Cookie Policy

1. What we set, and what we ask before setting

Some cookies are needed for the site to work at all -- to keep you signed in, and to remember what you told us about cookies. Those are set without asking, because there is no version of the site that works without them.

Everything else is optional, is off until you turn it on, and can be turned off again at any time. Declining does not take anything away: you can read the whole site and use your account either way.

We ask again after your choice has been stored for a while, so a decision you made long ago does not stand forever.

Privacy policy

2. Strictly necessary (always on)

These are set on sven's own pages. They carry no advertising identifier and are not used to build a profile of you.

whale_cookie_consent

Remembers which cookie categories you agreed to, and which version of this policy you were shown. Set by sven, kept for 365 days. This cookie is what makes your choice stick, so it is set whatever you choose -- including when you refuse everything optional.

theme

Remembers the appearance you chose, Light or Dark, so every page opens in it. Set by sven only when you choose one, kept for a year; choosing System removes it.

sidebar

Remembers whether you collapsed the sidebar of your account pages. Set by sven only when you collapse or expand it, kept for a year.

__session

Keeps you signed in as you move between pages. Set by our accounts provider, Clerk, on this site. Expires when the session ends.

__client_uat

Tells the site whether a signed-in session exists at all, so a page can render the right thing without a round trip. Set by Clerk on this site.

__clerk_db_jwt

Used by Clerk during development only. It is not set on the production site.

3. Payment cookies, and why they are not on this list

sven's own pages never load the payment provider's scripts, so no payment cookie is set on this site. When you go to pay, you are sent to Stripe's own hosted checkout page, and Stripe sets its own cookies there -- __stripe_sid for the checkout session itself, and __stripe_mid, which it keeps for a year to detect fraud across payments.

Those cookies belong to Stripe and are governed by Stripe's own cookie notice on the page where they are set. We mention them because you will meet them when you pay, not because we can turn them on or off for you.

4. Analytics (optional, off by default)

We would use these to count how many people visit which pages, so we can tell what is worth improving. Nothing in this category is running today: no analytics cookie is set on this site and no analytics script loads, whatever you choose.

The category exists so that if we ever add one, it cannot start before you have agreed to it. If that happens, this page will name the specific cookies before they are used.

5. Marketing (optional, off by default)

We would use these to measure whether an advert brought somebody here. Nothing in this category is running today either, and the same rule applies: nothing in it may run before you agree, and this page names it before it is used.

6. Changing or withdrawing your choice

Every page has a Cookie choices link at the bottom. It reopens the same panel you saw the first time, with what you chose, and you can change any category or turn everything optional off again.

Withdrawing is exactly as easy as agreeing was, and takes effect immediately. You can also delete the cookies through your browser's own settings, in which case we will ask you again on your next visit.