Cookie Policy: No Cookies for Readers, WordPress Sign-in Cookies for Editors, and YouTube’s Videos

Reading the site

Reading a page or using a calculator sets no cookie, and the site’s own scripts store nothing in your browser. What you type into a calculator stays in that page in your browser, and the site doesn’t keep it.

The site’s editors

WordPress, which runs the site, sets its sign-in cookies only for the site’s editors, when they sign in. They keep an editor signed in until the browser closes or, if the editor asks to be remembered, for about two weeks. Once an editor is signed in, WordPress also keeps their dashboard settings in a cookie for a year, and the dashboard keeps some unsaved work in their browser.

Opening the editors’ sign-in page sets one test cookie, which only checks that the browser accepts cookies. Nothing on the site links to that page.

YouTube’s videos

Some pages embed YouTube videos, which load from youtube-nocookie.com by themselves as you scroll near them. As soon as one loads, before you play it, YouTube stores information in your browser’s storage, and it may store more when you play it. The privacy page lists the videos and says what YouTube receives, and Google’s page on cookies says how Google uses them.

Cloudflare

Cloudflare, which delivers the site, sets no cookie on an ordinary visit. If it ever stops a visit to check that it comes from a person, it may set a cookie of its own to remember the check. Cloudflare’s cookie policy lists them.

If this changes

The site may carry advertising in future. If it does, this page and the privacy page change first, and say what the advertising stores and collects.