Cookie Policy
Cookie Policy
We use cookies to help improve your experience of our website at https://www.thesurfatlas.com. This cookie policy is part of The Surf Atlas’ privacy policy. It covers the use of cookies between your device and our site.
We also provide basic information on third-party services we may use, who may also use cookies as part of their service. This policy does not cover their cookies.
If you don’t wish to accept cookies from us, you should instruct your browser to refuse cookies from https://www.thesurfatlas.com. In such a case, we may be unable to provide you with some of your desired content and services.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small piece of data that a website stores on your device when you visit. It typically contains information about the website itself, a unique identifier that allows the site to recognise your web browser when you return, additional data that serves the cookie’s purpose, and the lifespan of the cookie itself.
Cookies are used to enable certain features (eg logging in), track site usage (eg analytics), store your user settings (eg time zone, notification preferences), and to personalise your content (eg advertising, language).
Cookies set by the website you are visiting are usually referred to as first-party cookies. They typically only track your activity on that particular site.
Cookies set by other sites and companies (i.e. third parties) are called third-party cookies They can be used to track you on other websites that use the same third-party service.
Types of cookies and how we use them
Essential cookies
Essential cookies are crucial to your experience of a website, enabling core features like user logins, account management, shopping carts, and payment processing.
We use essential cookies to enable certain functions on our website.
Performance cookies
Performance cookies track how you use a website during your visit. Typically, this information is anonymous and aggregated, with information tracked across all site users. They help companies understand visitor usage patterns, identify and diagnose problems or errors their users may encounter, and make better strategic decisions in improving their audience’s overall website experience. These cookies may be set by the website you’re visiting (first-party) or by third-party services. They do not collect personal information about you.
We use performance cookies on our site.
Functionality cookies
Functionality cookies are used to collect information about your device and any settings you may configure on the website you’re visiting (like language and time zone settings). With this information, websites can provide you with customised, enhanced, or optimised content and services. These cookies may be set by the website you’re visiting (first-party) or by third-party services.
We use functionality cookies for selected features on our site. (Find more information on that here).
Targeting/advertising cookies
Targeting/advertising cookies help determine what promotional content is most relevant and appropriate to you and your interests. Websites may use them to deliver targeted advertising or limit the number of times you see an advertisement. This helps companies improve the effectiveness of their campaigns and the quality of content presented to you. These cookies may be set by the website you’re visiting (first-party) or by third-party services. Targeting/advertising cookies set by third-parties may be used to track you on other websites that use the same third-party service.
How to opt out of cookies on this site
We have a cookie banner that asks you permission to set cookies on this site. You can manage and refuse cookies using that tool.
You can also set your browser to deny all cookies acroll all sites.
More details about specific cookies that are set on this site
Analytics
Google Analytics (GA-4)
This website uses Google Analytics. It’s a webmaster service provided by Google to help us keep track of how well our site is performing.
Google Analytics uses cookies. They’re automatically set on any device that visits our site and has cookies enabled. The data that’s generated by these cookie about you use The Surf Atlas (including, but not limited to your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on its global database of servers, typically in the United States.
This information is used to generate reports on how users behave on our site. That includes, but is not limited to, the time spent on our site, how many pages visited, your geo location, your device, your browser information/settings, secondary pages you visit, and what links you click.
Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf.
We also use Google Signals data, which is data collected across various accounts and devices from users who are logged into other Google services.
Cookies from Google Analytics can be set for up to two years. These will reset whenever you-revist the site. We’ve set data on the Google Analytics tool to retain for a maximum of 26 months.
You can read the Google Analytics privacy policy here
It’s possible to refuse cookies by changing settings on your browser. Alternatively, you can use the Google Analytics Opt Out.
Affiliates
Stay22
We partner with Stay22 to facilitate all our affilaite hotel and accomodation bookings. It’s a platform that links together all the leading hotel and reservation sites around so that our users can seamlessly find the best booking platform for them.
Information that’s visible to us on their site via their own analytics portal includes the date of your booking, the country of the booking’s origin, the cost of the booking, and the amount of commission made by us and them.
You can find Stay22’s privacy policy here.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
TravelPayouts
TravelPayouts provides us access to a whole range of affilaite programs within the travel sector. Any links on our site with a tp. in the domain string go via travel payouts. We partner with them so that we can reccomend car rental services, experience bookings, flight aggregators airport transfers and more.
Information that’s visible to us on their site via their own analytics portal includes the date of your booking, the country of the booking’s origin, the cost of the booking, and the amount of commission made by us and them.
Various partners on TravelPayouts drop cookies to track purchases made through them and attribute them to users (that’s you) on our site. Cookies can last a single session or up to 365 days, though most are around 30 days.
You can find more information on TravelPayouts cookies here and thier individual privacy policy here.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
Amazon Affiliates
The Surf Atlas is a member of the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. It’s an advertising network that lets us earn fees from goods sold on Amazon properties as a result of our recommendations.
Amazon Associates network uses cookies to track purchases on their site that come through from outs. These are set the moment a link or ad is clicked on The Surf Atlas. Cookies from the Amazon Affiliate network last 24 hours, but could be extended up to 90 days in certain circumstances.
You can read more about the Amazon Associates cookie policy at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GVASXV5UZ64R4Y25
AvantLink
We partner with surf brands like evo.com using the AvantLink affiliate network. This is so we can offer the best deals and recommendations on surf gear we love.
Whenever you click through on one of these links, it’s common for a cookie to be set for a period of 90-180 days. It’s basically there to let the seller know that you came from our site and give us credit for any purchases you buy.
These cookies are only set the moment you click on one of our affiliate links.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
Awin
We partner with certain surf brands via the Awin affiliate network.
It’s common for a cookie to be set for 30+ days here, which lets us track purchases through the Awin network.
These cookies are only set the moment you click on one of our affiliate links.
If you do click one of our tracking links on the Awin network, it lets us know things like what products were purchased and the cost of those products.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
Manawa
We are a member of the Manawa affiliate program. This lets us place ads and widgets that present guided tours and other organised experiences in the destinations we write about. We receive a commission for any bookings that are made through these placements.
30-day tracking cookies are used to track purchases made through the Manawa site and attribute them to our affiliate account.
We will get information including what experience is booked, the origin country of the booking, and the amount of the booking.
You can read the Manawa privacy policy here.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
Partnerize (Wise)
We use the Partnerize affilaite platform to partner with Wise to offer affilaite links for signups to the Wise bank, which we reccomend as one of the top travel banks to use for FX and other reasons.
Partnerize do not use third-party cookies. They implement a range of first-party and other tracking methods that you can read about here.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
SafetyWing
We partner with SafetyWing to reccomend travel insurance to our readers. They’re one of the first international travel agencies that offer monthly subscriptions that are good for nomads.
We don’t see any personal identifying information about signups to SafteyWing, only non-identifiable information about the amounts of comission we’ve earned through our conversions.
SafetyWing do not use cookies. They store a user ID on the LocalStorage of browser applications that helps them track conversions for 364 days.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
FlexOffers
We partner with surf brands like Hansen Surfboards and Ann’s Cottage FlexOffers affiliate network. This is so we can offer the best deals and recommendations on surf gear we love.
Whenever you click through on one of these links, it’s common for a cookie to be set for a period of 90-180 days. It’s basically there to let the seller know that you came from our site and give us credit for any purchases you buy.
These cookies are only set the moment you click on one of our affiliate links.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
Booking.com
Cookies are set to enable our affiliate Booking.com to track that that you’ve come to them via our site. This is a cookie related to our ID tag with the affiliate and is so that we can get any bookings/conversions with them attributed to us. It’s a session cookie, which means it only lasts for the duration that you spend on their site after leaving outs.
Information that’s visible to us on their site via their own analytics portal includes the date of your booking, the country of the booking’s origin, the cost of the booking, and the amount of commission made by Booking.com.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
GetYourGuide
We are a member of the GetYourGuide affiliate program. This lets us place ads and widgets that present guided tours and other organised experiences in the destinations we write about. We receive a commission for any bookings that are made through these placements.
GetYourGuide sets a cookie on the device of users who click through to their site from ours. It’s purpose is to track purchases and offer us commission on successful purchases. The cookie lasts 31 days. More information can be found on the GetYourGuide Partnership Agreement.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.
Advertising
Adsense
Google AdSense is a tool that lets The Surf Atlas display relevant advertisements to our users. The service makes use of cookies and other tracking tech to optimize and personalize the content it displays.
AdSense may make use of personal data collected by users and set cookies to fulfil this aim.
You can read more about AdSense cookies and see what options you have to opt-out of them here: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads
Raptive (Adthrive)
The Surf Atlas uses Raptive for display advertising and analytics.
This Site is affiliated with CMI Marketing, Inc., d/b/a Raptive (“Raptive”) for the purposes of placing advertising on the Site, and Raptive will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Raptive’s data usage, click here: https://raptive.com/creator-advertising-privacy-statement.
You can opt-out of all cookies and third-party cookies by changing settings on your browser.