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 efficiently, remember your preferences, and provide information to website owners about how their site is being used.

Cookies may be set by the website you are visiting (first-party cookies) or by third-party services operating on that site (third-party cookies). They can be session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, or persistent cookies, which remain on your device for a set period or until deleted.

2. How We Use Cookies

Our website, lifebetweenports.com, is hosted on WordPress.com. Cookies on our site are set primarily by WordPress.com’s platform and any third-party services linked from our pages (such as our social media channels).

We use cookies for the following purposes:

Essential / Functional: To ensure the website operates correctly and remembers basic settings
Analytics: To understand how visitors interact with our site, so we can improve its content and performance
Third-party: Set by external platforms (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok) when you interact with links or embedded content on our site

We do not use cookies for advertising, behavioural profiling, or to sell your data to third parties.

3. Cookies We Use

The table below lists the main cookies that may be set when you visit our site:

Cookie Name / Provider	Type	Purpose	Duration
WordPress.com (_utma, _utmz, etc.)	Analytics	Tracks page visits, traffic sources, and site usage patterns	Up to 2 years
WordPress.com (wordpress_logged_in)	Functional	Maintains session state for logged-in WordPress users	Session
Gravatar (gr_*)	Functional	Loads user avatars linked to email addresses via Gravatar	Session / persistent
Jetpack / WordPress stats (stg_*)	Analytics	Collects anonymised visitor statistics for WordPress.com dashboards	Up to 1 year
Social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)	Third-party	Set when you visit our social media links or embedded content. Managed by those platforms.	Varies

Note: Cookie names and durations may vary and are subject to change by WordPress.com or the respective third-party platforms. For the most current information, please refer to the WordPress.com Cookie Policy at automattic.com/cookies.

4. Your Cookie Choices and Consent

EU / EEA Visitors (GDPR)

In accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Dutch Telecommunications Act (Telecommunicatiewet), we are required to obtain your consent before placing non-essential cookies on your device.

When you first visit our website, you will be presented with a cookie consent notice. You may:

Accept all cookies, including analytics and third-party cookies
Reject non-essential cookies, in which case only strictly necessary cookies will be used

You may withdraw or change your cookie preferences at any time by clearing your browser cookies and revisiting our site.

US Visitors

If you are visiting from the United States, certain state privacy laws (such as the California Consumer Privacy Act) may give you the right to opt out of certain data collection activities. Our use of analytics cookies does not constitute a sale of personal information. You may manage cookie preferences through your browser settings at any time.

5. Managing Cookies in Your Browser

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically:

View the cookies stored on your device
Delete individual or all cookies
Block cookies from specific sites or all sites
Set your browser to notify you when a cookie is being placed

Please note that restricting or deleting cookies may affect the functionality of our website and other websites you visit. Below are links to cookie management instructions for the most common browsers:

Google Chrome: support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647
Mozilla Firefox: support.mozilla.org/kb/cookies-information-websites-store-on-your-computer
Safari: support.apple.com/guide/safari/manage-cookies-sfri11471
Microsoft Edge: support.microsoft.com/microsoft-edge/delete-cookies

6. Third-Party Cookies

Our website links to our social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. These platforms may set their own cookies when you click through to their sites or interact with any embedded content. We have no control over these cookies and they are governed by the respective platforms’ privacy and cookie policies:

Facebook / Meta: facebook.com/privacy/policies/cookies
Instagram: privacycenter.instagram.com
TikTok: tiktok.com/legal/cookie-policy

7. WordPress.com and Automattic

Because our site is hosted on WordPress.com (operated by Automattic, Inc.), some cookies are set directly by the WordPress.com platform as part of standard site operation. Life Between Ports does not have direct control over these cookies. For full details of how Automattic uses cookies, please visit:

automattic.com/cookies
automattic.com/privacy

8. Changes to This Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in technology, regulation, or our use of cookies. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this document. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about how we use cookies or wish to exercise any of your rights in relation to cookie-related data, please contact us:

Life Between Ports

Email: wg@lifebetweenports.com

Phone: US +1 (614) 531-4468

EU +31 (068) 648-2091

Website: lifebetweenports.com

Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens):

autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl | +31 70 888 8500