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Cookies and browser storage

What this website stores in your browser, and why. We use no advertising or analytics cookies.

The short version

This website does not use advertising, analytics or social media tracking. It stores a few small items in your browser to remember choices you make and to keep the site working and secure. We do not use them to identify you or to follow you across other websites.

What we store for every visitor

  • mm-color-mode (local storage): remembers light or dark mode when you choose one with the theme switch. Kept until you clear your browser data.
  • mm-announcement-dismissed (local storage): remembers that you closed an announcement at the top of the page, so it stays closed. Kept until you clear your browser data.
  • mm:ai-autorun (session storage): lets Ask MetaMatrix answer, at the top of the search results, a question you just sent from our "Ask MetaMatrix" bar. It holds a short code, not your question, and is removed as soon as it is used or after 60 seconds.
  • mm.ask.v1 (session storage): keeps your Ask MetaMatrix conversation and the size of its window while this browser tab is open, so the chat survives moving between pages. It holds your questions and the answers, stays in your browser (only the question you are asking is sent to us) and is deleted when you start a new conversation or close the tab.
  • mm:mobile-nav-chunk-reload and mm:ai-chat-chunk-reload (session storage): set only when the menu or the Ask MetaMatrix window could not load, so that the page reloads once to fix it and never again in that tab. They hold no personal information and end when you close the tab.

Set by other services, only when you use them

  • Cloudflare Turnstile: when we switch on this bot protection for our forms, a check from challenges.cloudflare.com runs on the form page and may store data in your browser to tell people from automated traffic. Cloudflare's privacy policy applies.
  • Videos: embedded videos load only after you click play, from YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com) or from Vimeo with "do not track" on. Once playing, the video provider may set its own cookies or storage.
  • Maps and other links: links to maps or other websites open the other site; nothing is loaded from it until you click.

For our content editors only

Staff who preview unpublished pages get two cookies, __prerender_bypass and wsite-preview, which show draft content for up to one hour. Our content management system runs on a separate address with its own sign-in cookies for staff. Visitors never receive these cookies.

What we do not do

  • No analytics, advertising, profiling or social media cookies.
  • No sale or sharing of browsing data.
  • No "fingerprinting" to recognise your device.

Everything above is either needed to provide the website you asked for or remembers a choice you made, so we do not show a cookie banner. If we ever add analytics or similar tools, we will update this notice first and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

How to control them

You can view, clear or block cookies and site data in your browser settings. The website still works without them; it just forgets your theme choice, any announcements you closed and your Ask MetaMatrix conversation. Voice questions need your permission to use the microphone, which you can withdraw in your browser settings at any time.

Questions

Our privacy notice explains how we handle personal data. For anything else, contact us.

Your MetaMatrix account

When you sign in to a MetaMatrix account, the account pages (on the address of our content management system, not this website's) set the cookies below. Except for the theme choice, they are strictly necessary to sign you in securely, so they need no consent. They hold random codes, never your name, email address or password.

  • __Host-wsite-portal (cookie, strictly necessary): keeps you signed in. Deleted when you sign out. It stops working after 30 minutes without activity, and expires after 8 hours at the most.
  • __Host-wsite-oauth-… (cookie whose name ends in 8 letters and digits, strictly necessary): ties a sign-in you started to the answer from the identity provider you chose, so nobody can complete it in your place. Deleted when the sign-in finishes, and after 10 minutes at the most.
  • __Host-wsite-oauth-reg (cookie, strictly necessary): keeps your confirmed sign-in for the "Finish creating your account" step. Deleted when you finish, and after 10 minutes at the most.
  • __Host-wsite-portal-bye (cookie, strictly necessary): set for 10 minutes after you delete your account, so the confirmation page can be shown. It holds no information about you.
  • wsite-theme (cookie, a choice you make): remembers light or dark mode when you choose one on the account pages. Kept for one year, or until you choose automatic mode again or clear your browser data.

Signing in takes you to the identity provider you chose (such as Google or Microsoft), which sets its own cookies under its own policies. When we switch on bot protection for new accounts, Cloudflare Turnstile runs on the "Finish creating your account" page and may store data in your browser to tell people from automated traffic, as described above for our forms.