Cookie Policy
Last updated: 16 July 2026
- We have two cookies, both technical, both living 2 hours.
- There are no advertising or tracking cookies at all — neither ours nor anyone else’s.
- We count statistics without cookies, server-side.
- Delete them whenever you like — the site will keep working.
1. What cookies are
A cookie is a small file that a site asks your browser to store and send back on subsequent requests. Cookies are typically used for two very different things: making the site work at all (session, form security) — and following you around for advertising. We only do the first.
2. Which cookies we use
The complete list. Both are set by our own site (first-party), are transmitted over HTTPS only and are inaccessible to other sites.
| Name | Purpose | Category | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| observatory_session | Session identifier: ties your requests together so that forms and request-forgery protection work. | Strictly necessary | 2 hours |
| XSRF-TOKEN | Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) protection token. Without it, submitting forms is not safe. | Strictly necessary | 2 hours |
Both carry the secure and SameSite=Lax flags; the session cookie is additionally HttpOnly (inaccessible to scripts).
3. Your banner choice is not a cookie
When you click a button in the banner, your choice is saved in the browser’s localStorage under the key cookie-consent — so the banner is not shown again. That is browser storage, not a cookie: it is never sent to our server and stays with you.
Clearing site data in your browser removes it too — the banner will simply reappear.
4. How we count statistics without cookies
We care which pages get read — but we do not need to follow you around to learn that. So we set no analytics cookie and embed no external counters. Instead, the server records that a page was opened and computes a pseudonymous identifier — an irreversible hash of your IP, user-agent and the site’s secret key.
What that means in practice:
- the identifier works only inside our site and is useless anywhere else;
- it cannot be reversed into your IP or your identity;
- nothing is stored in your browser — there is nothing to delete.
The full contents of this data and the legal basis are described in the Privacy Policy, along with how to object to this processing.
5. What we do not have
The site contains none of the following:
- Google Analytics or any other external analytics systems;
- Facebook, VK, TikTok or other social network pixels;
- ad networks and retargeting;
- third-party fonts or scripts loaded from other domains;
- cookies set by advertisers or affiliate programmes.
Following an affiliate link takes you to the provider’s site — from that point on their rules and their cookies apply, and we have no influence over them.
6. Cloudflare
The site runs through the Cloudflare network (attack protection and acceleration). Under normal conditions it sets no cookies for you — we verified this. However, on suspicious activity Cloudflare may set a technical cookie to filter out bots (for example __cf_bm). That is a protective mechanism, not advertising or tracking.
7. How to control all this
You can delete cookies and site data in your browser settings at any time, or block them for our domain. The site will remain fully readable — the only thing that may stop working is submitting a review, because request-forgery protection is impossible without a cookie.
Since we have no advertising or analytics cookies, a separate “consent preferences centre” would be a simulation of choice: there is simply nothing to switch off.
8. Changes
If the set of cookies changes, we will update this page and the date at the top. Questions: the contact form
Related documents: Privacy Policy · Terms of Use