When you take a flight around kites.aerialis.com, small pieces of data called cookies work quietly in the background to keep the site running smoothly, secure, and tailored to your experience. Whether it’s saving your preferences, playing embedded YouTube videos, or keeping out unwanted bots, here is a complete breakdown of every cookie used on the site and what it actually does.
Based on the official statement on kites.aerialis.com, the website uses cookies and related technologies divided into four main categories: Necessary/Functional, Statistics, Security, and Media/Marketing.
Here is an overview of the cookies used and a brief description of each:
1. Necessary and Functional Cookies
These ensure that the website works properly, remember your settings, and keep you logged in if you have an account.
- WordPress Core:
wordpress_test_cookie: Checks if your browser accepts cookies (deleted when the browser is closed).wp_lang: Remembers your selected language on the site (session-based).wpEmojiSettingsSupports: Checks if your browser supports emoji display (session-based).WP_PREFERENCES_USER_*,wp-settings-*&wp-settings-time-*: Stores personal display and user preferences on the site (lasts from 1 year to persistent).wordpress_logged_in_*: Keeps track of whether you are logged in as an administrator or user (persistent).
- Wordfence (Security and Firewall):
wfwaf-authcookie*: Checks whether visitors are authenticated to protect against unauthorized logins (lasts for 1 day).wf-scan-issue-expanded-*: Identifies trusted network traffic and prevents attacks (session-based).
2. Statistics and Analytics
These help the site owner understand how visitors interact with the site so that the content and experience can be improved.
- Google Analytics:
_ga: Distinguishes unique users and counts pageviews (lasts for 2 years)._ga_*: Maintains session state over time (lasts for 1 year).__utma&__utmz: Records the number of visits, when you first visited the site, and which source/search engine you came from (up to 6 months).
- Elementor (Page Builder):
elementor: Stores anonymous actions performed on the site to optimize layout and display (persistent).
3. Security and Spam Protection
The site uses Google reCAPTCHA to prevent automated bots from filling out forms or performing harmful actions:
_grecaptcha: Used to protect against spam and suspicious traffic (lasts for 6 months).rc::a,rc::b,rc::c: Analyzes user interaction patterns to confirm you are a real human and not a bot (from session-based to persistent).
4. Third-Party, Media, and Tools
The website integrates content from external services that may place their own cookies when displayed:
- YouTube (Embedded Kite Videos):
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE: Estimates user bandwidth to adjust video playback quality (lasts for 6 months).YSC: Registers a unique ID to keep statistics of which videos you have seen (session-based).PREF/GPS: Stores user preferences for playback and location (up to 8 months).
- Google Fonts / Maps API:
- Fetches web fonts and map views. These process your IP address upon request to deliver the correct files (expires immediately after fetching).
- Intercom Messenger (Chat Support):
intercom-id-*&intercom-device-id-*: Assigns a unique ID so the site can recognize you if you initiate a chat conversation (lasts for 9 months).
So… there you go!
