Cookie policy

Cookies

This site's own code sets no cookies. Nothing is written to document.cookie by any tool, and your preferences are kept in local storage instead. Cookies on this domain come from the third parties listed below rather than from the site itself — a distinction that matters for what they are used for, but not for how you remove them.

Local storage

Preferences and saved items are kept in local storage under a single key, unixclock:v1. Local storage is not a cookie: it is not attached to network requests and is never sent to a server. It exists purely so the site remembers your settings on your next visit.

What is stored

The key holds your interface preferences and the lists you build yourself: light or dark theme, 12- or 24-hour clock, whether seconds are shown, which day starts the week, the cities on your world clock, your saved timers and alarms, and the tools you have opened recently. None of it identifies you, and none of it leaves the device.

Removing it

Clearing site data for this domain in your browser settings removes the key and returns every tool to its defaults. Browsing in a private window keeps nothing after the window closes. Because the data is local to one browser, your settings do not follow you to another device.

Offline cache

A service worker stores copies of pages and assets so the site keeps working without a connection. This is a cache, not tracking; it holds the same files the site would have downloaded anyway, and clearing site data removes it too.

Third parties

This deployment loads Google Analytics 4, and the cookies that arrive with them are:

• Google Analytics 4 — measurement; in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland it is loaded only after you accept it. Sets cookies whose names begin _ga so that a second page view can be recognised as part of the same visit. Privacy policy · opt-out add-on.

These are third-party cookies: the site cannot read what they contain, and removing them is done through your browser's site-data controls or through the opt-out links above.

Why there are no cookies

Cookies exist so that a server can recognise a browser between requests. This site has no server-side logic to recognise anything: every page is a static file and every calculation runs in your browser, so there is nothing a cookie would be for.

Local storage compared with cookies

The practical difference matters. A cookie is sent to the server with every single request, which is what makes it useful for recognising a browser over time. Local storage is never transmitted; it can only be read by scripts on the page that wrote it.

That is why the preferences here use local storage — a theme choice has no business travelling with every request. The cookies that do exist on this domain arrive from the third parties described above, and those, rather than the preference key, are what consent rules are concerned with.

Managing what is stored

Every browser offers a way to clear site data, usually under privacy or history settings. Doing so removes the single key this site writes and returns every tool to its defaults. Private or incognito windows discard it automatically when the window closes.

If this changes

This deployment loads Google Analytics 4, so third-party cookies are genuinely in play and this page describes them. It is generated from the same configuration that decides whether those scripts load, so switching a provider off removes its script and these paragraphs in the same build.

Checking for yourself

You do not have to take this on trust. Open your browser's developer tools and look under storage: you will find one local storage key named unixclock:v1, written by the site, alongside any cookies set by the third parties named above. Anything beyond that is not something this site put there, and the contact page explains how to report it if you find some.

Consent

Consent requirements under the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR attach to storing or reading information on a device for purposes that are not strictly necessary — which is precisely what advertising and analytics cookies are for. Remembering a preference you set yourself falls outside that; the third-party cookies described here do not.

Google Analytics is therefore held back until you agree, wherever that consent is required. The site has no server to look up where you are, so it goes by the time zone your device reports. In a zone belonging to the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland — or one it cannot place at all — a banner asks the first time you visit, and until you accept, the Analytics script is not requested and no _ga cookie exists. In any other zone Analytics loads without asking. Your answer is saved in the same local storage key as your other preferences, which is what lets the site stop asking. “Cookie settings” in the footer of every page reopens the question at any time, whatever your time zone: declining there stops Analytics from loading on later pages and deletes the _ga cookies already set.

Third parties on this deployment

Google Analytics 4. Beyond that, nothing: no fonts are loaded from a font service, no embedded video or map pulls from another domain, and no social widget is present. Every other request the page makes goes to the origin in your address bar.

Other browser storage

Beyond the single preferences key, the service worker keeps a cache of pages and assets so the site works offline. Some browsers also hold a small amount of data for the web app manifest if you install the site to a home screen. Both are cleared by the same site-data control as everything else.

Questions

If something here is unclear, or if you find storage this page does not describe, the contact page explains how to report it.

What happens if you block storage entirely

Every tool still works. Blocking local storage means preferences are not remembered between visits, so the theme, clock format and saved city lists reset each time. Nothing breaks and no feature becomes unavailable — the site simply forgets you, which for some people is the preferred behaviour.

How this page is kept accurate

The claims here are checked by the same automated suite that covers the calculations: a build fails if advertising markup appears while advertising is disabled. That is why the statement about third parties can be specific rather than hedged.