What we store, and why

European privacy conversations often use the word “cookie” as a shorthand for any browser storage, which confuses people who are simply trying to read an article about level design. This page is written in that expanded sense: we will tell you if we use a small text file, a localStorage value, or another browser mechanism, and we will be honest that most of this project can live without any of that except one preference. The point is to respect your time and your autonomy, not to build a false drama about danger where the real risk in the world is misinformation and exploitation at a larger scale. We are a small static publication; we are not a social network; we are not a casino; we are not a marketplace, as stated in the site-wide disclaimer that appears in the footer: this website provides educational and informational content only, without services, game distribution, or commercial products. That line exists so that no reader mistakes these pages for a shop.

The banner choice

When you first visit, you may see a short banner about optional cookies. The banner is our attempt to be explicit in a way that a silent site is not, even if the underlying technology is minimal. You can Accept or Decline. The choice is stored in localStorage when your browser allows it, under a key specific to this domain. The goal is to avoid asking you the same question on every page load like a friend who does not remember breakfast. If your browser is in a mode that blocks storage, the banner may reappear, not because we are punishing you, but because the browser is doing what it was told to do, and a forgetful environment forgets the preference too. You can also reopen the choice later using a small control in the footer area, because consent should not be a one-way door with the hinge removed.

What we do not do

We do not run remarketing tags that follow you around the web with “personalized” ads for courses you did not ask for. We do not run A/B tests on readers’ trust by changing refund policies in the fine print, because we do not sell software here. We do not sell data to data brokers, because a publication that would sell its readers is not a publication we would want to read, and we are readers too. If we ever add analytics that is more than a basic aggregate view of page load counts, with a clear provider and a clear data flow, this page will be updated first, in plain text, and the banner will tell you, before the new code runs. That is a cultural commitment, not a perfect technical guarantee from a static site, but culture is the layer most sites skip.

Essential transport

When you open any website, the internet’s machinery moves packets. Your browser sends information that includes technical identifiers by necessity. A hosting log might record the path you requested, the time, and the status code, which is the digital equivalent of a note that someone opened a door, without claiming to know what they thought on the other side. We do not use those logs to score your personality, because the sample size of one person’s door openings is a novel, not a model. If a security event occurs, a log is a practical record; if a line is not needed, we avoid collecting it, within what our host allows, because a small project should not build a data lake by accident.

Children, classrooms, and calm defaults

Teachers who share these pages in a classroom can explain that a consent banner is a small part of a larger map of the internet, and that the most important “privacy” lessons are often about what not to type into any site, not about a single static magazine. The banner uses calm colors and plain words on purpose, because anxiety-based design is a dark pattern, even when the stated goal is “protection,” and we try not to make fear the default user interface, not here, and not in the way we think about play.

Who to ask

Questions can go to support@startrail.click. The postal line for the project, also printed in the footer, is: İstiklal Mahallesi, Cumhuriyet Caddesi No: 45, Beyoğlu, 34433 Istanbul, Turkey. If you are a regulator reading this with a professional lens, you will also see a human attempt to be helpful without pretending to a jurisdiction the editor has not chosen for private life, because honesty includes geographic honesty.

Updates

When the storage map changes, this page will change with it, with a short note of what moved. We prefer fewer moving parts, because fewer parts mean fewer surprises, and a reader who is trying to understand game loops already has enough moving parts in their work in progress, whether that work is a thesis or a first prototype, or a teacher’s syllabus that must survive a long semester without breaking.

Disclaimer (site-wide): This website provides educational and informational content only. It does not offer services, game distribution, or commercial products.