How We Use Cookies

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device (computer, smartphone, or tablet) when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work efficiently, provide a better user experience, and give website owners useful information about how their site is being used.

1.1 Types of Cookies by Duration

• Session Cookies: Temporary cookies that are deleted when you close your browser. They are used to maintain your browsing session and remember actions you take during a single visit.
• Persistent Cookies: Cookies that remain on your device for a set period (specified for each cookie) or until you manually delete them. They are used to remember your preferences across visits.

1.2 Types of Cookies by Origin

• First-Party Cookies: Set by the website you are visiting (vitalxcare.com). We use first-party cookies for essential functionality and remembering your preferences.
• Third-Party Cookies: Set by services embedded in our website (e.g., Google Analytics). These cookies are governed by the respective third party's privacy policy.

1.3 Similar Technologies

In addition to cookies, we may use similar technologies such as:

• Local Storage (localStorage): Browser storage used to save your cookie consent preferences and other non-sensitive settings
• Pixels/Web Beacons: Tiny transparent images used to track email opens (for transactional emails only, not marketing unless you opt in)

3. Cookie Categories

We organize our cookies into four categories. You can manage your preferences for each category through our cookie consent banner (click the 🍪 icon in the bottom-left corner of any page).

🔒 Category 1: Strictly Necessary Cookies

Cannot be disabled — These cookies are essential for the website to function properly. Without them, the website would not work as expected.

• Maintaining your session while browsing
• Protecting against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks
• Remembering your cookie consent preferences
• Load balancing and server routing

Legal Basis: Legitimate interest (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)) — these cookies are necessary for the basic operation of our website and do not require consent under the ePrivacy Directive.

📊 Category 2: Analytics Cookies

Opt-in required — These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting anonymized information about page views, session duration, and navigation patterns.

• Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID: G-SYY47Q8CS7) — with IP anonymization enabled
• Google Tag Manager (GTM-MHH9FLHK) — manages tag loading based on consent
• Aggregated traffic reports (we cannot identify individual users)

Legal Basis: Consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)) — analytics cookies are only activated after you click "Accept All" or enable "Analytics" in your cookie preferences.

📢 Category 3: Marketing Cookies

Opt-in required — These cookies are used to track the effectiveness of our advertising and to provide relevant information about our products.

• Conversion tracking (measuring ad campaign performance)
• Audience insights (anonymized demographic information)
• Ad impression measurement

Legal Basis: Consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)) — marketing cookies are only activated after you explicitly grant consent.

⚙️ Category 4: Functional Cookies

Opt-in required — These cookies enable enhanced features and personalization that improve your browsing experience.

• Remembering your language preferences
• Saving partially completed form fields
• Personalized content recommendations

Legal Basis: Consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)) — functional cookies are only activated after you grant consent.

5. Google Consent Mode v2

VitalXCare uses Google Consent Mode v2 (Advanced implementation) to integrate our cookie consent banner with Google's tag platform. This is the latest standard required by Google for websites using Google services in the European Economic Area (EEA).

5.1 How It Works

When you first visit our website, Google's tags are loaded with all consent parameters set to "denied" by default. This means:

• No analytics cookies are placed on your device
• No advertising cookies are set
• No personal data is shared with Google for ad purposes
• No user data is collected for ad personalization

Google tags will only start collecting data and setting cookies after you grant consent through our cookie consent banner.

5.2 Consent Parameters

We manage the following Google Consent Mode v2 parameters:

5.3 Cookieless Pings (Advanced Mode)

With our Advanced consent mode implementation, when a user has not granted consent, Google tags may still send anonymized, cookieless "pings" to Google. These pings:

• DO NOT contain any cookies or personal identifiers
• DO NOT allow Google to identify individual users
• ARE used by Google for aggregate statistical modeling
• Help us receive modeled conversion and analytics data without compromising privacy

If you prefer to completely block all communication with Google, you can deny all non-essential cookies and use a browser extension like uBlock Origin or Privacy Badger.

5.4 Wait-for-Update Mechanism

We configure a 500ms wait_for_update window. This means Google tags wait up to 500 milliseconds for our consent banner to load and deliver your consent choice before firing any tags. This prevents data from being sent before you've had the opportunity to make your consent choice.

7. Third-Party Services & Their Cookies

The following third-party services may set cookies when you visit our website (only if you've granted the relevant consent):

7.1 Google Analytics (Alphabet Inc.)

• Purpose: Web analytics and traffic measurement
• Privacy Policy: policies.google.com/privacy
• Data Processed: Anonymized IP address, pages visited, session duration, device/browser info
• Data Retention: 14 months (configured in our GA4 settings)
• IP Anonymization: Enabled — your full IP address is never stored

7.2 Google Tag Manager (Alphabet Inc.)

• Purpose: Tag management and consent-based script loading
• Privacy Policy: policies.google.com/privacy
• Note: GTM itself does not set cookies — it manages the loading of other tags (like GA4) based on your consent choices

7.3 Google Fonts (Alphabet Inc.)

• Purpose: Web fonts for consistent typography
• Note: We use preconnect directives to load Google Fonts. Google may collect your IP address when fonts are loaded. No cookies are set by Google Fonts.
• Privacy Policy: policies.google.com/privacy

9. Mobile App & Cookies

The VitalXCare mobile app (Android and iOS) does not use cookies. Native mobile apps use different storage mechanisms than web browsers.

9.1 What the App Does NOT Use

• ❌ Cookies of any kind
• ❌ Advertising identifiers (Apple IDFA, Google GAID)
• ❌ Third-party analytics SDKs (no Firebase Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, etc.)
• ❌ Cross-app tracking or fingerprinting
• ❌ Background location tracking

9.2 What the App Uses

• ✅ Local SQLite database for health data storage (on your device only)
• ✅ SharedPreferences/UserDefaults for app settings (language, units, etc.)
• ✅ Bluetooth for device connectivity (no data transmitted via internet)
• ✅ Optional first-party analytics (anonymized, can be disabled in Settings → Privacy)

For complete details about the mobile app's data practices, see our Privacy & Security Policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about our use of cookies or this Cookie Policy, please contact us:

You can also manage your cookie preferences right now by clicking the button below:

🍪 Open Cookie Preferences