Cookie Policy

Last updated: 12 January 2026

Our approach

We use the fewest cookies we can get away with. We do not run advertising and we do not use third-party tracking pixels. Our analytics tool is cookieless. What that leaves is a small set of first-party cookies to run subscriptions, the paywall counter, and basic security.

What is a cookie

A cookie is a small text file that a website places on your device to remember something between page loads or visits. Local storage and session storage are similar and covered by this policy.

Categories

• Strictly necessary — required for the Site to work (login, security, paywall metering). Cannot be turned off in our banner.
• Preferences — remember your dark/light theme choice, cookie consent decision. Cannot be turned off (they only store your own choices).
• Analytics — we use a cookieless tool, so there is nothing to consent to here.
• Advertising / third-party tracking — we do not use any.

Cookies we currently set

Cookie	Purpose	Category	Duration	Set by
so_session	Signed-in session identifier	Strictly necessary	Session (30 days if "remember me" checked)	Sideout Journal
so_csrf	CSRF protection on forms and account actions	Strictly necessary	Session	Sideout Journal
so_paywall_count	Counts free articles read in a rolling 30-day window (logged-out visitors only)	Strictly necessary	30 days rolling	Sideout Journal
so_consent	Records your cookie-banner acknowledgment	Preferences	12 months	Sideout Journal
so_theme	Remembers your light/dark theme preference	Preferences	12 months	Sideout Journal
__cf_bm	Cloudflare bot management	Strictly necessary	30 minutes	Cloudflare

Local storage and session storage

• so_reading_position — remembers where you were in a long article so you can resume, local storage.
• so_form_draft — session storage draft of an unsent contact-form message, cleared when you close the tab.

Third-party embedded content

When we embed a match highlight or interview video, we use the third-party host's "privacy-enhanced" or no-cookie mode where offered (for example YouTube's youtube-nocookie.com). For hosts that do not offer such a mode, we use a click-to-load wrapper so no cookies are set until you actively load the embed.

How to control cookies

• Our banner and footer link — you can change your consent state at any time.
• Your browser — you can block or delete cookies. See aboutcookies.org for per-browser instructions.
• Global Privacy Control — we honor GPC as an opt-out signal for all non-essential cookies (in practice we set none).

Blocking strictly necessary cookies will prevent sign-in, cause form submissions to fail, and reset the paywall counter on every page load.

Changes

When we add or remove a cookie, we update this policy and the table above.

Contact

privacy@sideoutjournal.example