Cookie Policy
This Cookie Policy explains the small files that the Midium website at midium.live places on your device, why we place them, and how you can control them. It is a complement to our Privacy Policy at /legal/privacy. Terms used here have the same meaning as in our Terms of Service.
What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your device through your browser. Similar technologies — such as localStorage, sessionStorage, IndexedDB, and pixel tags — work in comparable ways. Throughout this policy "cookie" refers to all of these technologies. We use only a small number of cookies, all set on the midium.live domain. We do not use cookies that track you across other sites and we do not embed advertising trackers.
The cookies we use
| Name | Purpose | Type | Lifetime |
| ---------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------ | -------- |
| medium_age_confirmed | Records that you have confirmed you are old enough to use the Service. Required so the age gate does not appear on every page load. | Strictly necessary | 1 year |
| medium_consent_v1_1 | Records whether you accepted or rejected the analytics cookies described below. Named after the version of this policy you answered. | Strictly necessary | 1 year |
| medium_locale | Stores your chosen interface language so the site renders consistently across visits. | Preference | 1 year |
| medium_theme | Stores your light / dark / system theme choice. | Preference | 1 year |
| NEXT_LOCALE | Set by the underlying framework to deliver content in your selected language. | Strictly necessary | 1 year |
Analytics cookies
With your consent we use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used — which pages people visit, how they arrive, and where they stop. These cookies are set only after you accept them in the cookie banner:
| Name | Purpose | Type | Lifetime |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | -------- |
| _ga | Distinguishes one browser from another so that repeat visits are not counted as new ones. | Analytics — consent required | 2 years |
| _ga_<stream> | Holds the analytics session state for this site. | Analytics — consent required | 2 years |
If you reject, or simply do not answer the banner, Google Consent Mode keeps analytics storage denied and neither cookie is written. You can change your mind at any time by clearing the medium_consent_v1_1 cookie, which makes the banner appear again.
Analytics data is processed by Google. We do not collect advertising consent on this site, so advertising signals remain switched off and Google is not permitted to use this data for ad personalisation or remarketing.
Alongside this we use Plausible, which is cookie-less: it counts page views by storing only an aggregated, non-identifying daily salt server-side, and never reads or writes any cookie or localStorage value on your device. Because it sets nothing on your device and cannot identify you, it runs whether or not you accept the cookies above.
What we do not use
We do not place any advertising cookie. We do not place any cross-site or cross-app tracking cookie. We do not place any social-media share-button tracker. We do not run device fingerprinting beyond what is strictly necessary to detect security incidents and abuse, and we do not store fingerprint hashes against your identity.
Strictly necessary, preference, analytics
European law and several other jurisdictions distinguish between strictly necessary cookies (which can be set without explicit consent) and cookies for which consent is required. The cookies marked "strictly necessary" or "preference" are required for core site functionality — without them we cannot remember your age confirmation, your language, your theme, or that you have answered this notice. They are set the first time you visit the site, regardless of any consent banner.
The cookies marked "analytics" require your prior, explicit, opt-in consent. They are set only after you accept, and never before.
Managing cookies
You can clear or block any cookie at any time through your browser's settings. Most browsers also let you set rules per site:
- Apple Safari — https://support.apple.com/en-us/105082
- Google Chrome — https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647
- Mozilla Firefox — https://support.mozilla.org/kb/cookies-information-websites-store-on-your-computer
- Microsoft Edge — https://support.microsoft.com/microsoft-edge
Note that clearing the medium_age_confirmed cookie will trigger the age gate again on your next visit, clearing the language cookie will reset the site to its default language, and clearing medium_consent_v1_1 will bring back the consent banner so you can change your analytics choice.
Children
The Service is not directed to anyone under 18 years of age (or 21 where a higher local minimum applies). We do not knowingly collect any personal data, including via cookies, from a child.
Changes
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available at /legal/cookies; each prior version is archived at /legal/cookies/v[version].
Contact
privacy@midium.live