ads, but they are less likely to be based on your browsing history. If a consent message appears on this site or from Google, the choice you make there controls whether ad cookies and personalisation are used for you, and you can normally change your mind later through the same control.

Children

Ranking Hours is written for a general adult audience and is not aimed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Advertising services have their own rules for sites that attract young visitors, and parents who want extra protection can use the settings in their child's browser and device, or choose a browser designed for children. If you believe a child has shared personal information with us, please contact us so that we can look into it.

Links to other sites

Our pages link to manufacturers, retailers and other websites. When you follow a link, you leave Ranking Hours, and the other site may set its own cookies. We do not control them, and this policy does not cover them. Read the cookie and privacy information on any site you visit. Some of our links are affiliate links, which can carry an identifier so that a retailer can credit a referral. We explain how these work in our affiliate disclosure.

Your rights and our legal approach

Different countries have different rules about cookies. In the European Union and the United Kingdom, the law generally requires your agreement before non-essential cookies, including most advertising cookies, are stored on your device, together with clear information about what they do. Other countries have their own data protection laws, which usually give you rights over your personal data, such as the right to ask what is held about you and to ask for it to be corrected or deleted.

We aim to follow the rules that apply to the visitors of this site. In practice, this means that we keep our own pages free of tracking cookies, we rely on Google's tools for consent where required, and we explain how advertising works so that you can decide. Our privacy policy explains the personal information involved, your rights and how to use them.

If you have a question about cookies or want to raise a concern, write to support@ranking-hours.uz or use the contact page. Please tell us which page you were reading, what browser you used and what you saw, so we can look into it properly.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when we add or remove a service, when the law changes, or when we find a better way to explain something. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change is material, for example if we add an analytics tool, we will describe it here. It is a good habit to check this page from time to time, and the date makes it easy to tell whether anything is new.