Cookie policy

A cookie is a small value your browser stores for a site and sends back on the next request. This page also covers the two related browser stores — localStorage and sessionStorage — because the distinction matters to browsers and not to you.

• Session cookies. Set when you sign in, so the next page knows it is still you. They hold a signed token, not your password. Strictly necessary, expire with the session, and signing out clears them.
• Theme preference. Remembers light or dark so the page does not flash on load. One word, stored locally, never sent to us.
• Tool inputs. Some free tools keep your last input in the browser so a refresh does not lose it. It stays on your machine and never reaches our servers.
• That is the whole list. If you never sign in and never touch the theme toggle, browsing the board sets nothing at all.

• No advertising or retargeting cookies. We do not sell ads by audience; the one sponsor slot is sold by the week.
• No cross-site tracking pixel, no data broker tag, no session recording, no heatmaps.
• No third-party analytics cookie. Page counts are aggregate and cookieless.
• No fingerprinting, and no attempt to identify you across other sites.

• Sign-in providers. If you sign in with a provider, that provider sets cookies on its own domain under its own policy. We cannot read them.
• Payment. Checkout runs on our payment processor’s pages, which set their own fraud-prevention cookies. Card details never touch our servers, and neither do those cookies.
• Sponsor links. Clicking a sponsored link takes you to someone else’s site, which sets whatever it sets. The link itself carries no tracking parameters from us.
• Embedded media. An article may embed a video or a post from another platform. Those load only when you scroll to them, and they set their own cookies once they do.

Consent is required for cookies that are not strictly necessary. Ours are: the session cookie is what keeps you signed in, and the theme and tool values never leave your browser. There is nothing to consent to, so we do not interrupt you to ask.

• Block cookies for this domain in your browser settings. Reading the board, the blog and the free tools all keep working.
• Signing in, voting and submitting a product will not work without the session cookie. There is no way around that.
• Private or incognito windows drop everything when you close them.
• Clearing site data removes everything listed here immediately.

• If we ever add a cookie beyond the ones above, it goes on this page before it ships, and anything non-essential gets an opt-in first.
• The date at the top moves whenever this list changes, and the change is logged in the changelog.