Cookie policy

1. What a cookie is

A cookie is a small text file that a website stores in your browser so it can recognise your settings the next time a page is opened. Besides cookies, a browser can store data in local storage, which is a separate mechanism for storing data locally.

2. What the site stores in your browser

There are two kinds of cookies on the site: essential cookies, which remember your language and theme and protect the site from bots, and analytics cookies, which appear only after the User has given consent. There are no advertising cookies, ad network pixels or social network widgets on the site. The Cloudflare Web Analytics visit counter uses no cookies and stores nothing in the browser; it is described in clause 4.3.

2.1. Essential

Essential cookies are always on, and the site provides no way to switch them off. They are not used for advertising or statistics.

Interface language i18n_locale, up to a year

Remembers the selected language (ru, en, ua) so it does not have to be set on every visit

Colour theme color_mode, up to a year

Remembers the light or dark theme

Bot protection cf_clearance, up to a year

Set by Cloudflare. Stores the result of an automatic check that the page is opened by a browser rather than a program sending mass requests

2.2. Analytics

Analytics cookies are set only after the User has consented to analytics. Before consent they are not in the browser at all, and if consent is declined they are deleted.

Attendance statistics _ga and _ga_ with the measurement ID, up to 2 years

Lets Google Analytics 4 tell a returning visit from a new one in order to count visitors

2.3. Browser local storage

The site makes one entry in browser local storage, cookie_consent. That entry holds the User's answer about cookies (consent or refusal), the date of the answer and the version number of the question. The entry stays in the browser, is not sent to our servers and is not stored by us. Browser local storage is not used to collect information about the User.

3. Consent to analytics

3.1. On a first visit a banner with a question about cookies appears at the bottom of the window. It gives a short note on why they are needed, a link to this document and three buttons: "Customise", "Decline" and "Accept". The banner does not block the page: the page can be read and scrolled while the question is unanswered.

3.2. While there is no answer, the site does not contact Google at all: the Google Analytics 4 script is not loaded, Google cookies are not set, and no data about the visit reaches Google. There is no implied consent: neither scrolling nor moving between pages counts as consent.

3.3. The "Accept" button turns on Google Analytics 4, a website attendance statistics service by Google. It sets its own cookies in the browser for up to two years and receives data about the visit that is used for statistical purposes: the page address, the referring page, the type of device and browser, an approximate location derived from the IP address, and the time and order of page views. We do not build a profile of an individual person from this data.

3.4. The "Decline" button leaves Google Analytics 4 switched off. A refusal is remembered in the same way as consent, and the question is not asked again.

3.5. The "Customise" button opens a choice by category. Essential cookies are shown there as enabled and cannot be disabled, analytics is switched on and off with a toggle, and the choice is saved with a separate button.

3.6. There are no advertising cookies on the site and we do not profile for advertising.

3.7. If we connect a different analytics system or change the set of cookies, this document will be updated before the change goes live, and the question about cookies will be asked again: the previous answer was given about the previous set.

3.8. The question in the banner concerns Google Analytics 4 only. The Cloudflare Web Analytics counter described in clause 4.3 sets no cookies and runs on every visit, except for visitors from the European Union, whatever the answer in the banner and the position of the "Analytics" toggle.

4. Third-party domains

4.1. Images (channel avatars, screenshots in breakdowns) are loaded from external cloud storage. The browser therefore contacts the storage domain; under our configuration this request is not used to set cookies.

4.2. The Google Analytics 4 script is loaded from the googletagmanager.com domain, and the data it collects goes to Google's servers. This happens only after consent: until it is given there is not a single request to that domain. How Google processes the data on its side is described in Google's own privacy documents.

4.3. The site is delivered through the Cloudflare network, which protects it from attacks and counts visits with the Cloudflare Web Analytics counter. The counter's script is loaded on every page from the static.cloudflareinsights.com domain, and the details of the page view are sent to the site's own address and processed by Cloudflare. The counter sets no cookies, stores nothing in the browser and does not track a person across visits or across websites. It receives the page address, the referring page, the type of browser and device, the country and page load speed measurements. The IP address does reach Cloudflare but, according to Cloudflare, is discarded and not stored. We see only aggregate figures for the site. The counter runs on every visit, regardless of the answer in the cookie banner. It is not switched on for visitors from the European Union. It can be switched off with a script blocker in the browser, and the site will keep working.

4.4. External links to Telegram and other resources are opened by the User's action. Once the transition happens, the rules of that resource apply, including its cookies.

5. How to manage cookies

5.1. The choice can be changed at any time: in the site footer, next to the legal documents, there is a "Cookie settings" link. It opens the same choice by category as the "Customise" button in the banner and shows the User's current answer.

5.2. When consent is withdrawn, the page reloads without the Google Analytics 4 script, and the Google Analytics cookies are deleted from the browser. The data Google managed to collect before the withdrawal is not deleted by this: it stays on Google's side and is subject to Google's own retention rules.

5.3. An answer applies in the browser in which it was given and covers all tabs of that browser. In another browser, on another device and after the site data has been cleared, the question is asked again. If the browser prevents sites from storing data, the answer cannot be saved and the question will be asked every time the site is opened.

5.4. Cookies can be deleted and blocked in your browser settings. Instructions are available in the help section of every browser. Separately from that, Google's official browser add-on blocks Google Analytics.

5.5. If essential cookies are blocked in your browser settings, the site will keep working but will stop remembering your language and theme.

6. Changes

The document is updated whenever the set of cookies changes. The current version is published on the site with an update date.