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Cookie Policy

Version 1.0 · Effective 14 September 2026

This policy lists every cookie Digital Learning Academy sets and everything else the Platform keeps in your browser. There are three cookies and two stored preferences. None of them is for advertising, and none of them follows you to other websites.

1. What a cookie is here

A cookie is a small piece of text your browser stores for a site and sends back on each request. The Platform uses them for three practical things: to know that you are signed in, to remember which language you chose, and to remember that you dismissed a prompt. That is the whole list.

2. Cookies the Platform sets

CookieWhat it doesCategoryHow long it lasts
Session cookie (set by Better Auth, the Platform’s authentication library; the name carries a secure prefix on the live site)Keeps you signed in as you move between pages. Without it every page would send you back to the sign-in screen. It holds a random session identifier, not your password.Strictly necessaryUp to 30 days, refreshed as you use the Platform; cleared when you sign out
dfrc_langRemembers whether you chose English, Portuguese or French, so that pages render in your language from the first byte.Functional12 months
Profile completion promptRecords that you dismissed the prompt asking you to finish your profile, so the Platform does not ask again immediately. It holds a flag, nothing about you.FunctionalShort-lived. [TO CONFIRM: exact cookie name and lifetime, once the registration work stream has shipped.]

Cookies are set on the Platform’s own domain. They are marked to be sent only to this site and only over an encrypted connection. The session cookie is not readable by page scripts.

3. What else is kept in your browser

Two preferences are stored in your browser’s local storage rather than in a cookie. Local storage stays on your device and is never sent to our servers:

  • your light or dark appearance preference;
  • which view you last used on the events calendar.

Clearing your browser data removes both. Nothing is lost except the preference itself.

4. No advertising, and no analytics today

To be precise about this rather than vague:

  • the Platform sets no advertising cookies, no retargeting pixels and no cross-site trackers, and it shares nothing with an advertising network;
  • no product-analytics service is running. The code contains a PostHog integration, but no key is configured for it, so it never loads and no analytics events are collected;
  • if analytics are ever switched on, we will update this policy and the Privacy Policy first, and we will ask for your agreement before setting any analytics cookie.

5. Third-party content that can see your IP address

Some pages load images and scripts directly from other companies. Those companies do not receive a cookie from us, but because your browser fetches the file from them, they see your IP address, your browser details and which page you were on:

  • images.unsplash.com, for the decorative photography on catalogue and resource pages;
  • flagcdn.com, for the small country flags shown next to members and institutions;
  • Cloudflare, which sits in front of the Platform and sees the requests it forwards;
  • Sentry, but only when an error occurs, and then only for error diagnostics.

A browser extension that blocks third-party requests will stop the first two. The Platform still works; you will see a plain background where a photograph would be.

6. Why there is no cookie banner

A consent banner is there to ask permission for cookies that are not needed to provide the service, which in practice means advertising and analytics cookies. The Platform sets none. The session cookie is strictly necessary, and the other two are set because you asked for something, by choosing a language or by dismissing a prompt. If that ever changes, the banner will appear before the cookie does.

7. Controlling cookies

Every browser lets you view, block and delete cookies for a site, usually under privacy or site settings. Blocking cookies for this site will stop sign-in from working, because the Platform has no other way to know the session is yours. Blocking only the language cookie is harmless: pages will simply open in English until you choose again.

8. Changes and contact

If the set of cookies changes, this page changes with it and the version at the foot of the page moves. Questions go to the Information Officer at SADC-DFRC@socoed.com.

Version 1.0 · Effective 14 September 2026