Cookie Policy

Last updated: 27 August 2026

The short version

This site sets no cookies.

That is not a euphemism for “only essential ones”. No cookie is written by gopheria.com when you load a page, read an article, use the search box or switch the colour theme.

There is consequently no consent banner. Asking you to agree to something that does not happen would be theatre, and clicking through a pointless dialogue is a cost paid by every reader.

What the law actually covers

Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC, as amended) is broader than its nickname suggests. It governs storing information, or gaining access to information already stored, on a user’s terminal equipment — cookies, yes, but also localStorage, sessionStorage, IndexedDB and similar mechanisms.

Consent is required for all of it, with one exception: storage that is strictly necessary for a service the user has explicitly requested.

So the honest question is not “does this site use cookies” but “does it put anything on your device”. It puts exactly one thing there.

The one thing stored on your device

When you use the theme toggle in the header, your choice is written to localStorage so the site does not forget it on the next page. It is read by an inline script before the page paints, which is what prevents a white flash on a dark-theme page.

This entry:

• contains no identifier, no session token and no personal data — it is a single word describing a colour scheme;
• is never sent to a server, because there is no server to send it to; it is read only by JavaScript running in your own browser;
• exists only because you asked for it by clicking the toggle.

That places it squarely inside the strictly-necessary exemption of Art. 5(3): it delivers a service you explicitly requested and nothing else. No consent is required, and none is asked for.

If you never touch the theme toggle, nothing is written at all.

Analytics, and why they are cookieless

Where audience measurement is enabled, the site uses Cloudflare Web Analytics. It sets no cookie, writes nothing to your device, and does not fingerprint your browser. It reports aggregate figures — page views, approximate country, screen size, load timing — and nothing that identifies a visitor or follows one between sessions.

Because it stores nothing on your terminal equipment, Art. 5(3) does not apply to it, and it is therefore not something you can be asked to consent to under that article. The limited processing that does occur is covered in the Privacy Policy under Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Your network may add one

One thing outside this site’s control deserves saying plainly.

Cloudflare delivers this site. If Cloudflare’s bot-protection layer is active on the domain, its infrastructure can set a cookie named __cf_bm — a short-lived, strictly-necessary security cookie used to tell automated traffic from human traffic. It carries no advertising or profiling function and is exempt from consent as strictly necessary.

That cookie belongs to the network layer, not to anything the site’s code does. It is mentioned here because a reader inspecting their browser’s storage should find this page explains everything they see, not most of it.

What is deliberately not here

None of the following exist on this site, in any form:

• analytics cookies or first-party tracking identifiers
• advertising, ad networks, retargeting or conversion pixels
• social media buttons, embeds or “like” widgets
• embedded video or audio players from third-party platforms
• third-party fonts, scripts or stylesheets — typefaces are served from this site’s own origin, so reading an article does not announce your visit to a font provider
• a comment system
• A/B testing, session recording, heatmaps or scroll tracking
• cross-site tracking of any kind

Clearing what is stored

You do not need a preference centre; your browser already has one.

• Chrome / Edge: DevTools → Application → Local Storage → gopheria.com
• Firefox: DevTools → Storage → Local Storage
• Safari: Develop → Show Web Inspector → Storage

Or clear site data for gopheria.com from your browser’s normal privacy settings. The only effect is that the site forgets your theme choice and falls back to following your operating system.

Browsing in a private window means nothing is retained at all.

If this ever changes

Adding a comment system, an embedded video, a newsletter, a hosted font or an analytics product that sets an identifier would all change this page. Any such change would arrive together with a proper consent mechanism before it shipped, not after — and this page would be rewritten to describe what actually happens rather than what used to.

Until then, the answer stays the same: no cookies.

Contact

contact@gopheria.com