Cookie Policy

Overview

This Cookie Policy explains how ActionOverWords Index ("AOW Index," "we," "us," or "our") uses cookies, browser storage, and similar technologies when you visit this site — and, just as importantly, what we don't use them for. It works alongside our Privacy Policy, which covers the account and message information we collect more broadly; this page goes deeper on the storage-and-tracking side specifically.

What we mean by "cookies" here

Strictly speaking, this site itself doesn't set traditional server-side cookies — there's no Set-Cookie header from us. (Google's ad services, covered under "Third-party services" below, can set their own cookies for visitors who see ads.) What it uses instead is browser storage: small pieces of data that JavaScript running on the page reads and writes directly to your own browser, on your own device. Privacy law (and most people's expectations) treat these the same way, so this policy covers both under the umbrella term "cookies," the way most cookie policies do — and we're specific about which is actually in play where it matters.

This is also a young, actively developed project (our Privacy Policy and Terms say the same thing about other parts of the site). If the storage mechanism behind the scenes changes as the site grows, what's described below is what governs — this page gets updated the day that happens, not quietly after the fact.

What's actually in use

Here's the complete list. If a category isn't below, it isn't happening.

Third-party services

Google Fonts loads the typeface used across this site. Doing so shares your IP address and browser information with Google, the same as it would on most sites that use a hosted font rather than one bundled with the page — Google's own privacy policy governs that exchange, not ours. It loads on every page, including this one.

Google AdSense serves the ads shown to signed-out visitors and free accounts. Third-party vendors, including Google, can use cookies to serve ads. Where you've allowed it through Google's consent message, Google and its partners may use cookies to show ads based on your visits to this and other sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising at Google Ads Settings, or opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalized advertising at aboutads.info/choices. For more, see How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services. Google's privacy policy governs what it collects, not ours.

Stripe's checkout page — where you go to leave a tip or subscribe — is a site we don't control. Whatever cookies or storage Stripe uses happen entirely on its own pages, under Stripe's own cookie and privacy policies, once you click through. We never see those cookies, and nothing from those pages is set on this site.

Any official's photo shown on the site is loaded from wherever that image is hosted; we haven't audited every possible photo host's own tracking practices the way we have our own code, though none is used specifically to track visitors of this site.

How to control this

Because the "strictly necessary" item can't be disabled without logging you out, there's no toggle for it — that's true of virtually every site that lets you have an account. If you'd rather not have even that, the fix is the same as with any cookie: don't create an account, or clear your browser's site data for this domain, which logs you out immediately.

Your browser also has its own controls — most let you block or delete site storage globally or per-site, and browser extensions can block third-party requests like the ones to Google Fonts and Google's ad servers. Blocking Google Fonts will make the site fall back to your device's default font, and blocking ads removes the ads; neither breaks anything else.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page as the site's storage and tracking actually change — not on a schedule, but the moment something listed above stops being accurate. The date at the top will change whenever we do. Given how actively this project is still being built (see the caveats in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service), that's more likely to mean a real backend replacing today's prototype storage or a change in how ads are served — but either way, this is where it gets disclosed.

October 14, 2026: payments are now always made on Stripe's checkout page; this page used to describe whichever payment service happened to be linked.

Contact us

Questions about this policy, or about what's actually running in your browser when you visit, go through the same Contact form as everything else — on the About tab back on the Index. You can also reach us directly at info@action-over-words.com.