Cookie Policy

1. What cookies are

Cookies are small text files stored by your browser when you visit a website. Similar technologies include local storage, session storage, and pixel tags. They allow a site to remember information between page views, such as a preference you set or whether you have already dismissed a banner, without needing you to log in.

This page describes every category of cookie and similar technology used on SuperStation95, why each one exists, roughly how long it is kept, and how you can control or remove it. If a category listed here stops being used, or a new one is introduced, this page is updated before the change takes effect.

2. Categories we use

• Strictly necessary: required for the site to load correctly, to keep it secure, and to remember choices you have already made, such as your cookie consent decision. These cannot be switched off through our consent tool because the site cannot function properly without them.
• Preference: remember display choices such as a dismissed banner, a selected region, or a reading preference, so you do not have to reset them on every visit.
• Analytics: aggregate, largely anonymised measurement of which pages are read, how long people spend on them, and how visitors move between Stations, used only to improve the site.
• We do not use advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or cross-site tracking technologies, and we do not sell or share any data collected through cookies with data brokers or advertisers.

3. What each category actually does

• Strictly necessary cookies: keep your session stable while you move between pages, protect the site against certain common attacks, and store the fact that you have already answered the consent banner so it does not reappear on every page.
• Preference cookies: remember things like whether you collapsed a table, which Station you were last reading, or a font size adjustment, so the site feels the same each time you return.
• Analytics cookies: attach a temporary, non-identifying label to a visit so we can see, in aggregate, which articles are read to the end and which are abandoned early, which helps us decide what to rewrite or expand.
• None of these categories is used to build an advertising profile of you, to follow you to other websites, or to sell information about your visit to a third party.

4. Typical retention periods

• Session cookies used for strictly necessary functions expire automatically when you close your browser.
• The consent preference cookie, which remembers your cookie choice, is typically kept for up to 12 months so you are not asked again on every visit.
• Preference cookies for display settings are typically kept for up to 6 months.
• Analytics identifiers are rotated regularly and are not retained for longer than 13 months, in line with common regulatory guidance on cookie lifetimes.
• No cookie set through this site is retained indefinitely, and any exception to these general periods would be disclosed here.

5. Third parties and analytics

Some cookies may be set by providers who host the site, deliver fonts, or provide aggregate analytics on our behalf. Those providers act as our processors, meaning they are bound by contract to process data only on our instructions and only for the purposes described here, not for their own independent marketing purposes.

Any analytics tool used on this site is configured, where the tool allows it, to shorten or remove identifying details such as the full IP address before the data is stored, and to avoid combining our visit data with data collected by the same provider on unrelated websites.

Where an analytics processor is based outside your country, appropriate safeguards for that transfer, such as standard contractual clauses, are put in place before data is shared. We select processors that offer a way to configure data retention and, where possible, to anonymise or truncate identifying information such as IP addresses.

6. Cookies compared with local storage

Not every piece of information the site remembers is stored in a cookie. Some browser features, such as local storage and session storage, work similarly but are not automatically sent back to a server with every request the way a cookie is. We may use local storage for small, purely functional purposes, such as remembering that you have already seen an introductory panel, and the same control principles in this policy apply to it: it can be cleared through your browser's site data settings, usually in the same screen used to clear cookies.

Practically, if you clear your browser's cookies and site data together, both cookies and any related local storage entries for this site are removed at the same time.

7. Managing cookies in your browser

• Chrome: open Settings, then Privacy and security, then Cookies and other site data, to block or delete cookies for this or all sites.
• Safari: open Preferences, then Privacy, to manage cross-site tracking prevention and to remove stored website data.
• Firefox: open Settings, then Privacy & Security, to choose standard, strict, or custom tracking protection and to clear cookies.
• Edge: open Settings, then Cookies and site permissions, to view, block, or delete cookies by site.
• Mobile browsers on iOS and Android generally expose equivalent controls within their own Settings or Privacy menus, usually under a heading such as Site Settings or Content Settings.

8. What happens if you block or delete cookies

Blocking strictly necessary cookies can prevent parts of the site from working correctly, for example by causing the consent banner to reappear on every page or by breaking a page that depends on remembering a short-lived setting. Blocking preference or analytics cookies has no effect on whether you can read articles, and simply means the site cannot remember your display choices between visits or count your visit in aggregate usage figures.

Deleting cookies through your browser removes the stored files immediately but does not stop new ones being set on a future visit if the relevant category is still allowed by your browser or consent settings.

9. Withdrawing or changing consent

Where a consent banner is presented on your first visit, you can change that choice at any time by reopening the cookie settings control, which remains available from the footer of the site. Withdrawing consent for a non-essential category takes effect for future visits and does not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before withdrawal.

You can also withdraw consent at the browser level at any time by deleting existing cookies and blocking new ones, using the controls described above, independently of any preference recorded through our own consent tool.

10. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

There is no common legal or technical standard for handling Do Not Track browser signals, and browsers implement them inconsistently. Because we do not run behavioural advertising or cross-site tracking, the practical effect of either signal on this site is limited, but where a recognised signal such as Global Privacy Control is detected, we treat it as an indication that non-essential cookies should not be set.

If you use a browser extension or setting that sends Global Privacy Control, we apply the same outcome as if you had declined non-essential cookies through our own banner, and we do not require you to also interact with the banner separately.

11. Cookies and personal data

Some information collected through cookies, such as an IP address or a device identifier, can be considered personal data under applicable law. Our Privacy Policy explains in more detail how such data is handled, secured, and eventually deleted, and it takes precedence over this page for anything relating to personal data rights.

12. Changes to this policy

If we add a new category of cookie, change a retention period, or introduce a new processor, this page is updated before the change takes effect and the review date at the top of the page is revised accordingly. We do not consider it acceptable to expand what a cookie is used for without updating this page first, and we encourage you to check back here occasionally rather than assuming nothing has changed.