Cookies, forms and measurement
The short version: this site sets no cookies at all, the one thing it stores on a reader’s device is the fact that they have already closed the notice at the foot of the page, and the one thing it sends onward is a message a reader chooses to type into the form on the contact page.
What the pages load
| What | On this site | What leaves the reader’s browser |
|---|---|---|
| First-party cookies | None | — |
| Analytics | None | — |
| Advertising or retargeting | None | — |
| Local storage | One key, icd-notice, written when the reader closes the storage notice above the footer | Nothing: the key is read by the page itself and is never sent with a request |
| Session storage | None | — |
| Fonts | Served by Google Fonts when the reader’s browser does not already have the garnitures locally | A font request reaches Google and carries the reader’s IP address like any other request for a file |
| Images in archived material | Served from this domain | — |
| Server access log | Time, path, response code, user agent, IP address | Operational only; not joined, not profiled, not sold |
| Message form | One form, on the contact page only; the script that draws it is served from fortunida.com | Nothing until the reader presses send; then the three fields below, to that operator, which passes the message to the desk |
The notice, and the single key behind it
Every page carries a short notice above the footer saying what is stored.
Closing it writes one key — icd-notice, value
1 — into the browser’s local storage, so that the
notice does not reappear on the next page. That key is not a cookie: it is
never sent to this server, or to anyone else, with any request. It carries no
identifier, nothing is derived from it, and clearing site data in the browser
removes it. A reader who blocks storage entirely loses nothing except the
notice staying put.
No consent dialogue sits in front of the content, because there is nothing to consent to: no analytics tag, no advertising pixel, no fingerprinting script, no session and no account. A banner that demanded permission for nothing would be theatre, and it would train readers to click through a dialogue that means nothing.
The one form on this site
There is exactly one form on this domain, on the contact page. It is not part of the static page: it is drawn by a script served from fortunida.com, and the message a reader sends is posted to that same operator, which passes it to this desk. Nothing is posted anywhere when the page merely loads — the request happens when, and only when, the reader presses the send button.
| Field | Where it comes from | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Required by the form | So that a reply can address somebody |
| Email address | Required by the form | The only way an answer can come back; nothing else is sent to it |
| Message | Required by the form | The matter itself — a correction, an enquiry, a takedown request |
| A hidden field left empty | Added by the form, not shown to the reader | Anti-spam: a robot fills it in, a reader cannot. Discarded either way |
| Which site the message came from | Added by the form as the site identifier | The operator serves more than one publication and has to know which desk the message is for |
The basis for handling a message is the plain one: somebody wrote to a publication in order to be answered, and the message is used for that and for nothing else. It is not added to a mailing list, because there is no mailing list; it is not used to build a profile of the sender; and it is not passed to any third party beyond the operator named above, which handles it in order to deliver it. A correction request and the material behind it are kept while the correction is being made and for as long as the corrected page carries its dated note, because that note has to remain checkable. Anything else is kept until the matter it raises is closed, and then deleted.
To withdraw a message, or to have it deleted before the matter is closed,
write to the desk at [email protected] from the address used to send it and
say so; no reason has to be given. The same applies to a request for a copy of
what was sent. A reader who would rather not use the form at all can write to
that address directly and nothing on this domain is involved beyond the
mailto: link.
Server logs
The web server records requests, as every web server does: time, requested path, response code, user agent and IP address. Those records exist to keep the site up and to see when it is being attacked. They are not joined to anything, not sold, and not used to build a profile of a reader.
Embedded media
Where a page has to embed third-party media, that embed is named in the table above before it appears. If we ever add one that sets cookies, this page changes first and the embed is loaded only after a click.
If this changes
This page is versioned with the site and is accurate as of . A reader who finds a cookie on this domain that is not described here has found a defect: the desk at [email protected].