Cookies in brief
Cookies are tiny text files that a website saves on your device. Websites use them to remember things between pages and visits. Similar tools, such as your browser’s local storage, do much the same job, and when this page says “cookies” it covers those too.
Some last only until you close your browser (session cookies). Others stay for a set time (persistent cookies).
We keep our use of them small. Right now we use only what the service needs to work, and nothing for advertising.
What we use and why
| Type | What it is for | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-in (studios) | Keeps you logged in as you move around your account | Until you log out, at most 400 days |
| Sign-in check | Completes a Google sign-in or an email link safely | A few minutes |
| Gallery access | Remembers that you have unlocked a password-protected gallery | 30 days, or until the studio changes the password or link |
| Your name for favorites | Remembers who is picking favorites in a gallery, so your picks stay yours | 1 year |
| Download PIN | Remembers that you entered the download PIN | 12 hours |
| Visit count | Stops one visit being counted twice in a studio’s statistics | 6 hours |
All of these are strictly necessary, which means the service cannot work properly without them. They are not used to track you or to build a profile of you.
Studios uploading photos may also have unfinished uploads kept in their own browser storage for up to 20 hours, so an upload can carry on after the page is closed. Our usage statistics (PostHog) and error reports (Sentry) do not use cookies.
What we do not use
- No advertising or retargeting cookies.
- No tracking of you across other websites.
- No selling or sharing of cookie data with advertisers.
Cookies from other companies
Some of the companies that help us run the service may set technical cookies when you use it:
- Supabase handles sign-in, so it stores your login session.
- Cloudflare may set security cookies while delivering files and protecting the service.
- Paystack, our payment provider, may use cookies on its payment pages.
These companies have their own policies for what they do, and we ask them to use cookies only to provide their service to us.
Controlling cookies
- In your browser. Most browsers let you see, block or delete cookies from their settings or privacy menu. Doing so for all sites, or just ours, is up to you.
- The trade-off. If you block the necessary cookies, you will probably not be able to sign in, and protected galleries may not open.
- Do Not Track. We do not track you across sites, so there is nothing for a Do Not Track signal to switch off.
Because we use only necessary cookies, we do not show a cookie banner asking you to opt in. If we ever add anything optional, we will ask first and update this page.
Updates to this policy
We will change this page when our use of cookies changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. For how we handle personal data more broadly, see our Privacy Policy.
Questions
Write to support@carltonmedia.net if you have questions about cookies.