Cookie Policy
Last updated 28 July 2026
1. What this covers
A cookie is a small file a site stores on your device. This policy also covers the equivalent technologies we use — local storage and session storage — because the law treats them the same way. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains what we do with personal data once we have it.
2. Your choice, and how to change it
The first time you visit, we ask before setting anything that is not strictly necessary. Until you agree, the optional scripts are never loaded at all, so nothing is sent to Google or anyone else. Refusing is a single click and costs you no functionality.
You can change or withdraw your consent at any time — it is as easy as giving it. Use the button below, or the “Cookie settings” link in the footer of every page. Withdrawing consent also deletes the cookies that consent allowed. You can additionally clear or block cookies in your browser settings, though blocking the strictly necessary ones will stop you from signing in.
3. Cookies we use
We record your choice with a timestamp and the version of this policy, and we ask again at least every six months. If we add a vendor or a new purpose, your stored choice is reset and we ask again before using it.
Strictly necessary
Always onThese are exempt from consent because the Service cannot be delivered without them (ePrivacy Directive Art. 5(3)). They are all first-party and none of them are used to track you across other websites.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| sb-<project>-auth-token | Supabase (our database and authentication host) | Keeps you signed in between visits and lets our servers prove which account a request belongs to. | Up to 1 year, or until you sign out |
| orthodate_consent | Orthodate | Records the cookie choices you make on this banner, together with the date and the version of this policy, so we do not ask again and can show that you were asked. | 6 months |
| _GRECAPTCHA | Google (reCAPTCHA) | Set when you use the contact form, to tell real people apart from bots. It is a security measure, not an advertising cookie. | 6 months |
| orthodate.units · orthodate_onboarding · orthodate.discover | Orthodate (local and session storage, not cookies) | Remembers the settings you picked yourself: miles or kilometres, how far you got through sign-up, and your place in the Discover deck so a refresh does not lose it. | Until you clear your browser, or the end of the tab session |
Analytics
Off until you allow itUsed only with your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)). We use Google Analytics 4 with IP addresses truncated and Google Signals off unless you also allow the personalisation category. Nothing in this category is loaded — not even the script — until you say yes.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Google Analytics | Tells one browser apart from another so a returning visit is not counted twice. It does not tell us who you are. | 2 years |
| _ga_<container-id> | Google Analytics | Holds the state of the current session for our specific property. | 2 years |
Personalisation and advertising
Off until you allow itUsed only with your consent (GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)). We do not sell your personal data and there is no third-party advertising on Orthodate. Leaving this off costs you nothing.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| _gcl_au | Measures whether a visit that came from one of our own campaigns led to a sign-up. | 3 months | |
| Google Signals | Allows Google to associate your visit with a signed-in Google account for aggregated demographics and remarketing audiences. | Set by Google |
4. Cookies set by others
Where a cookie in the tables above is set by Google, Google acts as an independent controller for it and its own notice applies in addition to ours. Some of these providers are outside the EEA and the UK; those transfers are covered by Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent safeguard. We do not sell your personal data and we do not run third-party advertising on Orthodate.
5. Do Not Track and global signals
We honour Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends a GPC or Do Not Track signal, we treat it as a refusal of the optional categories and will not ask you to reconsider on that browser.
6. Questions
If you want to know more about a specific cookie, or you would like to exercise any of your rights under the GDPR, reach us through our contact form. You also have the right to complain to your local data-protection authority.