1. What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text value that a website asks a browser to store and return with later requests to the relevant domain. Cookies can support basic functions, remember settings, maintain a signed-in session, measure use or help advertisers recognise browsers. A cookie may be:
- first-party, set for the website you are visiting, or third-party, associated with another domain;
- session-based, normally removed when a browsing session ends, or persistent, retained until an expiry time or manual deletion;
- essential to a requested function, or used for preferences, measurement, personalisation or marketing.
Browser local storage is not technically a cookie. It stores a value on the device without automatically attaching that value to every web request. Similar technologies can still involve personal information, so this policy discloses local storage alongside cookies.
2. Current use on Viremont Archive
The current production code does not intentionally set HTTP cookies. It contains no advertising network, affiliate tracker, social-media pixel, audience-measurement service, session-replay script or third-party analytics package.
The site uses one first-party local-storage entry to remember whether the adult-content notice has been confirmed in that browser. This prevents the notice from appearing on every page request. The confirmation is not an identity or a legal age-verification service.
3. Browser-storage record
| Name | Technology | Purpose | Duration | Sent to us? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| viremont-age-confirmed | First-party local storage | Stores the value “true” after an adult visitor confirms the 18+ notice. | Until the visitor clears site data or browser settings remove it. | Not by the site’s JavaScript. It is read locally in the browser. |
The entry contains no name, email address, date of birth, account number, device identifier or gambling information. Selecting the negative option does not create a tracking profile; it replaces the notice with an unavailable message for the current page view.
4. Technologies we do not currently use
- Analytics cookies: no Google Analytics, Matomo or equivalent analytics deployment is included.
- Advertising cookies: no ad exchange, retargeting pixel or interest-based advertising identifier is included.
- Affiliate tracking: links are not tagged to attribute gambling registrations, deposits or revenue.
- Social embeds: no embedded “like”, share, video or social-feed widget automatically contacts a social platform when a page loads.
- Session or account cookies: the site has no sign-in, shopping basket, player account or user dashboard.
- Fingerprinting: the site does not intentionally combine fonts, canvas output, hardware properties or similar signals to recognise a browser.
- Geolocation storage: the site does not request precise device location.
5. Cookies are not the same as server logs
A web server may record an IP address, requested path, timestamp, response code, referrer and browser information even when no cookies exist. This is standard request logging rather than browser storage. Logs may be required for security, error diagnosis and availability. Their handling is explained in the Privacy Policy.
The site-wide search operates in the browser. Entered words are not sent to a dedicated search database. If a search is opened through a URL containing a q parameter, the complete requested URL could appear in server logs or browser history; do not include personal or sensitive information in a search query.
6. Third-party websites and external links
Viremont Archive links to government agencies, museums, universities and support services. Those links do not by themselves allow the destination to set a cookie through our page because third-party content is not embedded. When you choose to follow a link, the destination can receive a new request and may use its own cookies or analytics under its own policy.
We use rel="noopener noreferrer" on many external links to reduce unnecessary opener and referrer exposure. Browser behaviour and the destination’s practices remain outside our control.
7. How to inspect, remove or block storage
Most browsers let you view and remove cookies and site data by domain. Controls are commonly found under Privacy, Security, Cookies, Site Data or Storage. You can:
- remove data stored for viremontara.com;
- block cookies globally or for selected websites;
- use a private browsing window for temporary storage;
- configure automatic clearing when the browser closes;
- inspect local storage through browser developer tools.
Clearing Viremont Archive site data removes the 18+ confirmation, so the notice will be shown again. Blocking local storage does not prevent article content from loading, although preference-based behaviour may not persist.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Browsers may transmit Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals. Because Viremont Archive does not deploy behavioural advertising, sell personal information or run cross-site tracking, there is no separate tracking workflow to disable in response. We will reassess signal handling before adding any technology to which such signals are relevant.
8. Privacy law and meaningful notice
New Zealand does not require every website to reproduce a particular cookie-banner design. The Privacy Act 2020 can apply when cookies, analytics or device information identify an individual. Relevant principles include collecting only information necessary for a lawful purpose, giving appropriate notice, safeguarding information, limiting retention and using or disclosing it consistently with the collection purpose.
The absence of a consent banner on this release reflects the absence of non-essential cookie deployment; it is not a claim that all cookies are automatically exempt from privacy obligations.
9. Changes to technology or this policy
If analytics, personalisation, embedded media or another storage technology is introduced, we will update this inventory with the provider, purpose, information involved and retention period. Where consent or another specific control is legally or ethically appropriate, it will be implemented before or when the technology activates—not merely described after collection begins.
The effective date will change when this policy is materially revised. You can report an unexpected cookie or storage entry to privacy@viremontara.com, including its name, domain and the page on which you observed it.