Cookie Policy
Last updated 5 August 2026. This page lists every cookie and storage entry this site can set, explains why each exists, and shows how to change your mind after you have chosen.
1. What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to keep and send back on the next request. It lets a stateless medium remember something, which is how a site can recall that you already dismissed a notice or that this is your third visit this week.
Related technologies do the same job differently. Local storage keeps a value in the browser until it is cleared and never travels with requests, while session storage disappears when the tab closes. This policy covers all three because from a privacy point of view they raise the same questions.
2. Our approach
We run a small editorial site and we keep storage to the minimum that makes it work. Nothing on ActuVoyage requires an account, so there are no login cookies, no shopping basket and no personalisation profile behind the pages you read.
Anything not strictly necessary is off until you allow it. If you choose "Necessary only" in the banner, no analytics entry is created at all rather than being created and then ignored.
3. Necessary storage
One entry is unavoidable: the record of your own cookie choice. Without it the banner would reappear on every page you open, which would be both irritating and a worse privacy outcome, since you would be asked to decide again and again.
Security and load balancing at the hosting layer may also set a short-lived cookie to route your requests consistently and to filter automated attacks. These carry no reading history and expire with the session.
4. Analytics storage
With your consent we count page views, referrers, approximate region, device class and how far down a review people scroll. That is what tells us whether the cost section is being read or skipped, and whether a rewrite improved matters.
These measurements are aggregated before we look at them. We do not attach them to a name, we do not follow readers across other websites, and we do not run advertising or retargeting pixels anywhere on this domain.
5. Cookies and storage in use
| Name | Type | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| av_consent | Local storage, necessary | Stores whether you accepted all cookies or necessary ones only, so the banner is not shown again. | Until cleared, reviewed after 12 months |
| av_session | Cookie, necessary | Keeps your requests on the same server instance and supports abuse filtering during a visit. | End of browser session |
| _av_stat | Cookie, analytics | Distinguishes one visit from another so that page views are not double counted. | 24 hours |
| _av_depth | Cookie, analytics | Records scroll depth per page in aggregate form to show which sections readers finish. | 30 days |
If you ever find an entry on this domain that is not in the table above, treat it as an error on our part and tell us. We would rather remove something unexpected than explain it away.
6. Cookies we deliberately avoid
There are no advertising cookies, no social widget trackers, no session recording tools and no fingerprinting scripts on this site. Social links in the footer are ordinary hyperlinks, not embedded widgets, so those platforms learn nothing about you until you click.
We also avoid embedded video players and third party font services, which is why our typefaces are served from our own domain. Fewer external requests means fewer parties involved in your visit.
7. Third party storage
Where analytics is permitted, the provider may set the entries listed in the table under our instruction and as our processor. They may not use those measurements for their own purposes, combine them with data from other sites or resell them.
Studio websites you reach through a View more control are outside this policy entirely. They will set their own cookies according to their own rules, and you should read their notices if that matters to you.
8. Changing your choice
Your consent is stored on your device, so removing it is straightforward. Clear site data for actuvoyage.com in your browser settings and the banner will appear again on the next page load, letting you choose differently.
You can also refuse everything at the browser level. Most browsers can block cookies for a specific site, or block all third party cookies globally, and this site remains fully readable under those settings.
9. Browser controls
Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari all expose cookie controls under privacy settings, including per-site permissions and an option to clear storage on exit. Mobile browsers offer the same controls in a different place, usually under site settings.
Private or incognito windows discard everything when the window closes, which means our banner will greet you on each new private session. That is expected behaviour rather than a fault.
10. Effect of refusing
Refusing analytics costs you nothing. Every review, table and reference section stays available, the support chat still works and page speed is unaffected.
Blocking the necessary consent entry only means the banner cannot remember your answer, so it will keep asking. Nothing else on the site depends on storage.
11. Consent lifetime
We treat a consent decision as valid for twelve months. After that the banner returns so you can confirm or change it, because a choice made a year ago is not reliable evidence of a current preference.
If we add a new category of storage before those twelve months are up, we ask again immediately rather than assuming your earlier answer covers something you have never seen.
12. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
If your browser sends a Do Not Track header or a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a refusal of analytics and skip those entries without showing you the banner at all.
Support for these signals varies by browser and extension, so we do not rely on them alone. The banner remains the primary mechanism for recording a choice.
13. Children
This site is aimed at people commissioning software, not at children, and nothing here is designed to attract a young audience. We do not knowingly set analytics storage for anyone we believe to be under 16.
Because we never link storage to an identity, we cannot detect a child reader directly. If you supervise one and want the record removed, clearing site data achieves it completely.
14. Updates to this policy
This page changes when our tooling changes. If a provider is replaced or a new entry is introduced, the table above is updated first and the date at the top of the page moves with it.
Material changes trigger a fresh consent request, so you will not be silently opted into something new on the strength of an old decision.
15. Questions
Ask us about anything on this page through the contact channels on our social profiles, linked in the footer. Requests to explain or remove a specific entry are handled the same way as any other privacy request.
For the wider picture of what we do with information, read the Privacy Policy, which covers server logs, retention periods and your rights in more detail.
