Cookie Policy

A cookie is a small text file placed on your device when you visit a website. Cookies help a site remember who you are, keep you logged in, and measure how the site is used. We also use similar technologies such as local storage, which works in a comparable way.

Essential cookies are strictly necessary to run the Platform and cannot be disabled through our cookie banner. They do not require your consent under UK and EU law. These include:

• Authentication session: keeps you signed in between pages and enforces access control on member-only areas.
• CSRF protection: helps protect form submissions from cross-site request forgery.
• Consent record:remembers your choice from the cookie banner so we do not ask you again on every visit (stored as the ec-cookie-consent entry in your browser's local storage).
• Load balancing: short-lived cookies set by our hosting provider to route traffic reliably.

We may use optional cookies only if you click Accept all on the cookie banner. These help us understand aggregated, anonymised usage of the Platform so we can improve features:

• Analytics: page views, feature usage, and performance metrics. Analytics cookies do not identify you personally and are only loaded with consent.

If you choose Essential only, optional cookies are not set and no analytics scripts are loaded.

Payment pages hosted by Stripe set their own cookies to detect fraud and complete transactions securely. These are handled by Stripe and are covered by their privacy and cookie notices.

You can change your choice at any time by clearing the ec-cookie-consent entry from your browser's local storage, at which point the banner will reappear and let you make a new choice. You can also block or delete cookies using your browser settings. Instructions for the major browsers are available at aboutcookies.org.

Blocking essential cookies may prevent core features (like signing in) from functioning.

We may update this Policy as our use of cookies evolves. The Last updated date at the top indicates the most recent revision.

For questions about cookies, contact hello@elitecrowdmakers.com.