Cookie Policy

1. What a cookie is

A cookie is a small text file that a site asks your browser to keep. On the next visit the browser sends it back, so the site can recognise the same browser and remember settings. Alongside cookies, sites use related browser storage — local storage, session storage and service worker registrations — which work differently in technical terms but serve the same purposes, and are covered by this policy as well.

RealmFocus does not use cookies to build a profile of you as a person, and we do not sell what they record.

2. Categories we use

Essential

Needed for the site to be delivered and to behave correctly. Without them pages cannot be served securely and your choices cannot be remembered.

• Security and load balancing entries set by our hosting and content delivery provider — session-length up to 12 months.
• The cookie notice decision, stored locally in your browser under the key rf-cookie-choice, so the notice does not reappear on every page — until you clear site data.
• A service worker registration used for browser notifications, present only if you allow them.

Essential storage does not need consent, because the site cannot work without it.

Nothing about a Plus membership is kept in a cookie. Whether you are on the Plus list, whether a seat has been confirmed and when the membership started are held against your address by our e-mail provider, and the site itself does not read that state from your browser.

Analytics

Used to count visits, see which entries are read and understand where readers stop scrolling, in aggregate form. This tells us which parts of the catalogue deserve more work.

• Measurement identifiers distinguishing one browser from another — typically up to 13 months.
• Session counters recording page views within a single visit — typically 24 hours or less.

Set only after you accept in the cookie notice.

Advertising and marketing

Used by advertising partners to limit how often the same promotion is shown, to measure whether a placement worked and to keep promotional content roughly relevant.

• Frequency and attribution identifiers set by advertising networks — typically up to 13 months.
• Subscription identifiers for browser notifications, held by OneSignal, our push provider — until you turn notifications off.

Set only after you accept in the cookie notice, and, for notifications, only after your browser asks you separately.

3. Consent and how to change it

When you first open the site, a notice at the bottom of the screen offers Accept and Decline. Your decision is kept in your browser and the notice stops appearing. Declining leaves only the essential category active.

To change the decision later, clear this site's cookies and browser storage — the notice will appear again on your next visit and you can answer differently. Nothing here prevents you from browsing the catalogue: reading the site works the same whichever answer you give.

4. Turning storage off in the browser

Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies and site data, either for all sites or for one site at a time:

• Chrome — Settings, then Privacy and security, then Third-party cookies and Site data.
• Safari — Settings, then Privacy, then Manage Website Data.
• Firefox — Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Cookies and Site Data.
• Edge — Settings, then Cookies and site permissions.

Blocking everything is your right, but it can stop parts of the site from behaving as intended, and the notice will reappear on every visit because the record of your choice cannot be stored.

5. Push notifications

Browser notifications are separate from cookies and always ask for their own permission. If you allow them, our push provider OneSignal stores a subscription identifier for that browser together with basic technical attributes, and the site registers a service worker file to receive messages. Turning notifications off in the browser or the operating system ends the subscription; you can also write to us and ask that the record be deleted.

6. More detail and contact

What we do with the information collected through this storage, how long we keep it, who processes it and which rights you have under the Privacy Act 1988 are set out in our privacy policy. The rules for using the site itself are in the terms of use.

Questions about cookies go to studio@realmfocus.com.