Cookie Policy

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files stored on your device by a website. They allow the site to remember information about your visit. SoloCogs uses a combination of browser cookies and browser local storage to provide a working, personalised experience.

2. Your Choice - the Cookie Banner

The first time you visit SoloCogs, a banner appears asking whether you want to accept analytics cookies. You can Accept all or Reject all. Until you choose, no analytics cookies are set and no analytics events are sent.

This is enforced via Google's Consent Mode v2 - the technical standard that tells Google's tools to wait for your decision before doing anything.

You can change your mind at any point - the "Cookie settings" link in the page footer re-opens the banner.

3. What We Use and Why

Strictly necessary - always on

These are essential for the platform to function. They do not require your consent under UK GDPR / PECR because the site cannot work without them.

• Supabase session cookies - set by our authentication provider (Supabase) when you log in. These store your encrypted session token so you remain logged in as you navigate the platform. They expire when your session ends or after the configured session timeout.

Functional - browser local storage

These are stored in your browser's local storage (not cookies) and hold your personal preferences to improve your experience. They contain no personally identifiable information and are never transmitted to our servers.

• Cookie consent decision (solo_cookie_consent_v1) - remembers whether you accepted or rejected analytics so we don't ask again on every page
• Background colour preference (cbr-bg) - remembers your chosen background colour for the resource pages
• Cogs mute preference (cogs-muted) - remembers whether you have muted the Cogs character sounds
• Welcome overlay timing (cogs_last_date, cogs_last_active) - remembers when you last visited to decide whether to show the welcome-back overlay
• Resource progress (cbr-idx) - remembers where you were in a resource so you can resume where you left off

Analytics - only if you accept

If you accept analytics, we use Google Analytics 4 (GA4), loaded via Google Tag Manager (GTM container GTM-T23K69GG), to understand how visitors use SoloCogs - which pages get viewed, where users come from, and which features get used. We use this to prioritise improvements.

If you accept, the following cookies may be set in your browser:

• _ga - distinguishes unique users via a randomly generated ID. Expires after 2 years. Set by Google Analytics.
• _ga_<container-id> - persists session state for GA4. Expires after 2 years. Set by Google Analytics.
• _gid - distinguishes unique users for 24 hours. Set by Google Analytics.

We do not pass any personally identifiable information (name, email, account ID) to Google Analytics. The data is restricted to anonymised page-view and event-level signals.

If you reject, none of these cookies are set.

No advertising or marketing cookies

SoloCogs does not currently run any third-party advertising, retargeting, or marketing cookies. We do not use Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, Google Ads remarketing, or similar. If this changes in the future, this policy will be updated and a fresh consent prompt will appear before any new cookie is set.

4. Google Fonts

This site loads fonts from Google Fonts. Google may collect limited data (such as your IP address) as part of this request. If you wish to prevent this, you can use a browser extension to block external font loading. This does not affect platform functionality, only font appearance.

5. How to Manage Cookies and Local Storage

The easiest way to manage analytics cookies is the cookie banner itself - click "Cookie settings" in the footer to re-open it.

You can also clear cookies and local storage at any time through your browser settings:

• Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Clear browsing data
• Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Clear Data
• Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data
• Edge: Settings → Privacy, search, and services → Clear browsing data

Note: clearing cookies will log you out of the platform. Clearing local storage will reset your preferences (background colour, mute settings, resume position) and the cookie consent banner will reappear on your next visit.

6. Third Parties

Where third-party services drop cookies on your device, those services act as independent data controllers for the cookies they set. The third parties currently in scope are:

• Supabase - authentication session cookies (strictly necessary). Supabase privacy policy.
• Google (Analytics + Tag Manager) - only if you accept analytics. Google privacy policy.
• Google Fonts - font delivery (no cookies, but does process your IP). Google privacy policy.

7. Changes to This Policy

If we introduce new cookies or storage mechanisms, this policy will be updated before they are deployed. If the new cookies require consent, the cookie banner will reappear so you can make a fresh choice.