Cookies

Last updated: 20 September 2026

1. Scope

This policy explains when joelklemmer.com stores information on, or reads information from, your browser or device. It covers cookies, local storage, and comparable storage or access technologies used by the application. It should be read with the Privacy Policy, which explains the related processing of personal information.

Joel R. Klemmer, United States, operates joelklemmer.com. Questions about this policy may be submitted through the contact form or by email to contact@joelklemmer.com.

2. Current position

The application code currently does not set or read application cookies. It does not use browser storage for analytics, advertising, marketing pixels, session replay, cross-site tracking, behavioral profiling, or payment processing.

The application uses one optional local-storage item named jk.preferences. Local storage is not a cookie, but laws that govern storage on or access to a device may apply to it in the same way as a cookie or similar technology.

Hosting, network, and security infrastructure may process ordinary web-request information when your browser requests a page or file. That server-side processing is described in the Privacy Policy. It is separate from the application’s use of browser storage. This policy does not promise that a browser, network intermediary, hosting layer, or external website will never use a technology outside the application’s control.

3. The jk.preferences item

What it stores

When you turn on Remember display settings, the application stores:

remember: true, recording that you asked for persistence;
your theme choice: system, light, or dark;
your motion choice: system, full, or reduced; and
your graphics choice: standard or lite.

It does not store your name, email address, contact message, selected locale, browsing history, advertising identifier, or AI question. Your locale is represented in the website address instead.

Why it is used

The item is used only to restore the display choices you selected. It is not used to identify you across websites, measure audiences, select advertising, build a behavioral profile, or infer interests.

When it is written

At page load, the application checks jk.preferences so it can restore a previously saved choice. If the item does not exist, no saved preference value is returned. The application writes the item only after you affirmatively turn on Remember display settings. Changing theme, motion, or graphics without enabling that control leaves the choice in page-session memory and does not write it to local storage.

The control is the site’s affirmative choice for this optional persistence. Because the application currently has no other non-essential storage category, there is no separate analytics or advertising category to accept or reject.

How long it remains

jk.preferences has no application-set calendar expiry. It remains in that browser profile until one of the following occurs:

you turn off Remember display settings;
you clear the item or the site’s stored data;
a browser setting, private-browsing mode, storage policy, or browser cleanup removes it; or
the application replaces or removes the feature.

Turning the setting off asks the browser to remove the item. The choices already active on the page may remain visible until you change them or reload. If the browser blocks a storage change, the settings panel reports that the update was unavailable.

Who can access it

The item is available to scripts running in the joelklemmer.com origin, subject to browser security controls. The application does not intentionally transmit the stored preference values to advertising or analytics services. As with other website resources, the hosting service may receive technical request information when the browser loads a page after applying a preference.

4. Device and browser signals

Before you choose display settings, the site may use browser-reported signals to select an initial presentation. These may include color-scheme preference, reduced-motion preference, data-saving preference, connection information, or device-memory information when the browser exposes them.

The application uses those signals in the browser to select presentation. It does not write the raw signals into jk.preferences. If you later ask the site to remember a specific choice, the stored item contains the choice, not the raw device signal that informed the initial presentation.

5. Server-side controls are not browser storage

The contact form and, when active, the AI Guide use short-lived server-side abuse and request controls. Those records are not cookies or local-storage items and are not placed on your device. Their categories and retention periods are described in the Privacy Policy.

The contact controls use keyed cryptographic hashes, counters, and limited delivery identifiers. They do not send the raw contact message or raw network address to the Upstash abuse-control store. The use of those server-side records does not turn jk.preferences into an identifier or tracking tool.

Where law requires consent before optional information is stored on or read from a device, jk.preferences is not written until you make the affirmative Remember display settings choice. You can withdraw that choice by turning the control off. Refusing or withdrawing persistence does not prevent access to site content; it means that the application may return to browser defaults on a later visit.

Some laws provide a narrow exception for storage that is strictly necessary for a service expressly requested by the user, or for preference-driven appearance or functionality subject to specific conditions. The site does not rely on an exception to activate undisclosed analytics or advertising. Where consent is required for the current optional preference item, the affirmative control is used.

If the site later adds a technology that requires prior consent, that technology must remain inactive until the required choice is made. Consent will be requested by purpose, refusal will be available where required, and withdrawal will be as easy as giving consent.

7. Global Privacy Control, Do Not Track, and similar signals

The site does not sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, conduct targeted advertising, or use browser storage for those activities. A Global Privacy Control, Do Not Track, or similar browser signal therefore does not change the site’s present behavior.

If a future practice makes a legally recognized signal operative, the required signal handling and notice will be implemented before that practice is enabled. A browser signal is not treated as permission to store optional information.

8. External sites and embedded services

Links may lead to publishers, retailers, media outlets, social networks, government sources, or other services. An external site is contacted when you choose to open it and may use its own cookies or similar technologies under its own policies. Joel R. Klemmer does not control those external technologies.

The current application does not describe an external service’s storage as a joelklemmer.com cookie and does not treat a link as consent to a third party’s optional tracking.

9. Regional storage rules

The same current storage design is offered globally. Additional local rules apply when their territorial and material conditions are met.

European Union and European Economic Area

National laws implementing Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive may require prior consent before information is stored on or read from a device unless a defined exception applies. Those rules cover local storage and other access technologies, not only files named cookies. Where consent is required, inactivity, scrolling, continued browsing, or a preselected control is not treated as consent.

United Kingdom

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations apply to cookies and comparable storage or access technologies. Current law includes defined exceptions, including certain preference-driven appearance or functionality uses when statutory conditions are met. The site nevertheless writes its current optional preference item only after the affirmative Remember display settings choice and provides a direct removal control.

Switzerland

Swiss telecommunications rules require clear information about the use and purpose of storage or access technologies, notice that a user may refuse the processing, and information about how to refuse it. Under the FADP, express consent is required in particular circumstances, including certain high-risk or sensitive processing. The site’s affirmative preference control provides a stricter choice for the current optional item without claiming that every Swiss storage use universally requires prior consent.

Brazil

When the LGPD applies and a storage technology processes personal data, the processing requires a valid legal basis, transparency, necessity, and minimization. The current preference item is purpose-limited, optional, and removable. The site does not use an “essential” label to activate analytics or advertising.

United States and other jurisdictions

Some laws require notice or an opt-out for sale, targeted advertising, profiling, or particular sensitive-data uses. The site does not carry out those activities through browser storage. Other national, state, provincial, or territorial rules may require consent, notice, minimization, or access and deletion rights when stored information can be linked to a person. The stronger applicable mandatory rule controls.

10. Named jurisdiction information

The Privacy Policy names the United States states, the District of Columbia, the five United States territories, and 195 countries. For a privacy request, use the privacy request route. A local privacy or browser-storage rule applies only when its own conditions are met and may provide stronger protection.

For browser storage, jk.preferences remains optional, is written only after the affirmative Remember display settings choice, is removable, and is not used for advertising, cross-site tracking, or behavioral profiling. Where a local storage or access rule applies, that rule controls. ## 11. Changes and contact

This policy and the relevant controls will be updated before the application enables a new cookie, analytics tool, advertising or tracking technology, or other non-essential storage or access purpose. A material change will be identified by a new update date. Where law requires prior notice or consent, the new technology will not be activated until that requirement is met.

Questions or requests may be submitted through the contact form or by email to contact@joelklemmer.com.