Last updated: 2026-11-04

Local Storage & Your Choices

This site doesn't use cookies, and nothing it stores ever leaves your browser: no server sees it, no third party sees it, and none of it is used to track you across other sites. It still asks before storing anything beyond the current page, because UK and EU rules on web storage cover far more than cookies, and a plain explanation is worth more here than a buried line in a policy nobody reads.

What's actually stored, and why

A handful of features on this site remember something about your last visit so they don't have to start from scratch every time. Each belongs to one of three groups below. None of it identifies you, none of it is shared, and all of it lives in your browser's own storage (localStorage), not a cookie.

One more thing is kept in sessionStorage rather than either of the choices below: the trail of pages you've visited this browsing session, used to show "that connects back to..." hints as you move around. It's cleared automatically the moment you close the tab, so it isn't covered by the choices on this page — there's nothing to remember beyond the session for it to need consent for.localStorage survives tab close; sessionStorage does not

Your choices

Pick what each group below is allowed to remember between visits. Nothing is stored until you choose, and you can change your mind here at any time — including turning something off and clearing out what's already saved.data vanishes if you clear browser storage

Toon's settings & memory

Whether Toon (the on-page companion) is switched on, their appearance and behaviour settings, where they were last standing, and a once-a-day flag for the Guy Fawkes fireworks surprise.

If you decline: Toon resets to the site default every time you load a page, forgets where they were standing, and the fireworks surprise can play more than once a day.

Quiz progress

Which quiz questions you've already been asked on a given page, so a repeat visit doesn't just re-serve the same set every time.

If you decline: the quiz has no memory of what you've already tried, and may repeat questions.

Site display preferences

Your colour theme choice (default, dark, or high contrast), whether the illuminated initials are switched on, a couple of panels' open/closed state, which Concept Atlas view you last used, and whether you've turned off the seasonal border art.

If you decline: all of these reset to the site default every time you arrive, rather than staying as you left them.

The rule behind this page

The UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) don't single out cookies by name. Regulation 6 covers any technology used to store information on, or read information from, a visitor's device, and the Information Commissioner's Office's current guidance is explicit that this includes localStorage and similar browser storage, not just cookies[1]. Consent has to be an active, deliberate choice — continuing to browse the site, or ignoring a banner, doesn't count as agreeing[1]. That's why nothing on this site is stored until you say so here (or in the small notice that offers a quicker Accept/Decline on your first visit), and why declining is exactly as easy as accepting.

One thing is exempt from needing its own consent: the record of the choice you make on this page. Remembering that you were asked, and what you said, is treated as strictly necessary — otherwise this notice would have to interrupt you on every single visit, forever, just to ask the same question again.strictly necessary means essential for the service

Clearing everything this site has stored

This removes every key listed above, regardless of your current choices, and leaves your consent choice itself untouched.

References

  1. Information Commissioner's Office. Guidance on the use of storage and access technologies. ico.org.uk.

Graduate Attributes

Directly developed

  • Digitally Fluent: Readers decide which specific browser storage features to enable or disable for their personal use.
  • Self-Directed Learner: Readers manage their own digital environment by configuring site settings to match their preferences.

Modelled on this page

  • Critical Thinker: Legal regulations are interpreted to explain why specific technical choices were made regarding user consent.
  • Confident Communicator: Technical concepts like local storage and session data are explained in plain language for a general audience.

University of Reading Graduate Attributes framework.