Policy
Cookie Policy
This Cookie Policy explains what cookies and similar technologies Essencyclopedia uses, why they are used, and how visitors can manage them. It is meant to describe the site as it actually works now, while also making space for the consent structure we plan to use as advertising, embedded media, or partner tools are added later.
Short version: Essencyclopedia currently uses strictly necessary cookies and first-party audience measurement. If Google advertising, embedded YouTube media, or affiliate tracking technologies are enabled later, they will sit in separate consent categories instead of being mixed into the necessary ones.
You can change these choices any time through the Cookie Preferences control in the footer.
What cookies and similar technologies are
Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. Similar technologies can include local storage, security tokens, embedded media storage, or other browser-side identifiers that help a website remember state, keep a session secure, measure usage, or load external services.
Some of these technologies are strictly necessary for a website to function. Others support measurement, advertising, media embeds, or partner attribution and should be handled more carefully.
How Essencyclopedia organizes consent
Essencyclopedia uses the following consent categories as its long-term structure:
Necessary
Required for secure site operation, session state, form protection, and sign-in verification.
Analytics
Used to understand which pages are visited, how readers arrive, and how the site performs.
Advertising
Reserved for Google advertising, ad measurement, and related consent signals when advertising is enabled.
External Media
Reserved for embedded media such as YouTube videos or other third-party players.
Marketing and Affiliate Tracking
Reserved for partner attribution or affiliate tools that introduce non-essential tracking technologies.
Cookies and technologies currently used on the site
At the time of writing, Essencyclopedia mainly uses necessary technologies and first-party analytics. The list below focuses on the cookies and similar storage currently relevant to site operation.
essencyclopedia-session
Necessary
Keeps the Laravel session working for forms, internal tools, sign-in state, and other secure session-based functionality.
Session-based or until timeout
XSRF-TOKEN
Necessary
Helps protect forms and state-changing requests against cross-site request forgery.
Short-lived / session-related
ec_vid
Analytics
Stores a pseudonymous first-party visitor identifier used by Essencyclopedia's own audience measurement system.
Up to 2 years
g_csrf_token
Necessary
Used only when Google sign-in is involved to verify the integrity of the sign-in request.
Short-lived
What our first-party analytics currently measure
Essencyclopedia uses its own first-party analytics to understand how the site is being used. This measurement is not designed to build a named profile around a reader. It is focused on site performance, content usefulness, and high-level traffic patterns.
Depending on the request, this measurement can include:
- the page path and route visited;
- the content type and content slug;
- the referrer host or source URL;
- campaign parameters such as
utm_source,utm_medium, andutm_campaign; - device type, browser family, and operating system family;
- country-level geography when available from infrastructure headers;
- a pseudonymous session hash and pseudonymous visitor hash;
- an anonymized IP representation instead of a full analytics-facing IP record.
What is not in the current analytics model
- No city-level tracking is intentionally stored in the current analytics UI.
- No cross-site advertising profile is intentionally built by Essencyclopedia's own analytics layer.
- No visitor data is sold by Essencyclopedia.
Advertising, embedded media, and affiliate tools
Essencyclopedia plans to leave room for additional tools later, but they should not be treated as part of the necessary layer.
If and when these features are enabled, they will be handled under separate categories:
- Google Ads / AdSense: will fall under Advertising.
- Embedded YouTube videos: will fall under External Media.
- Affiliate tools that introduce partner tracking technologies: will fall under Marketing and Affiliate Tracking.
That means these tools should not be merged into the necessary category simply because they are useful to the site owner. If they rely on non-essential storage or third-party tracking, they should be disclosed and handled through user choice where legally required.
How newsletter and contact data fit into this
The newsletter form and contact form involve data processing, but they are not mainly cookie categories in themselves. If a reader subscribes to the newsletter or submits a contact message, the information entered into the form is handled under the broader Privacy Policy rather than treated as a standalone cookie category.
How to manage choices
As Essencyclopedia's consent interface is expanded, readers should be able to:
- accept all optional categories;
- reject non-essential categories;
- open a preferences center and change choices later;
- see embedded media placeholders instead of auto-loaded third-party players where appropriate.
You can revisit cookie choices through the Cookie Preferences control in the footer. As the stack grows, that preferences layer should stay aligned with the actual technologies in use instead of becoming a decorative banner with outdated settings behind it.
Changes to this policy
This policy may be updated as Essencyclopedia adds advertising, external embeds, affiliate tools, or a more complete consent-management interface. When the technology stack changes in a meaningful way, the cookie descriptions and category mapping should be updated to match it.
Contact
If you have questions about cookies, tracking, or data use on Essencyclopedia, use the contact form.