Cookies

Last updated 16 August 2026

This site sets two cookies of its own — and two more from Google Analytics, but only if you allow it above — and keeps five things in your browser's own storage. That is the whole list. There is no advertising cookie, no analytics, no tracking pixel, and nothing here is shared with a marketing network. Below is what each one is, how long it lasts, what stops working if you delete it, and where to click to look at it yourself.

Your choice, live

Two things on this site are optional, one switch covers both, and this is where it is set. It takes effect immediately — there is no save button, and turning it off stops the analytics tag from loading at all on every page you open afterwards.

Approximate location, and counting visits

When this is on, the configurator asks a third-party service (ipapi.co) roughly where you are, so a quote request can prefill the build site. Your IP address is what is sent, and it is sent to them rather than to us. When it is off, that request is never made and no data leaves this site for it.

The same switch decides whether Google Analytics loads. When it is on, each page you open is counted — which page, when, roughly where from, and which page sent you — and that is sent to Google, who set the two _ga cookies listed below. Your IP is truncated before it is stored. When the switch is off the tag is never fetched, so nothing is counted and no cookie is set: this is not a "reject" that loads it anyway. We use it to see which pages are worth keeping, and for nothing else — there is no advertising, no remarketing, and no Google Signals.

Everything else works the same either way. If you leave it off you will be asked to type the build site — a ZIP or a county — on the advice panel, which is the more accurate answer anyway, because ground snow and design wind are set by county rather than by whichever city your IP resolves to.

Current setting: loading…

The cookies

Both are HTTP-only, which means no script on the page can read them — not ours and not anybody else's who manages to get a script onto the page. On this website both are same-site, so your browser will not send them when another website makes a request to us. In production both are marked secure, so they travel over HTTPS only.

There is one exception, and it is worth stating plainly. When the configurator is embedded in a builder's own website, anon_id has to reach us from inside that page, so it is set as a partitioned cookie — the browser keeps a separate copy for each website the configurator appears on, and that copy is sent only from that website. Two builders embedding the same configurator never see one counter, and neither of them can reach the other's. It carries no name, no email and no advertising identifier, and it is not used to follow you between sites — the partitioning is precisely what makes that impossible.

Name	What it does	How long	If you delete it
`anon_id`	A random identifier, so the five designs you get without an account are counted against somebody. It is not linked to a name, an email or an address, because at that point we do not have any of those. Inside a builder's embedded configurator it does the same job for that builder's allowance, partitioned to their website as described above — strictly necessary for the service to work, which is why there is no version of this page where you can switch it off and still design a building.	1 year	Your free-design count starts again at five. We are not pretending otherwise: this counter is a courtesy, not a security boundary.
`better-auth.session_token`	Being signed in. It is the proof that this browser is you, and it is what your credit balance, your saved designs and your payment history are read against.	Until you sign out or it expires	You are signed out. Nothing is lost — designs, credits and receipts live on our side, against your account, and come back when you sign in again.
`_ga`	Set by Google Analytics, and only once you have allowed it above. A random identifier that lets Google tell a returning visitor from a new one. It is not linked to your account, your email, or anything you typed into the configurator.	2 years	Your next visit is counted as a new one. Nothing about the site changes.
`_ga_G-0TPDS9BF0H`	The same thing per property: it holds the state of your current visit, so two page views a minute apart are counted as one session rather than two.	2 years	As above. Neither of these is set at all unless you have said yes, because the tag that sets them is never loaded.

Five things kept in your browser, not in a cookie

These are local storage and session storage. They live in your browser and are never attached to a request, so they are not sent to us on every page the way a cookie is. Most browsers clear them from the same screen that clears cookies, which is why they are listed here.

Key	What it does	If you delete it
`machinaebuild.account.token`	The token from the older sign-up form, kept so a visitor who registered that way is still recognised.	Sign in again with your email and password.
`machinaebuild.account.summary`	A copy of your name and credit balance, so the header can draw before the server has answered. It is a cache, never the source of truth.	Nothing. The page fetches it again a moment later.
`credits-before-checkout`	Your balance at the moment you pressed Buy, so the page you land on after paying can tell that it has gone up. Cleared when you close the tab.	Nothing that matters. Credits are added by the signed message from our payment provider, never by the page you land on.
`machinaebuild.cookies.choice`	The answer you gave above, so you are not asked on every page.	You are asked again next time you arrive.
`machinaebuild.tour.seen`	Whether you have already been shown the guided tour of the designer, so it does not start itself every time.	The tour offers itself once more. You can start it any time from Show me how at the top of the designer.

Where to click

You do not have to take our word for any of this. Every browser will show you the exact cookies a site has set, and let you delete them one at a time. The routes below were correct in August 2026; browsers move these settings around, so treat the wording as what to look for rather than a map.

See what this site has set, right now

Chrome and Edge. Press F12 to open developer tools, then the Application tab. In the left column open Storage → Cookies and pick this site. You should see exactly the rows in the first table and nothing else. Local storage and Session storage are in the same column, just below.
Firefox. F12, then the Storage tab — same three sections, same place.
Safari. Turn on the Develop menu first: Settings → Advanced → Show features for web developers. Then Develop → Show Web Inspector and the Storage tab.

What you are checking for is a short list. If you ever see a cookie here from a domain that is not ours, something is wrong and we would like to know: tell us through the contact page.

Delete them

Just this site, keeping everything else. Click the icon to the left of the address bar — a padlock, a slider, or the word View site information depending on the browser — then Cookies and site data → Manage → Remove. This is the one to use: it signs you out here and resets the free counter here, and touches nothing else.
Everything, everywhere. The browser's Clear browsing data screen (Chrome and Edge: Ctrl+Shift+Delete). It will sign you out of every site you use, so it is rarely what you actually want.

Deleting the cookies listed here does not delete your account or anything in it. If that is what you want, the privacy policy explains how to ask, and we do it.

Refuse them before they are set

Block this site's cookies. Same padlock menu, under Cookies and site data. Be aware of what it costs here: with cookies blocked you cannot stay signed in at all, so you cannot buy credits, keep designs, or see what you were charged. The five free designs will also restart on every page load rather than counting down.
Private or incognito window. Everything works normally inside the window and every trace of it is gone when you close it. A good way to try the free designs without leaving anything behind.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. We have nothing to switch off in response to them, because we do not track you across sites in the first place.

What we deliberately do not do

No advertising or retargeting cookies, and no advertising network is given anything about you.
No heatmaps, no session recording, no keystroke or mouse capture. The analytics above counts page views; it does not watch you use the page.
No fonts, stylesheets or images loaded from anybody else's servers, so no third party learns you were here just because a page drew. There are exactly two exceptions, both listed above, both off unless you turn them on: the location lookup, and the Google Analytics tag.
No selling or sharing of personal information, and nothing that would count as cross-context behavioural advertising.

Questions

The privacy policy covers what we collect beyond cookies, how long it is kept, and the rights you have over it — including having it deleted. Anything this page does not answer, ask us on the contact page and a person will answer.