Cookie Policy

22 September 2026 · STRATOVA LTD · stratova.work

This cookie policy explains how https://stratova.work uses cookies and similar storage. STRATOVA LTD operates the site from 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom. Questions can be sent to contact@stratova.work or made by telephone on +44 7537 194820. The privacy policy explains personal data more broadly, including server logs and the contact form. This document stays with storage that lives in the browser, and with the third-party font requests the pages make.

The short version is deliberate. The site does not use advertising cookies, analytics cookies, or social-media cookies. It does not need a cookie to show you the pages or to send the contact form. After you press Continue on the notice at the bottom of a page, a small flag is stored in your browser’s localStorage so the notice does not return on every visit. That flag is not a cookie, it does not contain your name, and it is not sent to our server with the page request. If you never press Continue, we simply show the notice again. Nothing else about the site is withheld.

1. What a cookie is

A cookie is a small piece of text that a website asks your browser to store and to send back later. Cookies were designed so that a site could remember a basket, a login, or a preference. A cookie has a name, a value, a lifetime, and a scope. The scope decides which host receives it. A first-party cookie is set by the site you are visiting. A third-party cookie is set by another host, often an advertiser or an analytics firm whose content is embedded in the page.

Cookies can be session cookies or persistent cookies. A session cookie is dropped when you close the browser, although some browsers restore sessions and the cookie with them. A persistent cookie stays until its expiry date or until you delete it. Cookies can also be marked Secure, so they travel only over HTTPS, and HttpOnly, so a script on the page cannot read them. Those flags matter when a cookie carries a session secret. This website’s own pages do not place that kind of secret in a cookie.

The law that sits closest to cookies in the United Kingdom is the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, usually called PECR, read with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 where the cookie identifies a person. PECR is concerned with storing or accessing information on your device. That is wider than the word “cookie”. It can include localStorage, sessionStorage, pixels, and some software development kits. A strictly necessary storage item can be used without a consent banner. Anything that is not strictly necessary generally needs consent before it is set. We have designed the site so that we do not depend on non-essential cookies.

2. What this site stores

localStorage key: stratova-notice

When you press Continue, the script in assets/js/main.js writes the value “1” under the key stratova-notice in localStorage for the origin stratova.work. On a later visit the same script reads the key. If the key is present, the notice stays hidden. If the key is absent, the notice is shown. The value is not an identifier we generated for you. It is the same value for everyone who presses the button. We cannot look at our server and see a list of people who pressed it, because the write never leaves the browser.

localStorage is not transmitted automatically with HTTP requests, which is the practical difference from a cookie. It remains until you clear site data for this origin, or until the script removes it, which our script does not do. It is available to JavaScript on pages from the same origin. Our script only reads that one key for the notice. It does not copy the key into the contact form, and it does not attach it to an email.

We treat the notice as a courtesy and as a signpost to this policy, not as a consent gate for advertising. Because we are not setting a non-essential cookie, the Continue button is an acknowledgement that you have seen the explanation, stored locally so we do not repeat ourselves. If you would rather not store even that flag, do not press Continue. The pages, the telephone number, the email address, and the form remain available. You can also press Continue and later delete the key, which is described below. Deleting it has no effect on any account, because there is no account.

Cookies set by our pages

The HTML, CSS, and JavaScript we ship do not call document.cookie. The contact form is a normal POST to contact.php. It does not start a PHP session and it does not set a session cookie. If you inspect the site in your browser’s storage panel you should not find a first-party cookie created by stratova.work for analytics or for remembering the form. A hosting platform can, in some configurations, add a technical cookie of its own, for example a load-balancer stickiness cookie. If you find a cookie we have not described, email contact@stratova.work with its name and we will identify it or have it removed. We would rather correct this policy than leave you to guess.

3. What we do not use

We do not use Google Analytics, Matomo, Plausible, Fathom, or any other traffic-analysis product that sets a cookie or fingerprints a browser. We do not use Meta, LinkedIn, X, TikTok, or other advertising pixels. We do not embed YouTube, Vimeo, or map tiles. We do not offer social share buttons that drop cookies. We do not run a tag manager. We do not use a cookie to retarget you on other sites after you read about media streaming platforms or telecommunication solutions. If a page on the wider internet shows you an advertisement that mentions systems engineering, it is not because stratova.work sold your visit.

We do not use cookies to personalise the copy. Every visitor receives the same pages. We do not A/B test headlines with a tracking cookie. We do not store a cookie that records which portfolio description you opened. The horizontal layout on the homepage is driven by ordinary page scroll in the browser. It does not write a progress cookie.

4. Google Fonts

The pages request typefaces from Google Fonts so that Kanit, Libre Franklin, and Courier Prime can be displayed. Your browser contacts fonts.googleapis.com to fetch the stylesheet and fonts.gstatic.com to fetch the font files. Those requests are not cookies set by Stratova, but they are third-party requests, and Google may set or read its own cookies or similar identifiers according to Google’s policies when your browser talks to Google. Google also receives technical data such as your IP address and user agent, because that is how a file is delivered on the web.

We use the fonts for readability and for the visual system of the site. We do not receive a report of who loaded them. If you prefer not to contact Google, you can block third-party requests or use a browser extension that blocks font hosts. The site specifies fallback fonts, so the text remains legible. Blocking fonts does not block the contact form. We describe this request in the privacy policy as well, because an IP address in a font log can be personal data even when we never see the log.

5. Strictly necessary storage and the notice

PECR allows storage or access that is strictly necessary to provide a service you have asked for. A cookie that remembers items in a basket you chose to use, or a cookie that keeps you logged into a service you asked to enter, is the usual example. Our notice flag is stored only after you press Continue, and the site works without it. We therefore do not argue that the flag is strictly necessary. We also do not argue that it is an advertising cookie. It is an optional, first-party, non-identifying preference implemented in localStorage rather than in a cookie header.

The notice itself is not a paywall and not a consent wall. It does not grey out the page or trap scroll. You can ignore it and keep reading. We placed it because visitors reasonably expect a short statement about storage, and because linking to this policy from the notice is clearer than hoping people open the footer. The button is labelled Continue. It is a rectangular control in the same visual system as the rest of the site. It does not tick a box you cannot see.

6. How to see and delete storage

You can inspect localStorage and cookies without taking our word for it. The steps change slightly between browser versions, but the path is stable enough to describe. These instructions are aids, not a requirement. You do not have to open developer tools to use the site.

Safari on macOS

Open Safari, choose Settings, then Privacy, and review “Manage Website Data” or the equivalent label in your version. Search for stratova.work. You can remove data for that site alone. You can also choose Develop, then Show Web Inspector, then Storage, if the Develop menu is enabled. Under Local Storage you should see stratova-notice only after you have pressed Continue. Removing the origin’s data brings the notice back on the next load. Safari’s “Prevent cross-site tracking” setting does not need to be turned off for this site to function.

Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium browsers

Open Settings, then Privacy and security, then Cookies and other site data, or Third-party cookies, depending on the version. You can block third-party cookies without breaking stratova.work. To remove stored data, use “See all site data and permissions” or the lock icon in the address bar, then cookies and site data for stratova.work. Developer tools, opened with the menu or a keyboard shortcut, include an Application or Storage panel. Local Storage for the origin lists keys by name. Deleting stratova-notice is enough to show the notice again. Clearing “cookies and other site data” for all time will also clear the flag, along with data from unrelated sites, so prefer a site-specific deletion if you want to be precise.

Firefox

Open Settings, then Privacy and Security. Standard or Strict tracking protection can stay on. Under Cookies and Site Data you can manage data and remove stratova.work. The Storage Inspector in developer tools shows localStorage separately from cookies. Enhanced Tracking Protection may block some third-party content. If fonts fail to load, the fallback fonts take over. The form does not depend on Firefox’s cookie exceptions.

Mobile browsers

On iOS Safari, site data is cleared from Settings, Safari, Advanced, Website Data, or by clearing history and website data if you accept the wider effect. On Android Chrome, the site information panel reached from the lock or tune icon lists stored data for the page. In-app browsers inside social applications are often poor at showing storage controls. If you want a clear view, open stratova.work in the main browser. The site does not require an app.

Private or incognito windows usually discard localStorage when the window closes. The notice will appear again in the next private session. That is expected. It is not a sign that we stored the flag on our server.

7. What happens if you block storage

If your browser refuses localStorage, the script catches the failure and still shows the notice. The rest of the page does not depend on the write succeeding. If your browser refuses all cookies, the informational pages and the contact form still work, because we do not gate them on a cookie. If a corporate proxy strips third-party font requests, you will see fallback type. If a security product warns about Google Fonts, you can allow or block that host independently of your decision about the notice.

Blocking storage cannot be used to opt out of server logs. When your browser requests a page, the host receives an IP address as part of the connection. That is described in the privacy policy. It is not cured by deleting cookies. If you need to correspond without using the website at all, you can write to contact@stratova.work from your own mail programme or call +44 7537 194820. Those channels have their own identifiers, which the privacy policy also describes.

8. Third parties and changes

Apart from Google Fonts, the pages are not built to call other companies’ scripts. We do not paste in a chat widget. We do not embed a scheduling tool. If we add a third-party tool later, we will update this policy before the tool sets anything that is not strictly necessary, and we will ask before setting a non-essential cookie. A change of typeface host would be recorded here as well. The date at the top of the policy is the date of the current text.

We will not introduce a cookie in order to measure the homepage for our own curiosity and call it strictly necessary. Audience measurement of that kind is optional and would need a proper choice. Until that choice exists, we operate without those numbers. The absence of a counter is intentional.

9. Retention of browser storage

We do not hold a server-side copy of stratova-notice, so we do not have a retention period for it on our systems. Your browser holds it until you delete it. Server logs, which are not cookies, are kept for a short operational period described in the privacy policy, typically thirty to ninety days unless an incident file needs a longer copy. Font requests are retained by Google under Google’s rules, not under a Stratova cookie schedule.

10. Shared and managed devices

If you read the site on a device your employer manages, that organisation may set its own rules for cookies, localStorage, and third-party font requests. Those rules are not ours. A cleared corporate profile can remove stratova-notice without any action by us. If a company proxy injects its own script into pages, cookies set by that script are the proxy operator’s responsibility. We do not ask employers to monitor staff use of this informational site, and we do not receive a report when someone inside a company opens a page.

The notice is tied to the browser profile, not to a person. Two people using the same browser profile will share the flag. Two profiles on the same computer will not. That is a consequence of localStorage, not a tracking choice. If you need the notice to appear for a demonstration, use a private window or delete the key. Blocking storage cannot change the fact that a page request carries an IP address to the host, which the privacy policy explains separately from cookies.

11. Contact

If you want to know whether a particular cookie name belongs to us, send the name, the domain, and the page you were on to contact@stratova.work. Write from the address you want us to reply to. You can also write to STRATOVA LTD, 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom. We will answer in plain language. If the item is ours and this policy is wrong, we will correct the policy. If the item belongs to a browser extension or to a network filter outside our pages, we will say so.

You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you think we have stored or accessed information on your device in breach of PECR. The ICO’s site is https://ico.org.uk. We would rather see the question first, at contact@stratova.work, so that we can remove a mistake quickly. You are not required to contact us before the ICO.

This policy describes the public website. A platform Stratova later builds for a client may use cookies of its own, for example to keep an operator signed in to a control surface. Those cookies belong to that platform and must be explained in that platform’s notice. They are not set when you read stratova.work. Do not treat this document as the cookie notice for a client service we have not yet agreed to build.