What is a cookie?
A cookie is a piece of information that most websites set on devices' browsers to remember something about their visitors at a later date.
There are two main types of cookies: Session Cookies and Persistent Cookies. A Session Cookie disappears after you close your browser. A Persistent Cookie remains after you close your browser and may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the website. We may use both types of cookies.
The cookies on our website are either set by us or by third-party partners and fall into the following categories:
First-party cookies
| Cookie name | Description | Duration |
| GCLB | Used to ensure website stability | Session |
| PHPSESSID | Used to remember your settings between pages. | Session |
Third-party services
Performance
We want to ensure we provide a good experience on Top10VPN. These cookies allow us to monitor how visitors use our website. This information provides us with anonymous statistics on how many people visit the website, where they have come from and the pages they visit so that we can continue to develop and improve the website and our services.
| Third Party | Description |
| Google Analytics | Collects statistical information about how you use the site so that we can improve the site http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout |
| Hotjar | Helps monitor website use so that we can improve the site http://docs.hotjar.com/docs/hotjar-cookies |
Functionality
These cookies allow you to share content from the Top10VPN website on popular social media platforms.
| Third Party | Description |
| Social media integration http://facebook.com/policy.php | |
| Social media integration http://dev.twitter.com/web/overview/privacy |
Advertising
Some of these cookies allow us to track the performance of our online advertising campaigns. Others allow third parties to identify what you show an interest in, allowing a more personalised and relevant selection of advertisements to be displayed when you browse the internet.
| Third Party | Description |
| Google AdWords | Tracks performance of advertising campaigns http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ads/ |
| Facebook Ads | Tracks performance of advertising campaigns. http://www.facebook.com/policy.php |
| Bing | Tracks performance of advertising campaigns. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement/default.aspx |
Special offers
These cookies allow us to provide you with special offers across the site without becoming annoying by showing you too many pop-up messages.
| Third Party | Description |
| Optinmonster | Provides special offers to specific customers. http://optinmonster.com/docs/how-optin-cookies-and-the-global-cookie-work-in-optinmonster/ |
Affiliate Links
When you visit one of the VPN providers from our website, it’s likely that you'll do so via an affiliate link. When you click on these links a cookie is set and, if you sign up for a VPN subscription, the provider is able to identify that you have come from our website and we may earn a commission as a result. These commissions allow us to continue providing a free service to you.
The Affiliate Marketing Council, part of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) a trade association for online and mobile advertising, has created a website dedicated to helping you understand how affiliate marketing works.
Third-party cookies
Here is a list of the main cookies set by the third-party services we use to improve your experience on our website and a brief description of what they do.
| Cookie | Description | Duration |
| _ga | Google Analytics cookie used to identify unique users. | 2 years |
| _gat | Google Analytics cookie that limits the number of requests made to their servers. | 10 minutes |
| _omappvs | Optinmonster cookie that helps prevent excessive display of overlay messages | Session |
| _omappvp | Optinmonster cookie that identifies first-time visitors to the site | 10 years, 11 months |
| _om-success-cookie | Optinmonster cookie that lets us know that you have used a special offer | 24 hours |
How to control cookies
You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.
Here are some relevant cookie information and opt out options. You can use these resources or other plugins to opt out of cookies through your browser:
Your Online Choices
The Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising
Network Advertising Initiative Consumer Opt-Out