Cookies

This policy explains how Protocore uses cookies and similar technologies on protocore.io, and how you can control them. It should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which describes how we handle personal data more broadly.

Cookies are small text files that a website stores on your device. They let a site remember your actions and preferences over time, recognise your browser on a return visit, and understand how the site is being used.

We keep this to a minimum. The only cookies protocore.io sets are Google Analytics cookies, and only after you accept them in the cookie banner. Everything else the site remembers — your light or dark theme, your answer to the cookie banner, and whether you have dismissed an on-page prompt — stays in your browser's storage. We never use cookies or local storage to build advertising profiles or to track you across other websites.

A few functional items are kept in your browser's local and session storage: your theme choice, your answer to the cookie banner, and whether you have dismissed a prompt. They are set only when you make the choice, contain no identifying data, stay on your device and are not sent to us. There are no essential cookies.

We use Google Analytics 4, a service of Google Ireland Limited, to learn how many people visit the site, which pages are read, which of our main buttons are clicked and where visitors come from. We see the statistics in aggregate and do not use them to identify anyone; advertising features and Google signals are switched off, and Google Analytics 4 does not store IP addresses. If you press “Accept”, Google Analytics sets its cookies (names starting with _ga), which expire after at most 2 years. Without your consent it sets no cookies: the site still sends Google cookieless measurement signals without identifiers (the page visited, the time of the visit, the type of browser and device), which Google uses to estimate the statistics in aggregate. Visit-level data are kept in Google Analytics for at most 14 months.

The functional preferences above are held in your browser's local and session storage rather than in cookies. Where this policy refers to cookies, it includes these technologies as well.

Google Analytics is the only third-party service on protocore.io that can set cookies, and it does so only after you accept; its cookies are set on protocore.io itself. Google may transfer data to the United States under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The site uses no advertising cookies.

On your first visit, a banner asks whether you accept analytics cookies; “Accept” and “Decline” are equally easy to choose, and the site works the same either way. You can change your choice at any time through the “Cookie settings” link at the foot of every page. If you decline, the site deletes any Google Analytics cookies set earlier; withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out before. Your choice is kept in your browser's local storage under the key protocore:analytics-consent; clearing the site's data brings the banner back. Most browsers also let you block or delete cookies and site data in their settings.

We may update this policy as our use of cookies changes. The latest version is always posted on this page with the date shown above.

Questions about cookies can be sent to privacy@protocore.io.