Cookie Notice

This Cookie Notice explains how we, at Salv Auto, collect and use personal data through cookies on our websites. For the purpose of this website (the “Website”), the Controllers are SLV Imports Limited (C-100391), and Barbros Operations Limited (C-65263) of Pitstop Service Station, Triq l-Imdina, Attard, ATD9032, Malta and Barbros Group, Tal-Barrani Road, Ghaxaq, respectively (the “Company”, “we”, “us” and “our”).

 

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that a web server hosting a website sends to the bowser that you would have used to access such website through your internet-connected devices, such as computer and mobile phone. Cookies would then be processed and stored by your web browser on such internet-connected devices for a period of time, essentially enabling the accessed website to remember information about you (including a record of your visits, activity, preferences and login information on that website, where applicable), and to generally make the website more user-friendly and your experience more efficient.

Still unsure how cookies work? Below is a simplified breakdown:

1. You visit a website: Your internet browser sends a request to the website’s server for the webpage that you want to view.
2. The web server sends a cookie to your browser: The server replies to your browser with a text file which includes the cookie and instructs your browser to store the cookie.
3. Your browser stores the cookie: The cookie is saved in a dedicated cookie file on your device.
4. You return to the website: When you revisit the website, your browser sends the stored cookie back to the web server.
5. The web server recognises your device: The web server retrieves the information stored in the cookie and uses it to personalise your browsing experience.

The below table lists different kinds of cookies, including their functions, that may commonly be used by different websites:

Type of Cookies	Use of Cookies
Strictly Necessary   Non-essential	Strictly Necessary cookies are required for a website to perform at a basic level and function properly. These cookies as exempt from user consent.   Non-essential cookies, on the contrary, is not ‘essential’ for a website to function, but may render the users’ experience on a website more enjoyable. Examples include functional, analytical and marketing cookies.
Functional   Analytical   Marketing	Functional cookies enable a website to personalise its users’ browsing experience by enhancing functionality. These may include cookies used to remember a user’s preferred location, language and other settings.   Analytical cookies are used to gather statistical data about the users on the website, their activities and their preferences. Other information that may be gathered includes website pages visited, duration of visit, what was clicked on and other similar information.   Marketing cookies are commonly third-party cookies used in relation to adverts on websites to provide target advertisements. Information collected would include clicks on the adverts, number of times the adverts have been displayed, number of unique visitors and similar information. Such cookies may also be used to build user profiles to gather individual preferences.
Persistent   Session	Persistent cookies remain stored on your device, even after you close your browser (unless deleted by you), for a predetermined period that may range from a few days to several years. Persistent cookies are often used for authentication (e.g. to remember your login details so that you would not have to re-enter these every time that you visit the website), and/or tracking (e.g. to personalise your experience on the website).   Session cookies are temporary and generally remain in your browser during your browsing session only, i.e. until you close the website. Session cookies are often used for session management (e.g. ensuring continuity of your browsing experience as you navigate from page to page), and/or shopping carts (e.g. remembering items that you would have added to your cart as you browse e-commerce websites).
First-Party   Third-Party	First-Party cookies are set by the website that you are visiting to, most often, enhance your browsing experience on that particular website. First-party cookies are often used for website functionality (e.g. enabling essential features such as personalised user accounts, content, and shopping carts), and user preferences (e.g. your preferred language and region, so that you would not have to set these every time that you visit the website).   Third-Party cookies are generated and set by third-party domains independent to the website that you are visiting, generally when the website that you are visiting is using third-party applications or content embedded on its web pages. Third-party cookies are often used for tracking online behaviour through multiple websites (e.g. advertisements, videos, widgets).

Cookies, therefore, offer several benefits to both website users and website owners. However, cookies also raise privacy concerns and for this reason, their use must continuously comply with both the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation [EU] 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) and the e-Privacy Directive [EC] 2002/58.

How and why do we use Cookies?

When you visit our Website, we may place cookies on your device. You can provide us with your permission to do so through the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website.

The cookies that we use enable us to recognise you and your preferences when visiting and subsequently returning to our Website, ultimately with the scope of providing you with a more customised and user-friendly experience. Data collected may include IP address, device and browser information, geo-location, and interaction data.

We may also use cookies to analyse and understand how visitors like you use our Website to be able to continuously improve our Website, our marketing and our advertising strategies, and our services. This information will generally be anonymised, and therefore with no risk to your personal data.

More specifically, our Website uses the following types of cookies:

• strictly necessary cookies;
• functional cookies;
• analytical cookies;
• advertising cookies; and
• remarketing cookies.

 

Strictly necessary cookies are cookies that are required for our Website to properly function and provide you with the basic information that you seek. These types of cookies do not require user consent and can be deployed on your device automatically since without them the Website would not be able to function.

Functional cookies are used to enhance the functionality of our Website. Although not necessary, these cookies enable us to personalise and enhance your browsing experience on our Website by, for example, remembering your preferences. This notwithstanding, functional cookies are disabled by default. We require your consent to collect, process and store data through functional cookies by means of the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website, as mentioned above.

Analytical cookies are used to gather statistical data about our Website users, their browsing patterns and their preferences over a period of time. Data collected by analytical cookies are for statistical purposes only, such as analysing and reporting visitor interactions with our Website, and such collected data would be anonymised. That said, analytical cookies are disabled by default. We require your consent to collect, process and store data through analytical cookies by means of the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website, as mentioned above.

Advertising cookies are used to catalog your behaviour, such as which products you view, how long you stay on our Website and what links you click. Remarketing cookies are then used to re-engage with users who would have previously visited our Website through third-party platforms. Both advertising and remarketing cookies enable us to build your user profile based on your actual interests and to deliver tailored, personalised advertisements. These types of cookies are disabled by default. We require your consent to collect, process and store data through advertising and remarketing cookies by means of the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website, as mentioned above.

The below table provides a list of the cookies deployed via our Website, together with some further additional information with respect to each cookie:

Name	Provider	Purpose	Type	Retention
cookieyes-consent	CookieYes Limited	Stores users’ cookie consent preferences so they are respected on subsequent visits.	Necessary; Persistent; Third-Party	1 year
wordpress_test_cookie	WordPress	Checks whether cookies are enabled in the visitor’s browser.	Necessary; Session; First-Party	Session
wpEmojiSettingsSupports	WordPress	Determines whether the visitor’s browser can display emojis properly.	Functional; Session; First-Party	Session
__cf_bm	Cloudflare	Identifies and mitigates automated traffic to protect the Website from bots.	Necessary; Session; Third-Party	Session
_ga	Google LLC (Google Analytics)	Distinguishes unique users and collects statistical data about Website usage.	Analytical; Persistent; Third-Party	1 year 1 month 4 days
_ga_*	Google LLC (Google Analytics)	Stores and counts page views and session data.	Analytical; Persistent; Third-Party	1 year 1 month 4 days
_gid	Google LLC (Google Analytics)	Stores and updates a unique value for each page visited.	Analytical; Persistent; Third-Party	24 hours
_gat	Google LLC (Google Analytics)	Limits request rate to improve performance.	Analytical; Session; Third-Party	1 minute
_fbp	Meta Platforms Inc.	Used to deliver advertisements and measure ad performance.	Marketing; Persistent; Third-Party	3 months
fr	Meta Platforms Inc.	Enables ad delivery retargeting and measurement.	Marketing; Persistent; Third-Party	3 months
JSESSIONID	New Relic	Creates session identifiers to monitor Website performance and session counts.	Analytical; Session; Third-Party	Session
ajs_anonymous_id	New Relic	Enables Website performance monitoring and analytics.	Analytical; Persistent; Third-Party	1 year
ak_bmsc	New Relic	Used for bot detection and performance monitoring.	Analytical; Persistent; Third-Party	2 hours
bm_sv	New Relic	Used for bot detection and performance security.	Analytical; Persistent; Third-Party	2 hours

Tracking Pixels or Links

 

Tracking pixels or links are small graphic images or code which may be embedded into our Website. These tools allow us to determine whether you performed a specific action and ultimately help us measure and improve our response, Website and promotions. Since such tools are not ‘Strictly Necessary’ for our Website to function, we do require your consent to collect, process and store data through tracking pixels or links by means of the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website, as mentioned further above In this Cookie Notice. We currently use the following pixels on our Website:

1. Google Tag Manager
2. Google Analytics

 

Server Logs and Technical Data

When you visit our Website, our systems may automatically collect certain information in server log files. Such information may include:

• IP address
• Date and time of request
• Pages accessed
• Browser type and operating system
• Referrer URL
• HTTP status codes

 

The processing of such data is necessary and based on our legitimate interest to ensure the technical operation, security and stability of our Website and to detect and resolve technical issues. Accordingly, such processing cannot be disabled. Any such data collected for such purposes is not used for profiling or marketing purposes.

Third Party Cookies

Our Website may use third-party cookies provided by external service providers, in particular Google (Google Analytics and Google Ads) and Meta (Facebook). These cookies are set by domains other than our own and enable the collection of information about your use of the Website. The purposes why we may use such third-party cookies include:

• collecting aggregated statistics on website usage (such as page views, session duration and navigation paths);
• analysing which sections of the Website are most frequently accessed;
• improving the performance and functionality of the websites; and
• delivering personalised advertising and remarketing.

The processing of personal data through such third party cookies is based on your consent. However, please note that we do not control the operation of these third party cookies. Further information about the data processing carried out by these providers can be found in their respective privacy and cookie notices which are being linked below:

• Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy, and https://policies.google.com/technologies/cookies?hl=en-US
• Meta: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy, and https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policies/cookies/

 

Controlling and managing Cookies

You may accept or reject non-essential cookies through the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website. Alternatively, you may set your browser to block cookies, although doing so may affect your ability to perform particular transactions, use certain functionality, and access content on our Website. You may refer to the below list of the most popular browsers, and follow the relevant link for further information on managing cookie settings on your browser:

• Chrome – https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop
• Safari – https://support.apple.com/en-mt/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac
• Internet Explorer – https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/delete-and-manage-cookies-168dab11-0753-043d-7c16-ede5947fc64d
• Firefox – https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/clear-cookies-and-site-data-firefox
• Opera – https://help.opera.com/en/latest/web-preferences/

 

Changes to our Cookie Notice

We may update this Cookie Notice from time to time. Any changes will become effective upon posting of the revised Cookie Notice on the Website. We will still seek your express consent to any changes to our cookie practices if required by law. Otherwise, the use of our Website following such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Cookie Notice then in effect.

 

Contact Us

Should you require any further information regarding the data processed through our cookies, or our data processing practices generally, you may contact us on the below contact details. Any request for information must be made in writing and must also include your name, address, email address and a description of the information required. We may also ask for identification documentation, which is essential in order for us to be able to verify your identity.

Postal Address:
SLV Imports Limited
Pitstop Service Station
Triq l-Imdina
Attard, ATD9032
Malta

Barbros Operations Limited
Barbros Group
Tal-Barrani Road
Ghaxaq
Malta
Email Address: dataprivacy@salvgroup.com