Valour.

Cookie policy

Valour uses a small amount of browser storage to remember your cookie decision. The controls are designed to keep reading simple and do not require an account. Browser storage in this context refers only to small text values saved by your browser at our request, not software installed on your device and not access to files, camera, location services or other device capabilities. We use the term cookie broadly to include both traditional HTTP cookies and comparable browser storage mechanisms such as localStorage, where the practical effect for a reader is the same: a small marker that persists between visits. None of the storage mechanisms described in this document are used to build an advertising profile that follows you to other websites, and none are sold or shared with a data broker. This policy should be read together with the Privacy link item below and with privacy.php itself, since cookies are simply one practical mechanism through which some of the information described there is recorded. Where we refer to a lifespan in months, that is the maximum period the browser will retain the value before it expires on its own, assuming you do not clear it manually first.

  1. Essential preference

    The cookieChoice value records accept or reject. It is stored for up to 13 months and is removed when you clear site storage. This cookie, often technically implemented as a browser storage value named cookieChoice, is set the moment you click either the accept or reject button on the banner that appears on your first visit, and it is read on every subsequent page load to decide whether the banner needs to appear again. Because it only stores the word accept or reject plus a timestamp, it cannot be used to reconstruct your reading history, your location beyond what any webpage request already reveals, or any detail about a message you may have sent through the contact form. The 13-month lifespan was chosen to align with commonly referenced guidance on cookie consent duration, long enough to avoid re-prompting a returning reader too often, short enough that a stale consent signal does not persist indefinitely. If you clear your browser's site data, use a private or incognito window, or switch to a different browser or device, this value will not be present and you will see the banner again, which is expected behaviour rather than an error.

    • Stored value: literally "accept" or "reject" plus a timestamp, nothing else.
    • Cleared automatically after 13 months, or immediately if you clear site data.
    • Resetting it does not delete any message you previously sent through contact.php, which is stored separately.

  2. Session operation

    Temporary technical identifiers may support navigation and security during a visit. They normally expire when the session ends and are not used to infer health information. A typical use of a session-level technical identifier is to help the server recognise that a sequence of page requests in a short window came from the same browsing session, which can support basic functions such as applying a security check against unusual rapid-fire requests. These identifiers are generated automatically by standard web-server and security infrastructure rather than by a dedicated tracking script we wrote ourselves, and they are not cross-referenced with any analytics identifier or advertising identifier. Because they normally expire when you close the browser tab or after a short period of inactivity, typically well under an hour, they have no meaningful use as a long-term tracking mechanism. If your browser blocks this kind of temporary identifier entirely, the main practical effect would be a slightly reduced ability to detect abusive automated traffic, not a loss of access to articles.

    • Purpose: basic navigation continuity and abuse detection within a single visit.
    • Lifespan: expires on tab close or short inactivity, not persistent across visits.
    • No linkage to analytics, advertising or form-content data.

  3. Analytics

    If enabled, analytics may use a first-party measurement cookie with a lifespan of 13 months. It records broad page interaction rather than form content. The analytics tool we use, where enabled, is configured in a privacy-respecting mode that avoids setting a cross-site identifier and reports aggregated figures such as total page views or approximate time on page rather than a reconstructed, individual browsing path. It does not load at all until you click accept on the cookie banner, meaning a reader who has not yet made a choice, or who has chosen reject, generates no analytics cookie whatsoever. Analytics data helps us understand which articles are being read and whether a page is functioning correctly across common browsers and devices, which in turn informs editorial and technical priorities, but it does not feed into any personalised content recommendation or advertising system because no such system exists on Valour. If you accept analytics and later change your mind, revoking consent through the banner or your browser settings stops new analytics data from being recorded going forward, though it cannot retroactively erase aggregated figures already calculated from past, now-anonymised page-view counts.

    • Trigger: only loads after explicit acceptance via the cookie banner.
    • Data recorded: aggregated page views and basic technical metrics, not an individual's browsing path across sites.
    • Withdrawal: stops future collection but does not reconstruct or delete already-aggregated historical counts.

  4. Preferences

    Future preference cookies will be disclosed before use. We will not quietly add advertising identifiers to a reader who has rejected optional cookies. At present, Valour does not operate any preference cookie beyond the essential cookieChoice value described above; for example we do not currently offer a dark-mode toggle or a saved reading-list feature that would require its own cookie. If we introduce such a feature in the future, we will add a clearly named entry to this page describing its storage name, purpose and lifespan before the feature goes live, not after. We commit specifically to not quietly expanding the use of a preference cookie into an advertising identifier merely by renaming it, since that kind of disclosure evasion would undermine the purpose of this entire document. Any new preference cookie introduced after this version of the policy was published will be dated and flagged, consistent with the Changes item below.

    • Current state: no preference cookie beyond essential cookieChoice exists today.
    • Future additions: will be documented here by name, purpose and lifespan before activation.
    • Commitment: no silent repurposing of a preference cookie into an advertising identifier.

  5. Third parties

    Embedded external content may set its own cookies. Avoid opening those links if you do not want the external provider to process a visit. An example of embedded external content is a map, a video player, or a social-media post occasionally referenced in an article; if such content requires loading a resource directly from the third-party provider's own servers, that provider may set its own cookie according to its own policy, entirely separate from anything Valour controls. We try to minimise this kind of embedding where a simpler link or static description would serve the reader just as well, precisely to limit the number of third-party cookies a reader is exposed to while browsing Valour. If you are especially cautious about third-party cookies, using a browser's built-in tracker-blocking feature will generally prevent most such embeds from setting a cookie, without breaking your ability to read Valour's own article text. We do not receive any data back from a third-party embed's own cookie; any resulting data collection is between your browser and that third party directly.

    • Trigger: only occurs when an article embeds third-party content requiring a direct connection to that provider's servers.
    • Control: governed entirely by the third party's own cookie and privacy policy, not Valour's.
    • Mitigation: avoiding the embedded link, or using browser tracker-blocking tools, prevents most such cookies.

  6. Control

    Use the banner buttons, browser settings or clear site data. Blocking all cookies may affect the remembering of your choice but articles remain intended to be readable. Using the banner's accept or reject buttons is the simplest method, and your choice takes effect immediately for the remainder of that visit and for 13 months afterward unless you change it again. Most browsers also offer a settings menu where you can view, block or delete cookies on a per-site basis, which gives more granular control than our banner but requires a few extra steps depending on the browser you use. Blocking cookies entirely at the browser level means the banner may reappear on every visit because there is nowhere for your choice to be remembered, which is an inconvenience but does not prevent you from reading any article text, since no cookie is required to render our content. We have deliberately avoided any cookie-wall design that would withhold article content from a reader who declines optional cookies, consistent with treating analytics as genuinely optional rather than a precondition for access.

    • Banner buttons: fastest way to accept or reject for the standard 13-month period.
    • Browser settings: more granular per-site control, varies by browser.
    • Full data clearing: resets you to first-time-visitor status, with the banner reappearing.

  7. Consent evidence

    We may retain the choice and timestamp for 13 months to avoid repeatedly asking and to demonstrate how consent was collected. The retained record typically consists of the choice made, a timestamp, and a general indication of the page or banner version presented, which is enough to reconstruct the circumstances of a consent decision if a reader later asks how and when consent was obtained. This kind of record-keeping is a recognised good practice under data-protection guidance generally, since a publisher that cannot demonstrate when and how consent was collected is in a weak position to defend a consent-based processing activity if challenged. The record is used solely for this accountability purpose and is not cross-referenced with contact-form content or any other personal information to build a combined profile. If a reader disputes having given a particular consent, this record is the primary internal resource we would review to clarify what actually happened on our systems.

    • Contents: choice made, timestamp and banner version, nothing more detailed.
    • Duration: 13 months, aligned with the consent cookie's own lifespan.
    • Use: accountability and dispute resolution only, not combined with other reader data.

  8. Children

    The website is aimed at adults. We do not knowingly build profiles about children or request their personal information through our forms. Valour's subject matter, focused on health guidance for adult men aged roughly 30 and beyond, is simply not relevant to a child audience, and our editorial tone, examples and calls to action are written with an adult reader in mind throughout. We do not knowingly direct advertising at children, request information specifically from a child, or design any feature intended to appeal to or collect data from a person we understand to be a minor. If we become aware that a message submitted through the contact form appears to have come from a child, we will handle it conservatively, generally by not retaining unnecessary personal detail beyond what is needed to respond appropriately or decline further engagement. Parents or guardians with a concern about a child's use of the site are welcome to raise it through contact.php, and we will treat such a report with particular care.

    • Intended audience: adults, specifically men around 30 and older, reflected in tone and content.
    • No targeted collection: no feature or form field is designed to solicit information from a minor.
    • Reports: a suspected child interaction is handled conservatively, minimising retained personal detail.

  9. Privacy link

    For broader information rights, retention and contact methods, read privacy.php. The two documents should be considered together. Where this cookie policy describes what a specific storage value is and how long it lasts, privacy.php explains the broader picture of why we process any personal information at all, what legal basis supports that processing, how long non-cookie records such as contact messages are kept, and what rights a reader can exercise over their own information. A reader trying to fully understand their options should generally start with privacy.php for the big picture and use this cookie policy for the narrower technical detail about browser storage specifically. Where the two documents might appear to describe overlapping retention periods, for instance the 13-month figure that appears in both for consent-related records, that overlap is intentional consistency rather than an error. Both documents share the same contact channel, contact.php or +62 813 6789 2468, for any question that falls under either one.

    • privacy.php: the complete picture of data use, legal basis, retention and rights.
    • cookies.php: the narrower technical detail of individual browser-storage values.
    • Overlap in stated periods, such as 13 months, reflects intentional consistency, not duplication error.

  10. Changes

    This version was published 1 October 2026. We will date material changes and describe new cookie categories before activation where required. A change to this policy might be prompted by the introduction of a new cookie, a change to an existing cookie's lifespan, a switch to a different analytics provider with different default behaviour, or simply a clarification requested by readers that we think improves the document's readability. Where we introduce a genuinely new cookie category, we commit to describing it here, including its name, purpose and expected lifespan, before it is first set on a reader's browser rather than after the fact. The effective date at the top of related policy pages will be updated to reflect a material change to this document, consistent with how we handle revisions to privacy.php and terms.php. We do not anticipate frequent changes to this page, since our use of cookies is deliberately minimal by design, but any change that is made will be handled with the same transparency principles described throughout this document.

    • Trigger for update: new cookie, changed lifespan, new analytics provider or a readability clarification.
    • New categories: disclosed here before first use, not retroactively.
    • Material changes: reflected in the effective date shown on this and related policy pages.