--- title: "Cookie Policy | LakeBooking.com" description: "Every cookie and storage mechanism lakebooking.com uses, what each one is for, how long it lasts, and how to change your choice." canonical_url: "https://lakebooking.com/legal/cookie-policy" locale: en meta: "og:description": "Every cookie and storage mechanism lakebooking.com uses, what each one is for, how long it lasts, and how to change your choice." "og:title": "Cookie Policy" --- # **Cookie Policy** Every cookie and storage mechanism lakebooking.com uses, what each one is for, how long it lasts, and how to change your choice. ## Cookie Policy **Last updated:** 01.11.2026 This policy lists every cookie and similar storage mechanism lakebooking.com (operated by **LakeBooking S.R.L.**) uses, what each one is for and how long it lasts. It is written to match what the site actually does; if you inspect your browser and find something not listed here, please tell us at [**contact@lakebooking.com**](mailto:contact@lakebooking.com). For everything else about how we handle your data, see the [**Privacy Policy**](https://lakebooking.com/legal/privacy-policy). ### 1. What these technologies are A **cookie** is a small text file a site stores on your device and reads back on later visits. **Local storage** and **session storage** do a similar job with more room, and are not sent back to the server. We use all three, and this policy covers them together. ### 2. What we do not do There is no advertising on this site. We run **no** tag manager, **no** advertising or conversion pixel, **no** heatmap or session-recording tool, and **no** social-media tracking pixel. The one measurement tool we use, Google Analytics, loads only after you allow the Analytics category (section 6). Nothing of ours follows you to other sites, and we do not build advertising profiles. We do count how many people open a lake page, so the lake's host can see whether we are sending them anglers. That counting reads nothing from your device and writes nothing to it, stores no identifier for you, and keeps only a daily total per lake. It is described in section 6. ### 3. Your choice Cookies fall into four categories. - **Strictly necessary.** These make the site work, by signing you in, protecting forms, remembering your language and currency, and storing your cookie choice itself. They run automatically and cannot be turned off, because without them the site cannot deliver what you asked for. They do not require consent under art. 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. - **Functional.** Third-party content that enriches parts of the site, currently the interactive maps. Off by default. - **Analytics.** Google Analytics, which counts visits and how pages are used. Off by default. - **Marketing.** Currently only referral attribution. Off by default. Nothing optional runs before you say yes, with one exception, the YouTube player on a lake page that has a presentation video (section 8). Optional categories are not pre-ticked, browsing on is not treated as agreement, and refusing is exactly as easy as accepting, since the banner offers **Reject non-essential** next to **Accept all**. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time from **Cookie settings** in the footer of any page. Withdrawing analytics consent deletes the Google Analytics cookies, and withdrawing marketing consent deletes the referral cookie, both described below. Your choice is stored for 12 months, and we ask again if the categories or the services in them change. ### 4. Strictly necessary | **Name** | **Type** | **Set by** | **Purpose** | **Duration** | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `**lakebooking_session**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | Keeps you signed in and holds the server-side session | 30 days | | `**XSRF-TOKEN**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | Protects forms and requests against cross-site request forgery | Session | | `**lb_auth**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | Remembers whether you were signed in on this browser (`**1**`) or not (`**0**`), so our server knows whether to check who you are before it sends you a page. It holds nothing else | 12 months | | `**lb_consent**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | Stores this cookie choice, so we do not ask again and so optional services know whether they may run | 12 months | | `**locale**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | The language the site renders in | 12 months | | `**currency**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | The currency prices are shown in | 12 months | | `**geo-country**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | The country your first visit resolved to, used to pick a sensible default language, currency and search area | 12 months | | `**flash-notification**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | Carries a one-off confirmation message across a page redirect, then clears itself | Until read | | `**app-color-mode**` | Local storage | LakeBooking | Light or dark appearance | Until you clear it | | `**lb:recent-searches**` | Local storage | LakeBooking | Your last few searches (place, dates, party and filters), shown as shortcuts on the home page. Stays on your device | Until you clear it | | `**lb_rs**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | A compact copy of those searches (place, dates and party, no filters), so the shortcuts are already on the page when it arrives from our server instead of appearing a moment later. Sent with each request to lakebooking.com and used only to draw the page; we do not store it or link it to you | 90 days | | `**lb_resume**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | Only while you are signed in with a booking waiting for payment, it holds the lake, dates and deadline of that booking, so the homepage shows your "Finish your booking" reminder at once. Removed when you sign out or pay | 24 hours | | `**lb:recently-viewed**` | Local storage | LakeBooking | Lakes you looked at recently, shown as shortcuts. Stays on your device and is never sent to us | Until you clear it | | `**lb:lake-calendar**` | Local storage | LakeBooking | For lake hosts, which calendar view you last used | Until you clear it | | `**__stripe_mid**`, `**__stripe_sid**` | Cookie | Stripe | Fraud prevention on the payment step, set only when you reach checkout | 1 year / 30 minutes | Stripe's cookies are listed here rather than under a consent toggle because they are set only during a payment you started, and they are how Stripe detects fraudulent card use on that payment. Blocking them would prevent the payment you asked for. See [**Stripe's privacy policy**](https://stripe.com/privacy). **Signing in with Google or Facebook** also falls under this category, and it is worth being precise about why. Apart from Google Maps and Google Analytics, each behind its own consent toggle above and below, and the YouTube player on lake pages that have a presentation video (section 8), no Google or Facebook code runs on a LakeBooking page, and there is no Google or Meta sign-in SDK, script or button widget anywhere on this site. Pressing "Continue with Google" sends you to Google's own sign-in page, and Google sets its cookies there, on Google's domain, under Google's own policy, while you are on Google's site. When you come back, the only cookies LakeBooking sets are `**lakebooking_session**` and `**XSRF-TOKEN**` above, which are what keep you signed in, and `**lb_auth**`, which notes that this browser is signed in. Those are strictly necessary for the sign-in you asked for, so they carry no toggle. What data the providers send us, and what we keep, is in section 4 of the [**Privacy Policy**](https://lakebooking.com/legal/privacy-policy). On browsers that support it, you may also see a "Sign in to lakebooking.com with google.com" prompt drawn by the **browser itself** (the Federated Credential Management API, FedCM). It is browser interface, not Google code on our page. The browser talks to Google on your behalf, sets no cookies for us, and LakeBooking receives nothing at all unless you pick an account. Dismissing it is remembered by the browser on its own, without a cookie from us. ### 5. Functional (off until you allow it) | **Service** | **What loads** | **What it means** | **Category** | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | **Google Maps** | The Google Maps JavaScript API, on lake pages, search results, swim maps and catch maps | Google receives your IP address and can store data on your device under its own cookies (such as `**NID**`) | Functional | Until you allow this category, a map is replaced by a placeholder that explains what would load. You can load a single map once without changing your standing choice, or allow the category so maps load everywhere. See [**Google's privacy policy**](https://policies.google.com/privacy). Google's own cookies are set on Google's domains, so we cannot delete them for you. If you have loaded a map and want them gone, clear them through your browser settings. ### 6. Analytics (off until you allow it) | **Name** | **Type** | **Set by** | **Purpose** | **Duration** | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `**_ga**` | Cookie | Google Analytics | Tells your browser's visits apart with a random number, so visits are counted without knowing who you are | 12 months | | `**_ga_**` | Cookie | Google Analytics | Keeps track of your current visit (the `****` part is the identifier of our Google Analytics property) | 12 months | Google Analytics loads only after you allow this category, and even then only once you start using the page. Google receives the pages you open, with personal details removed before they are sent (no email addresses, reset links, booking references or map coordinates), your browser and device type, and your IP address, which it uses only to estimate your region and does not store. Google signals and advertising features are off, so nothing is used for advertising or linked to a Google account. Withdrawing consent deletes both cookies and stops the measurement at once. See [**Google's privacy policy**](https://policies.google.com/privacy). **Our own counter, which uses no cookie.** Separately, we keep a daily count of how many people opened each lake page and how many checked its availability, so the lake's host can see whether LakeBooking is bringing them anglers. It is our own counter, not a third-party analytics product, it runs whatever you choose above because it reads and writes nothing on your device, and it is built so that it cannot identify you: - nothing is read from or written to your device, so there is no cookie and nothing to consent to under the cookie rules; - only a running total per lake per day is stored, never a row about you or your visit; - to avoid counting the same person twice in a day, we hold a one-way, salted fingerprint of your IP address and browser in a temporary cache for 24 hours and then discard it. It is never written to our database and cannot be reversed to identify you; - your IP address, your browser and your visit itself are never stored. ### 7. Marketing (off until you allow it) | **Name** | **Type** | **Set by** | **Purpose** | **Duration** | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `**lb_ref**` | Cookie | LakeBooking | Remembers the referral code you arrived through, so the person who recommended us is credited if you sign up | 30 days | This is a first-party cookie and does not track you across other sites. It is under a consent toggle because crediting a referral is our purpose, not something you asked for, so it is not strictly necessary. If you decline, the referral is simply not recorded, and everything else works the same. ### 8. Third-party requests that are not cookies Two services are contacted from your browser without setting storage, so they have no toggle. They are listed for completeness. - **Algolia** powers the location search. When you type in the search box, your query and your IP address go to Algolia so it can return results. Nothing is stored on your device, and we have turned off the user-identification feature that would otherwise let Algolia link searches into a profile. - **Sentry** receives a technical error report if something in the site breaks. The code is downloaded only when the first error happens, sends no cookies, and is configured with personal-data attachment switched off. Address autocomplete uses Google Places, but the request is made by **our** server, not your browser, so your browser never contacts Google for it and Google never sees your IP address through that feature. **YouTube.** Some lake pages show a presentation video in YouTube's player, loaded from `**youtube-nocookie.com**`, YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. It is the one third-party item without a toggle that can store something on your device. On a phone the player is part of the page, so opening the page loads it from Google. Google receives your IP address, and before you press play the player sets no cookies but writes a technical entry to your browser's storage for its own domain (`**ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY**` in local storage and the `**YtIdbMeta**` database in IndexedDB). On a larger screen the page loads only the video's preview image from Google, so Google receives your IP address and nothing is stored on your device. The player loads when you open the video from the photo gallery. Once you press play, YouTube may set cookies and store identifiers on your device. What Google does with all this is its own processing, under [**Google's privacy policy**](https://policies.google.com/privacy). Why we show the video, and on what legal basis, is in section 3 of the [**Privacy Policy**](https://lakebooking.com/legal/privacy-policy). ### 9. Managing cookies in your browser You can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge each document this). Note that blocking strictly necessary cookies will stop you from signing in or completing a booking. ### 10. Changes If we add a service to a category, or a new category, we update this policy, ask you again, and record the new version of your choice. [**Privacy Policy** How LakeBooking collects, uses, shares and protects your personal data, and the rights you have over it under the GDPR.](https://lakebooking.com/legal/privacy-policy) [**Refund Policy** How refunds work on LakeBooking for angler cancellations, host cancellations, fishing experiences and disputed sessions. The simple version, no surprises.](https://lakebooking.com/legal/refund-policy) ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](/sitemap.md) for all pages.