Cookies
A cookie is a small file your browser stores when you visit a website. HomeAtlas uses very few of them, and only for the site to work, to remember your preferences, and, if you say yes, to count anonymous visits and remember which campaign brought you, so we can tell which features and campaigns are useful. This page lists every category of cookie the website sets and gives you a clear yes/no choice over the two cookies that need your consent.
The cookies we use
The website sets five kinds of cookie. Two of them need your consent.
| Cookie | What it is for | How long | Needs your consent? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary (session, CSRF token) | Keep you signed in and keep the site secure. Without these the site cannot work. | Until you close your browser or sign out | No |
| Functional | Remember your preferences: for example your colour palette and hints you have dismissed. | Until you clear them | No |
| Referral attribution | If you arrive through a referral or influencer link, remembers that code so the referrer is credited if you sign up. It is first-party and is never used for advertising. | Up to 90 days | No |
Analytics (ha_aid) |
A random identifier so that ten pages read by one visitor are not counted as ten visitors. It holds no name, email, or anything else about you. | Up to 90 days | Yes: only set if you Accept |
Campaign attribution (ha_acq) |
If you arrive from one of our ads or campaign links, remembers which ad or campaign brought you (the campaign tags in the link, never your name or email), so we can tell which campaigns bring people to HomeAtlas. It is first-party and is never shared with advertisers. | Up to 90 days | Yes: only set if you Accept |
The analytics cookie (ha_aid)
ha_aid is one of the two cookies HomeAtlas sets that need your consent.
It is a first-party cookie (set by us, not by anyone else) and it exists for one
reason: without it, every page a logged-out visitor reads looks like a brand-new
visitor, so we cannot tell whether one person looked at ten pages or ten people
looked at one. The cookie holds a single random string and nothing else, no
name, no email, no account, no search terms, and it is never shared.
- Lifetime: up to 90 days, the same period we keep the anonymous page views it links to. An id that outlives the data it labels is a cookie stored against nothing.
- Set only on Accept. If you have not chosen, or you have rejected,
ha_aidis not set at all. Pressing Accept on the banner is what turns it on. - First-party and self-hosted. The counts it produces are stored on our own infrastructure. They are never sent to an external analytics company.
No third-party or advertising cookies
HomeAtlas does not use any third-party analytics, advertising, or behavioural-tracking cookies. There is no Google Analytics, no Tag Manager, no advertising pixel, and no cross-site tracker on the website. Our fonts and icons are self-hosted, so loading a page does not announce your visit to any other company. When you open a link to a shop, that is your own browser going to the shop, from that point the shop's own cookies and privacy policy apply.
Your choices
The first time you visit, a banner asks for your consent. It gives you two choices of equal weight:
- Accept turns the
ha_aidanalytics cookie and theha_acqcampaign attribution cookie on. Anonymous visits are then counted so we can improve HomeAtlas. - Reject leaves both
ha_aidandha_acqoff. The site works exactly the same way for you; we simply cannot tell your repeat visits apart.
You can change your mind at any time. Press Reject on the
banner (or delete the ha_cookie_consent, ha_aid
and ha_acq cookies in your browser settings) and the analytics
and campaign attribution cookies stop being set; any ha_aid or
ha_acq already in your browser is dropped. Because the
strictly-necessary cookies keep the site working, they stay regardless of your
choice. You can clear them through your browser's cookie settings, but signing
out and signing back in is the usual way to reset them.
The mobile apps do not use browser cookies; they use the equivalent local storage and secure keychain entries to keep you signed in, and they do not set an analytics identifier unless you have given consent in the app.