1. What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device (computer, tablet, or mobile phone) when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, provide a better browsing experience, and give website owners useful information.
2. How We Use Cookies
Find a Ski School uses cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Essential Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function properly. They enable core functionality such as:
- Authentication: Keeping you signed in to your account during your session (session cookie, JWT-based).
- Security: Protecting your account and preventing fraudulent activity, including CSRF protection.
- Session management: Remembering your preferences within a single browsing session.
- Cookie Consent: Remembering your cookie consent preferences so we do not ask you repeatedly.
These cookies cannot be disabled as they are essential for the website to operate.
Preference Cookies
These cookies remember your settings and preferences to enhance your experience:
- Language preference: Remembering your chosen language (English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, or Arabic) so you don't have to select it each visit.
- Theme preference: Remembering whether you prefer light or dark mode.
- Search preferences: Storing your recent search filters and resort preferences.
- Recently Viewed: Storing which schools and resorts you have recently viewed so we can show them for quick access on the homepage.
- Measurement Units: Remembering your preference for imperial or metric units when displaying altitude, distances, and other measurements.
Analytics Cookies
We use analytics tools to understand how visitors interact with our website. This helps us improve the user experience. Analytics cookies collect information such as:
- Pages visited and time spent on each page
- How you arrived at our website (search engine, direct link, referral)
- General geographic location (country/region level)
- Device type and browser information
- Interaction with sponsored placements (anonymised impression and click counts)
This data is collected in an aggregated and anonymised form. We do not use analytics cookies to identify individual users.
Third-Party Cookies
Some cookies are placed by third-party services that appear on our pages:
- Stripe: Our payment processor uses cookies to process payments securely and prevent fraud. These cookies are essential when making a booking.
- Google Maps: When viewing resort or school locations on maps, Google may set cookies to provide the mapping service.
- Visual Crossing: Our weather data provider may set cookies when weather information is loaded for resort pages.
3. Local Storage and Service Workers
In addition to cookies, we use other browser storage technologies:
- Local Storage: We store your language preference, theme preference (light/dark mode), recently viewed items, measurement unit preference, and cookie consent status in your browser's local storage. This data never leaves your device.
- Service Worker Cache: Our service worker caches static assets (images, stylesheets, scripts) to improve page load times and enable limited offline functionality. Cached data is stored on your device and can be cleared by unregistering the service worker or clearing your browser's site data.
- Session Storage: AI Concierge chat history is stored in session storage for the duration of your browser session and is automatically cleared when you close the tab or browser.
4. Cookie Duration
Cookies on our website fall into two categories based on how long they last:
- Session cookies: These are temporary and are deleted when you close your browser. They are used for essential functions like keeping you logged in.
- Persistent cookies: These remain on your device for a set period (usually between 30 days and 1 year). They are used for preferences and analytics.
5. Cookie Consent
When you first visit our website, a cookie consent banner will appear allowing you to accept or customise your cookie preferences. You can choose to accept all cookies, reject non-essential cookies, or customise your preferences by category (essential, preference, analytics). Your consent choice is stored locally and can be changed at any time by clearing your browser's site data and revisiting the website.
6. Managing Cookies
You can control and manage cookies in several ways:
- Browser settings: Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can set your browser to block or delete cookies. Note that blocking essential cookies may prevent parts of the website from functioning correctly.
- Clearing cookies: You can delete all cookies stored on your device through your browser settings. This will sign you out and reset your preferences.
- Service Worker: To clear cached data from the service worker, go to your browser's site settings and choose "Unregister service workers" or clear all site data.
For more information about managing cookies in your specific browser, visit your browser's help documentation:
7. Do Not Track
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 where technically feasible.
8. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in technology, legislation, or our business practices. Any updates will be posted on this page with a revised date.
9. Contact Us
If you have questions about our use of cookies, please contact us.