This page lists every cookie this website sets, what each one does, how long it lasts, and how you can get rid of it. It is the detail behind the shorter explanation in our Privacy Policy.
The short version: Petoniki uses first-party cookies for sign-in, security and language preferences. Google AdSense may use advertising cookies or similar technologies only after any consent required for your location. Direct brand advertisements do not add advertiser scripts, pixels or cookies to Petoniki. Stripe applies its own cookies and similar technologies after you open its hosted checkout.
Effective date: 6 October 2026. Version 1.1.
What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store. When you return to the site, or move between its pages, the browser sends that file back, which lets the site recognise your session, remember a preference, or keep you signed in.
Cookies are not programs. They cannot run code, they cannot read other files on your device, and they cannot see anything else you do online. A cookie set by this site is sent only to this site; a cookie set by another company's service goes to that company.
Related technologies exist — local storage in the browser, and a server keeping a session record — and this page covers those as well where the site uses them.
The cookies this site sets
The site sets three cookies of its own.
- Sign-in cookies. These keep you signed in to your account as you move between pages. Without them there is no account: the site could not tell one request from the next, and you would be signed out on every page. They are created only when you sign in, they cannot be read by scripts in the page, and they last until the browser session ends, or for 14 days if you keep "remember me" checked. They disappear when you sign out or when they expire.
- A language preference cookie. This remembers which language you chose, so the site opens in that language next time instead of guessing from your browser. It contains the language code only, it cannot be read by scripts in the page, and it lasts one year. If you block it, the site simply falls back to detecting your language from your browser again.
- An external sign-in cookie. This one is created only while a sign-in through an external provider such as Google is in progress. It confirms that the sign-in the site receives belongs to the browser that started it, and not to someone else who guessed the address. It contains a random value, it cannot be read by scripts in the page, and it is deleted the moment the sign-in finishes; if the sign-in is abandoned, it expires after ten minutes.
All three are sent over an encrypted connection when the site is served over HTTPS, and none of them is sent along with requests that come from other websites.
Cookies set by advertising and other third parties
Google AdSense. AdSense is the advertising network currently intended for network advertising on Petoniki. Where consent is required, Petoniki does not request optional AdSense advertising technology until you agree through the site’s consent control. Google may then use cookies or similar technologies to deliver and measure advertisements, limit repetition and, depending on your choices, personalise advertising. Google explains its processing in its Privacy & Terms materials. If another advertising network is added, this policy will be updated before that network is enabled.
Direct brand advertising. Advertisements booked directly with Petoniki use images or videos hosted by Petoniki and an ordinary link. They do not allow the advertiser to place its own script, tracking pixel or cookie on Petoniki. If you follow the link, the destination website may use its own technologies under its own policy; Petoniki cannot control them.
Stripe Checkout. Support payments open on Stripe’s hosted checkout page. Stripe may set its own cookies or use similar technologies for checkout, security, fraud prevention and payment processing under Stripe’s policy. Those technologies operate on Stripe’s service after you leave Petoniki, not as advertiser code embedded in a Petoniki page.
Our general approach to commercial relationships is also described on the About Us page.
Your choice
Cookie rules in most countries draw a line between cookies the site cannot work without and cookies used for advertising, analytics or other optional purposes. Only the second kind requires your prior consent.
The three cookies this site sets for itself are in the first group: two are needed for the account and the sign-in to function, and the third only stores a language choice you made yourself. They are set without asking, because without them the site cannot work.
Advertising cookies are in the second group. They are not set until you agree, and you can refuse them. Refusing them costs you nothing: the site still works, the accounts and pet records still work, and no article, profile or guide is withheld because of your choice about advertising cookies. You can also change your mind later, and you can block or delete advertising cookies in your browser settings at any time.
Session records on the server
Beyond cookies, the site keeps a record of your sign-in on its own server, so that your account pages work from one request to the next. That record contains the session itself and which account it belongs to; it is not a copy of your pet records. It ends when you sign out, and it also expires on its own. Because the session is held on the server, signing out ends it for real rather than only clearing something in your browser.
If you use the site's administration screens as an operator or editor, your browser may keep a small note of which settings tab you were last on. That applies only to those screens and not to ordinary readers.
How to block or delete cookies
Every major browser lets you see the cookies a site has stored and delete them individually or all at once, and lets you block cookies for a site or in general. The controls are in the browser's privacy or security settings; the browser's own help pages describe where.
Blocking the sign-in cookies means you cannot sign in or stay signed in, so the account and pet-record features stop working. Blocking or deleting the language cookie means the site will fall back to detecting your language from your browser again. The rest of the site continues to work either way.
If you delete cookies, the site simply sets a new one the next time it needs to. Nothing about your account or your pet records is lost by deleting a cookie.
Cookies and your personal information
The sign-in cookies carry a session identifier that links your browser to your account while you are signed in. That is personal information, and it is handled under our Privacy Policy, which also sets out what pet records are, how they are protected, and how to delete them.
The language cookie contains only a language code. The sign-in-flow cookie contains only a random value that expires within minutes. Neither identifies you on its own.
Changes to this policy
We update this page when the cookies the site sets change — a new service, a new feature, a change in the advertising networks we work with. The effective date above always shows the current version. If a change means cookies need your consent, we ask for it before setting them and say so plainly here.
How to contact us
For any question about cookies on this site, write to [email protected]. For the wider picture of what we collect and why, see the Privacy Policy.