Cookies

Last updated: 2026-09-17

read to me uses cookies for one purpose only: to keep you signed in between page loads. There is no analytics cookie, no third-party tracker, and no advertising cookie. If you disable cookies in your browser you will not be able to sign in.

The cookies we set

• kids_reader_session — a signed opaque token identifying you as an allowlisted user. Marked HttpOnly and Secure so that JavaScript on the page cannot read it and browsers will not send it over unencrypted connections. It expires thirty days after the last successful sign-in and is renewed on every sign-in.
• kids_reader_oauth_state — a short-lived cookie carrying a random nonce during the Google sign-in round-trip, used to prevent cross-site request forgery on the callback URL. It is deleted the moment sign-in completes or ten minutes have passed, whichever comes first.

Why we do not offer a cookie banner

The GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive require consent for cookies that are not strictly necessary for the service you have asked for. Both cookies above are strictly necessary — without them you cannot sign in, and the entire application is behind a sign-in wall. Because we do not set any non-essential cookies, no consent banner is required, and offering one would be pure theatre that does not improve your privacy.

Cookies set by third parties

The Google sign-in flow itself may cause Google to set cookies on accounts.google.com during the OAuth round-trip. Those cookies are set and read by Google, not by us, and are covered by Google’s own cookie policy. Once you land back on our application, we set only the two cookies described above.

Clearing cookies

You can sign out from any page, which deletes the session cookie immediately. You can also clear cookies for this site from your browser settings at any time. Neither action removes any data stored on the server — for that, see the Privacy page.

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