Cookie policy
1. What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks the browser to store and that the browser sends back on the next visit. That is how a site “recognises” a returning browser — for example, so it does not ask you to sign in again on every page.
This policy describes the cookies used by batmeleh.com, including the English version in the /en/ section. The Operator of the site is Individual entrepreneur Shepitko Mariia Mikhailovna.
Alongside cookies the site uses browser storage (localStorage and sessionStorage). It works the same way, except that its contents are never sent to the server. Those entries are listed below as well.
2. Which cookies the site uses
| Name | Purpose | Lifetime | Whose |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHPSESSID | Session identifier. It ties the pages you open into a single visit: without it you cannot stay signed in or submit a form (the session key check). | until the browser is closed | ours |
| BITRIX_SM_LOGIN | Your login, so that it can be filled in on the sign-in form next time. | 365 days | ours |
| BITRIX_SM_UIDH, BITRIX_SM_UIDL | Authorisation markers: they let you skip signing in again after the browser is closed. Set only after a successful sign-in. | 365 days | ours |
| BITRIX_SM_SOUND_LOGIN_PLAYED | A marker that the sign-in notification sound has already been played, so that it is not repeated on every page. | until the browser is closed | ours |
| bm_cookie_ok | A marker that the cookie notice has been shown and accepted. Its only job is to keep the strip at the bottom from appearing every time. | 365 days | ours |
Browser storage
| Name | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
| bm_cookie_ok (localStorage) | Duplicates the cookie-notice marker, in case cookies are cleared but storage is not. | until site data is cleared |
| bm-shabbat-* (sessionStorage) | Remembers that this week’s candle-lighting reminder has already been dismissed. | until the tab is closed |
| registrationReturnUrl (sessionStorage) | The page you started registering from, so that you can be returned to it afterwards. | until the tab is closed |
All of these are first-party. The language version lives in the page address (the /en/ section) rather than in a cookie, so no separate language cookie is needed.
3. Third-party cookies, counters and advertising
The site has no web analytics (no Yandex.Metrica, no Google Analytics or anything similar), no advertising pixels, no social network widgets that set their own cookies, no third-party chat bots and no call tracking. Accordingly, the site sets no third-party cookies and exchanges no visit data with advertising networks.
One exception: material embedded from outside — videos played in an embedded player. The player is loaded from the video service’s server, and that service may set its own cookies under its own rules. This happens only on pages with video and only once the player has loaded.
Should that change and counters appear on the site, we will update this list and say so in the cookie banner before any data collection begins.
4. Legal grounds and personal data
Strictly necessary cookies (session, authorisation, the notice marker) are set on the basis of the Operator’s legitimate interest in keeping the site working — without them the site cannot do the job people come to it for.
The session identifier and the authorisation markers are linked to an account and therefore, together with other details, count as personal data. Their processing is described in the personal data processing policy and is carried out on the terms of the consent given at registration.
The bm_cookie_ok cookie and the browser storage entries contain nothing that identifies a person and are not sent to the server (apart from the cookie itself, whose value is the digit one).
5. How to refuse cookies
Cookies are managed in your browser settings. Where to look:
- Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies / Site data;
- Safari: Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data;
- Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data;
- Yandex Browser: Settings → Sites → Advanced site settings → Cookies;
- Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions.
The same place lets you delete the cookies this site has already stored and forbid new ones.
Bear in mind that if you block cookies completely, signing in, submitting forms and the forum will stop working — the site simply cannot tell your next request from somebody else’s. There is no way to switch off bm_cookie_ok on its own; delete it and the cookie strip will appear again on your next visit.
Many browsers can send a “Do Not Track” signal. The site does not violate it: there is no tracking here to begin with.
6. Changes and contacts
We update this policy whenever the list of cookies changes. The current version always lives at batmeleh.com/en/legal/cookies/; this version was approved on 5 September 2026.
Questions about cookies and about what the site keeps in your browser: batmelekh@yandex.com.
This is a translation of the Russian original. In case of any discrepancy the Russian text prevails.