1. What cookies and local storage are
A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store and send back on later visits. Local storage and session storage do something similar but never travel to the server — the data stays on your device until it is cleared.
Cookies are usually described along two axes:
- First-party (set by the site you are visiting) or third-party (set by another domain whose content is embedded in the page).
- Session (deleted when you close the browser) or persistent (kept until an expiry date or until you delete them).
The privacy concern is overwhelmingly with persistent third-party cookies, because those are what allow a single company to recognise you across many unrelated websites and build a behavioural profile.
2. Our approach in one paragraph
This site sets no third-party cookies at all, because there is no third-party JavaScript on any page. It sets no advertising cookies and no analytics cookies. What it stores is a handful of preferences in your browser’s own local storage, which never leave your device and cannot be read by anyone else. You can verify all of this yourself by opening your browser’s developer tools on any page here and looking at the Application and Network panels.
Press F12, open the Network tab and reload this page. Every request should go to pcmaw.com and nowhere else. Then open Application → Storage. You will find the two or three keys listed below and nothing else. We would rather you checked than took our word for it.
3. Full inventory of what we store
This is the complete list. It is updated whenever anything changes, and the effective date at the top of this page reflects the last change.
3.1 Browser local storage (first-party, never transmitted)
| Key | Purpose | Contains | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
pcmaw_cookie_choice | Remembers your answer to the cookie notice so we stop asking | all or essential | Until you clear site data |
3.2 Browser session storage (cleared when you close the tab)
| Key | Purpose | Contains | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
pcmaw_topline_closed | Keeps the announcement bar dismissed for this visit | 1 | Until the tab is closed |
pcmaw_submission | Carries your reference number to the thank-you page after a form is submitted | Reference, first name, chosen topic | Until the tab is closed |
3.3 Server-side cookies
None on public pages. If we introduce a client portal or comment system that requires a session cookie, this table will be updated before that feature goes live, and the cookie will be strictly necessary, first-party and session-scoped.
3.4 Server logs
Not a cookie, but worth stating here for completeness: our web server writes an access log entry per request containing a truncated IP address (final octet discarded), timestamp, path, status code, referrer and user-agent. Entries are deleted after ninety days. They are used for aggregate traffic counts, security investigation and debugging, and are described in section 3.2 of the Privacy Policy.
4. What we deliberately do not use
| Technology | Used here? | Why not |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising cookies | No | We sell share-of-voice placements, which need no targeting data |
| Third-party analytics | No | Aggregate server-side counts answer our questions |
| Social media pixels | No | They exist to track you across sites |
| Session replay / heat maps | No | They record what you type and where you look |
| Device fingerprinting | No | Tracking without consent, by another name |
| Externally hosted fonts | No | Every font on this site is self-hosted |
| Embedded video players | No | They set cookies before you press play |
| Tag managers | No | They make it impossible to know what is running |
Each of those technologies is genuinely useful to somebody. They are also the reason a typical news article makes over a hundred requests to dozens of companies before you have read a sentence. We decided the trade was not worth it, and it is also why this site loads as quickly as it does.
5. Consent and lawful basis
Under the ePrivacy Directive and its national implementations, consent is required before storing information on a user’s device unless the storage is strictly necessary to provide a service the user has explicitly requested.
Everything in section 3 falls into the strictly-necessary category: remembering that you dismissed a notice, remembering your cookie preference, and carrying a reference number across one navigation. None of it is used for analytics, profiling or advertising, and none of it is shared with anyone.
We still show a notice, for two reasons. First, we would rather tell you what we store than assume you do not care. Second, choosing “Essential only” is a meaningful instruction to us not to add anything beyond that in future without asking again.
6. Managing and deleting stored data
Because everything is first-party and stored locally, clearing site data for pcmaw.com removes all of it immediately and completely. Nothing is retained on our side that could restore it.
- Open your browser’s site settings for pcmaw.com.
- Choose “Clear site data”, “Delete cookies and site data” or the equivalent.
- Reload the page. The cookie notice will appear again, because the record of your choice is what you just deleted.
Nothing on this site breaks if you block storage entirely. You will simply see the announcement bar and the cookie notice on every visit.
7. Browser-by-browser instructions
| Browser | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Chrome | Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies, and Site settings → View permissions and data stored across sites |
| Firefox | Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data → Manage Data |
| Safari (macOS) | Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data |
| Safari (iOS) | Settings app → Safari → Advanced → Website Data |
| Edge | Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Manage and delete cookies and site data |
| Brave | Settings → Shields, and Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies |
Browser interfaces change; if these paths are out of date, searching your browser’s help for “clear site data” will find the current one.
8. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
We honour both signals, although in practice there is nothing for them to switch off here. If your browser sends a Do Not Track header or a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as an instruction not to set any non-essential storage and, for jurisdictions where it carries legal weight, as a valid opt-out of sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information in any case.
9. Third-party content and cookies
We avoid embedding third-party content precisely because it sets cookies before you have any say. Where an article needs to reference material hosted elsewhere, we use a static image or a plain link rather than an embed.
Once you follow a link to another website, that site’s cookies and policies apply, and we have no control over them. Advertising we sell is served from our own origin as a static image and a link; it sets nothing and loads no third-party script.
Tell us at [email protected] and we will investigate the same day. An undocumented cookie on this site would be a bug, and we would rather hear about it from you than not at all.
10. Changes to this policy
If we ever add a cookie or a new form of local storage, we will update the inventory in section 3 before the change goes live, update the effective date, and — if the addition is not strictly necessary — ask for your consent before setting it. We will not quietly expand what we store.
How to reach us about this document
Questions, complaints and requests relating to this policy should go to our legal contact rather than the general inbox, so they are logged and tracked properly:
- Email: [email protected]
- Post: PC MAW Media, 44 Kestrel Lane, Suite 12, Syracuse, NY 13202, United States
- Response time: five working days for acknowledgement, thirty days for substantive resolution
You can also use the contact form and select the closest topic. Related documents: Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Cookie Policy, Disclaimer and DMCA Notice.