# Cookies — Machinae Build

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Last updated 16 August 2026

This site sets two cookies 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

One thing on this site is optional, and this is where it is set. It takes effect immediately — there is no save button and nothing is sent anywhere when you change it.

### Approximate location from your IP address

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.

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…

Allow it Turn it off Ask me again

## The two 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. 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.

 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.

 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.

## 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](/contact).

### 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 two cookies here does not delete your account or anything in it. If that is what you want, [the privacy policy](/privacy) 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 analytics product — no Google Analytics, no heatmaps, no session recording. We look at our own server logs and nothing else.

- No fonts, scripts, stylesheets or images loaded from anybody else's servers, so no third party learns you were here just because a page drew. The location lookup at the top of this page is the single exception, it is off unless you turn it on, and it is named for exactly that reason.

- No selling or sharing of personal information, and nothing that would count as cross-context behavioural advertising.

## Questions

[The privacy policy](/privacy) 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](/contact) and a person will answer.
