MY SPAIN EXPERIENCE
This Cookie Policy explains how My Spain Experience may use cookies and similar technologies, which categories can be necessary or optional, how third-party widgets and affiliate links behave, and how you can manage your choices.
Privacy contact: myspainexperience.com@gmail.com
For broader personal-data information, read the Privacy Policy.
1. What cookies and similar technologies are
Cookies are small text files stored on, or read from, a browser or device when a website is visited. They can be session cookies, which normally expire when the browser session ends, or persistent cookies, which remain until their expiry date or deletion.
Websites may also use technologies that perform similar functions without being traditional cookies, including local storage, pixels, tags, scripts, device identifiers or server-side event data. In this policy, references to “cookies” can include comparable storage or tracking technologies where the legal rules apply in the same way.
2. First-party and third-party technologies
First-party cookies are associated with the domain you are visiting. Third-party technologies are provided by another organisation, for example an embedded booking/activity widget, analytics service or external platform. Third parties can determine their own purposes and retention rules for data they process as independent controllers.
3. Legal basis for storing or accessing information on your device
Under EU ePrivacy rules and applicable national legislation, strictly necessary technologies can generally be used without prior consent when they are required to transmit a communication or provide a service explicitly requested by the user. Non-essential analytics, profiling, advertising and similar technologies normally require prior consent unless a specific legal exemption applies.
Where consent is required, it must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous. Optional categories should not be activated merely because a visitor scrolls or continues browsing. Refusing optional cookies should leave the site’s essential content available, although a third-party widget or optional feature may remain unavailable.
4. Cookie and tracking categories used or potentially used on this site
Strictly necessary and security
These technologies support page delivery, WordPress authentication for logged-in users, security, anti-abuse controls, session management and storage of privacy choices. They are not used to build advertising profiles. Where they are genuinely necessary, they do not depend on consent.
Analytics and audience measurement
The database contains Jetpack Stats. Audience measurement can process page views, referrers, IP address, user agent, browser language, country code and related technical data. Analytics technologies that do not meet the conditions for a consent exemption should remain disabled until the visitor consents.
Functional and subscription features
Optional features such as subscriptions or remembered preferences may use storage needed to provide the function requested by the visitor. A technical record may also be used to remember whether a subscription or preference has been selected.
Embedded third-party content and travel widgets
Some articles contain GetYourGuide widgets or similar external resources. A widget may connect to the third party as the page loads and can expose technical information such as IP address, browser/device information, page URL and interaction data. If the connection is not strictly necessary, it should be activated only in accordance with applicable consent requirements.
Affiliate links
The website contains affiliate links to services including Booking.com, GetYourGuide and DiscoverCars. A normal outbound affiliate link can carry a referral identifier in the URL but does not, by itself, necessarily mean that the partner has set a cookie on My Spain Experience. After you click and move to the partner’s website, that provider may set cookies or other identifiers under its own policy to attribute a booking or purchase.
5. Current technical inventory
The exact cookies present depend on the WordPress session, enabled Jetpack modules, whether you are logged in, and which optional features you use. The following inventory identifies technologies relevant to the current site configuration. A cookie listed as “conditional” is not necessarily placed on every visit.
| Cookie / technology | Provider | Purpose | Typical duration / condition | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
wordpress_test_cookie | WordPress | Checks whether the browser accepts cookies, primarily around login functionality. | Session; generally associated with login/administrative use. | Necessary |
wordpress_logged_in_*, authentication cookies | WordPress | Authenticates and maintains sessions for logged-in users. | Session or the configured login period; longer when “remember me” is selected. | Necessary |
wp-settings-*, wp-settings-time-* | WordPress | Stores interface/preferences for authenticated WordPress users. | Typically up to 1 year. | Necessary / preference for authenticated users |
jpp_math_pass | Jetpack Protect | Remembers that a visitor successfully completed a security math challenge. | About 1 day; only when the protection challenge is used. | Necessary / security |
stnojs | Jetpack Stats | Remembers a request to view Stats reports without JavaScript. | About 2 days; Jetpack documents this as an admin-area cookie. | Administrative |
jetpack_blog_subscribe_* / jetpack_comments_subscribe_* | Jetpack | Remembers the visitor’s subscription choice and displays the relevant subscription state. | Jetpack documents approximately 30,000,000 seconds (about 347 days), when the feature is used. | Functional / requested service |
| Consent/preference record, name depending on the consent mechanism | My Spain Experience / consent tool | Stores the visitor’s cookie choices so the site can respect them and avoid asking again unnecessarily. | Configured for the minimum period reasonably needed to remember and demonstrate the choice; renewed when appropriate. | Necessary |
| Jetpack Stats requests and event data | Automattic / Jetpack | Audience measurement, page-view and performance statistics. This may involve network requests and identifiers even when a persistent visitor cookie is not used. | Jetpack currently states that Stats logs containing visitor IP addresses and WordPress.com usernames, where available, are retained for 28 days. | Analytics; consent where required |
| GetYourGuide widget requests / third-party identifiers | GetYourGuide | Displays activities and processes interactions with embedded travel content. | Only when the widget is loaded; exact cookies and retention are determined by the provider and can change. | Third-party / optional |
| Affiliate referral parameters in outbound URLs | Booking.com, GetYourGuide, DiscoverCars and other listed partners | Attributes a possible booking or purchase to this website. | Referral parameter is transmitted on click; destination-site cookies and retention are controlled by that provider. | Affiliate / third-party after click |
WordPress, Jetpack and third-party providers can update cookie names or technical behaviour. This policy should therefore be reviewed whenever plugins, widgets or consent settings change.
6. Jetpack Stats and analytics
Jetpack Stats can process visitor IP address, WordPress.com account information if the visitor is logged in to WordPress.com, user agent, visiting URL, referring URL, timestamp, browser language and country code. The site owner generally receives aggregated reporting rather than a list of identifiable visitors. Jetpack’s current privacy documentation states that identifiable Stats logs are retained by Automattic for 28 days.
Because ePrivacy requirements apply not only to traditional cookies but also to certain device-access and tracking technologies, analytics should be assessed according to its actual configuration. Where the legal conditions for consent-exempt analytics are not met, analytics must be treated as optional.
7. GetYourGuide widgets and other embedded services
The website contains GetYourGuide widgets in some articles. Embedded content can create a connection to a third party before you actively visit that third party’s website. For privacy-by-default purposes, a consent mechanism can prevent non-essential embedded resources from loading until the relevant category is accepted. If you refuse that category, a placeholder or ordinary external link may be shown instead of the interactive widget.
8. Booking.com, DiscoverCars and ordinary affiliate links
Ordinary Booking.com and DiscoverCars affiliate links on this website contain referral parameters. Clicking them transfers you to the partner. The partner may then use its own cookies, conversion tracking or account/payment systems. My Spain Experience does not control those destination-site technologies. Review the partner’s current privacy and cookie notices before using its service if you want more detail.
9. Consent, refusal and granular choices
Where non-essential technologies are enabled and consent is required, the consent interface should allow you to:
- continue with strictly necessary technologies only;
- accept all optional categories;
- make granular choices by category or provider where appropriate;
- withdraw or change consent later as easily as it was given.
Optional choices should be off by default and acceptance should require an affirmative action. Closing or rejecting the consent request should not be interpreted as consent. Consent should not be inferred merely from scrolling the page.
10. Remembering and renewing cookie choices
A strictly necessary preference cookie or comparable record may be used to remember that you accepted, rejected or customised optional technologies. This helps prevent the banner from being shown on every page view and provides evidence of the choice. The choice may be requested again if the processing materially changes, if the preference record is no longer available, or after the period required by applicable rules and the site’s consent configuration.
Where the Italian Garante’s cookie guidance is relevant, its current guidance indicates that a previously refused choice should generally not be solicited again before at least six months unless specific circumstances justify presenting the banner again, such as a material change or loss of the stored preference.
11. How to change or withdraw consent
If the website provides a “Cookie Settings”, “Privacy Preferences” or similar control, you can use it to change your optional categories at any time. Withdrawal applies to future processing and does not make previous processing unlawful.
You can also remove cookies through your browser. Browser deletion may erase the site’s record of your previous preference, which can cause the consent request to appear again.
12. Browser controls
Most browsers allow you to view, delete or block cookies, limit third-party cookies, clear site data or configure privacy protections. These controls operate at browser/device level and are separate from the website’s consent settings. Blocking all cookies can affect authentication, security or other functions that rely on strictly necessary storage.
13. Do Not Track and browser privacy signals
Browser privacy signals do not replace a consent choice where applicable law requires specific consent. Some services may offer settings to honour particular signals. Any such signal is handled according to the capabilities and configuration of the relevant website component and applicable law.
14. International data transfers
Third-party technology providers may process data outside the European Economic Area. Where the GDPR requires a transfer mechanism, the relevant controller or provider must rely on an adequacy decision or appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses, as applicable. See the Privacy Policy for more information.
15. Third-party responsibility
When you leave My Spain Experience and visit Booking.com, GetYourGuide, DiscoverCars or another external service, the destination provider controls its own cookies and processing. Their cookie lists, retention periods and purposes can change independently of this website.
16. Updates to this Cookie Policy
This policy may be updated when WordPress, Jetpack, embedded widgets, affiliate providers, cookie names, consent mechanisms or legal requirements change. The date below identifies the version currently published.
Full privacy information: Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 7, 2026
Consent manager and changing your choices
My Spain Experience uses an on-site consent manager that does not require an additional cookie-banner plugin. On a first visit, optional embedded activity content is disabled by default. You can choose Accept all, Reject all or Manage preferences. The choice is stored in the first-party mse_consent_v1 cookie for up to 180 days together with the consent version and timestamp.
GetYourGuide activity widgets are treated as optional external content and are not activated unless you enable that category. Normal affiliate links to Booking.com, DiscoverCars and other partners remain visible because merely displaying a standard link does not load the partner website; when you click one, you leave My Spain Experience and the destination site’s own privacy and cookie rules apply.
You can review, change or withdraw your optional-content choice at any time by selecting the Privacy choices control shown on the site. Withdrawing consent prevents the optional widgets from loading on subsequent page loads. Necessary technologies used for security, core WordPress operation and storing the consent choice remain active.