everything this site puts on your device, why it's there, and how to switch off the parts that are optional.
a summary, not the agreement. the numbered clauses below are what binds.
“cookies” is the familiar word, but the rules - and this page - cover anything a site reads from or writes to your device. that includes cookies, and it also includes localStorage and sessionStorage, which are the browser's own small storage areas. we use more of the second kind than the first, so a policy that only talked about cookies would be hiding most of the picture.
everything below is either necessary - the site cannot do what you asked without it - or optional, which you can refuse. clause 03 says when optional things wait for your yes, and when they don't.
these need no permission, because each exists to deliver something you asked for, or to know whether we must ask you first. all of them are first-party - set by this site, or by cloudflare on its behalf, and sent back only to this site. we pass them to no one. spotify's player runs in its own frame and cannot read them.
| name | kind | what it does | lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| al_consent | localStorage | remembers your answer to the cookie question, so we stop asking. deleting it makes the question come back. | 6 months |
| al_region | cookie | records whether we must ask before keeping your game settings, from the country cloudflare reports for your connection. it holds no location beyond "eu" or "other". if the country can't be read, it says "eu" and we ask. | 1 day |
| al_media | cookie | records your own choice to keep embedded players off, so our server leaves spotify's player out of the landing page before it reaches you. only set when you switch embedded players off; switching them back on deletes it. | 6 months |
| __cf_bm | cookie | set by cloudflare, which delivers the site, to tell people from bots. we can't read anything personal in it. | 30 minutes |
| al_launch_signups | localStorage | a copy of the email you typed when you asked for studio access, kept in your own browser. it is your copy, not a tracker. | until you clear it |
| al-showroom-session | sessionStorage | a random number that keeps one showroom conversation together and stops a single visitor flooding the service. not linked to you. | until the tab closes |
| al-intro | sessionStorage | notes that the home page's opening animation has played in this tab, so it doesn't make you sit through it again. holds nothing about you. | until the tab closes |
| al_lights | cookie | remembers whether you turned the reading lights on in the distillery, so the next page opens the way you left it. only set when you press the lights switch. | 1 year |
| al_snake | cookie | keeps you recognised as the owner of your nickname on the snake leaderboard, so you can save more scores without a new code. it holds a signed player id, readable only by our server (httpOnly). only set after you verify your email to save a score, and "not you?" in the game removes it from that device. | 1 year |
| al-deck-author | localStorage | the name you give when you comment on a proposal we sent you, so you don't type it for every note. | until you clear it |
| al_preview | cookie | lets our team see pages that aren't public yet. only ever set if you arrive with a team preview key, so it will not exist in your browser unless we gave you one. | 7 days |
| sb-…-auth-token | localStorage | keeps a member of staff signed in to the studio. only created by logging in - a visitor never has one. | until sign-out |
these sit in categories you decide about separately. saying yes to one never says yes to another.
| name | set by | what it does | lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| al-snake-prefs | us, in localStorage | the snake game's settings (snake style, ground, sound, controls, vibration), your best score on this device, and a mark that you have seen the tutorial, so they are all still there next visit. the old al-snake-best key is moved into this one and removed. preferences. | until you clear it |
| spotify's own | spotify, inside its player's frame | whatever spotify's player needs. the names and lifetimes are spotify's, and are set out in spotify's cookie policy. embedded players. | spotify decides |
this site currently runs no analytics and no advertising tags - no google analytics, no meta pixel, no tag manager, no session recording, no heatmaps.
that is why the only place you are asked anything is the landing page, about spotify's player and your game settings, and everyone is asked there. if we ever add an optional tag, the panel asks about it the same day, and the tag runs only once you allow it.
your browser contacts these companies while loading our pages, and that reveals your ip address and browser to them. of these, spotify sets cookies in its own frame, and cloudflare sets one security cookie on ours - see __cf_bm in clause 02. we would rather say so than let you find out from a network inspector.
| who | when | why |
|---|---|---|
| google fonts | some proposal decks | the site's own typefaces are served from our domain. a proposal deck we share with you may be set in a google font, and then your browser fetches it from google's font service. google states it sets no cookies for this, but it does see the request. |
| open-meteo | the landing page only | the live weather reading. the coordinates sent are ours, not yours - your location is never requested or used. |
| spotify | the landing page, with the page, for everyone. if you have switched embedded players off, only when you press play. | the studio playlist. its player loads from spotify in its own frame, and spotify sees your ip address and browser and sets spotify's own cookies in its frame, under spotify's own cookie policy. it never plays by itself. |
| supabase and cloudflare | every page | our database and the network that delivers the site. unavoidable - this is what serving you the page consists of. |
everything else the site needs - the imagery, the film, the document typefaces on our proposals, agreements and invoices - is served from our own domain, so nobody else sees you fetch it.
click cookie choices in the landing page's footer. it reopens the same panel, shows what you chose last time, and lets you change any of it. your new choice is saved and takes effect at once, without reloading: turning embedded players off takes spotify's player off the page there and then. a player you started yourself by pressing play stays until you reload.
cookies spotify has already set stay in your browser until you clear them - only spotify or your browser can remove them.
where we asked you once, we ask again after six months in any case. a yes from a year ago is not a current answer.
independently of us, every browser lets you block or delete cookies and site storage, and private windows discard both when closed. blocking everything for this site will forget your choices and your game settings and best score, so each visit starts over: spotify's player loads with the landing page and the panel asks again. nothing else will break.
we honour global privacy control and do not track signals where your browser sends them - analytics, advertising and your game settings stay off, whatever you click. they don't stop spotify's player, which loads for everyone; switch embedded players off in the panel to keep it off.
write to hello@alchemistgroup.in. the wider picture of what we hold about you is in the privacy policy.