Cookie Policy

Last updated: 2026-06-21

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files stored on your device by your browser when you visit websites. They serve essential functions (e.g. remembering your session). Our analytics do not use cookies at all — see Section 3.

2. Cookies We Use

Name	Purpose	Type	Duration
`v7_session`	Authentication session	Strictly necessary	24 hours
`user_role`	Role-based routing (HMAC-signed)	Strictly necessary	24 hours
`subscription_tier`	Tier-based access (HMAC-signed)	Strictly necessary	24 hours
`lang`	Language preference	Functional	365 days

We use no analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies. All cookies listed above are either strictly necessary or a basic functional preference, and none are used to profile you.

3. Analytics Are Cookieless

We measure aggregate site usage with Umami, a privacy-first analytics tool that we self-host on our own infrastructure (served from the same domain at volumecatcher.com/umami). Umami sets no cookies, performs no cross-site tracking, and does not build a fingerprint of your device. It records anonymous, aggregated page-view counts only. We also do not record the search-query (?…) or fragment (#…) portions of URLs.

We do not use third-party tracking cookies (Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc.). Analytics data stays within our own infrastructure and is not exposed to any end-user API.

4. Managing Cookies

You can clear all cookies through your browser settings, though doing so will sign you out and lose your tier verification (you would need to log in again). Because our analytics are cookieless, there is no analytics cookie to decline.

Strictly necessary cookies cannot be disabled · they are required for the Service to function (authentication, security, tier gating).

5. Legal Basis

Strictly necessary cookies: GDPR Art. 6(1)(b) (contract performance) · ePrivacy Directive Art. 5(3) exception. The functional language preference relies on the same necessity exception. Our cookieless, aggregate analytics process no personal data via your device storage and therefore do not rely on consent under the ePrivacy Directive.