Cookies
Last updated August 11, 2026
What we set ourselves
| Purpose | Set by | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-in session | Clerk | Keeps you logged in between visits. Without it you’d sign in on every page. |
| Payment session | Stripe | Runs checkout and detects fraud during payment. |
| Local preferences | This site | Stored in your browser, not sent to us: your saved wishlist while signed out, unsent draft submissions, and whether you’ve dismissed the install prompt. |
These are strictly necessary for the site to work as you’d expect. Blocking them will break sign-in and payment.
Advertising cookies
Free content carries ads served by Google. Google may set cookies to decide which ads to show, limit how often you see the same one, and measure whether it was watched. We don’t control these and we don’t receive the data behind them — only aggregate performance figures.
You can control this at myadcenter.google.com, or opt out of personalised advertising across many companies at optout.aboutads.info.
Cipher Circle members see no ads, and no ad request is made for them, so no advertising cookies are set on their behalf.
What we don’t use
No Google Analytics. No Facebook pixel. No cross-site tracking or data brokers. Our view counters record that an episode was opened, not who opened it.
Managing cookies
Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies in its settings. Blocking everything will stop you signing in or subscribing here, and will break plenty of other sites too.
Questions
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