Cookie policy, with nothing hidden.
This site uses no profiling cookies and no advertising cookies: no ad network, no tracking pixel, no social widget embedded in the pages.
What it does use is all listed below: two technical keys held in your browser's own storage, which need no consent, and the two Google Analytics cookies, which only appear if you pick "That's fine" on the banner.
Cookies and browser storage are not the same thing
A cookie is a small file the browser saves and sends back to the server with every request: it travels over the network, which is exactly why it is the technology people are normally tracked with. localStorage and sessionStorage, on the other hand, are two stores that stay inside the browser: whatever goes in there is never sent anywhere and no server receives it.
This site uses both, for different jobs: browser storage for two technical preferences, cookies purely and exclusively for Google Analytics. It is a dull distinction but an honest one, and it explains why two of the four rows below do not ask your permission: they cannot follow you, they never leave your device.
The full table
| Name | Type | Purpose | Lifetime | Consent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fdg-consent | localStorage, technical | Stores the choice you made on the banner, so you are not asked again on every page. | Permanent, until you clear the site's data | No consent needed |
| fdg-scroll-target | sessionStorage, technical | Takes you to the right section after the page changes. | The browsing session | No consent needed |
| _ga | Google Analytics cookie, analytics | Tells users apart. | 2 years | Consent required |
| _ga_0NENKMN172 | Google Analytics cookie, analytics | Keeps the session state. | 2 years | Consent required |
There is no hidden fifth row: nothing else writes anything to your device while you are here.
How consent works
On your first visit a banner appears at the bottom of the page with two buttons, "That's fine" and "No, thanks". Until you choose, Google's script is not downloaded: there are no analytics cookies waiting in the wings, and no countdown that treats your silence as a yes.
- Pick "That's fine" and the site loads Google Analytics 4 (property id G-0NENKMN172) with IP anonymisation switched on, which is when the two cookies in the table appear.
- Pick "No, thanks" and the banner goes away, leaving only the "no" saved in fdg-consent. No Analytics, no cookies.
Changing your mind
From the "Cookie preferences" link
At the bottom of every page, in the row of footer links, there is a Cookie preferences button. Click it and the banner comes back: from there you can accept if you declined before, or withdraw if you accepted before. When you withdraw, the site blocks any further calls to Google Analytics and clears the cookies already written to your browser. No need to email me, no need to justify yourself: it is one click, and it takes effect straight away.
From your browser settings
You can also block everything upstream, without going through this page at all. Every browser has a privacy section where you can refuse cookies, clear the data of a single site, or wipe it automatically when you close the window. It is the blunter method, and it works on any site, not just this one.
One practical warning: clearing the site's data also removes fdg-consent, which is the memory of your choice. On your next visit the banner will show up again, because the site will have lost the only record it had of your "no".
What I actually measure
With Analytics I look at how many people arrive, where they come from, which pages they read and which ones they close immediately. It tells me whether a piece of writing works and whether a page deserves to exist, not who you are. In the site's code Analytics is configured with IP anonymisation and nothing else: there is no advertising tag, no remarketing pixel and no connection to any ad network. The full picture, with legal bases and retention periods, is in the privacy policy.
Links to other services
WhatsApp, LinkedIn, GitHub, the App Store and Bandcamp appear here as links, not as embedded content: no video, no map and no third-party widget is loaded inside these pages, so none of those services can write a cookie while you are reading. The moment you follow one of those links you leave the site, and from there the rules of whoever runs it apply.
Questions
If anything above is still unclear, or if you simply want to talk about a project, you will find me on the contact page or at info@degiorgio.dev. I answer personally, usually within 24 hours, cookie questions included.