What cookies are
Cookies are small records a site keeps in your browser. They help the site work, remember your settings and count visits. There are no accounts on the site, so our cookies hold no name, email or password, only technical identifiers and setting values.
Which cookies we use
Settings and site operation
The site sets these itself. It works without them too: only the theme, the language you chose and the fact that you have closed the cookie notice would not be remembered.
| Name | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
theme | The colour theme, if you picked one by hand in the site footer. | Until you close the browser |
selectedLanguage | The interface language you chose on pc.st. | 1 year |
cookies_ok | You have closed the cookie notice at the bottom of the page. | 1 year |
Visit statistics
We count visits and plays ourselves: the events go to Umami, an open-source statistics system on our own servers, and are shared with no one. They hold no names or contacts, only the page address and title, the browser language, the screen size, the site you came from, UTM tags and player starts. Umami works out the country, browser and device type from the IP address and browser data.
| Name | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
pcst_visitor_uid | A random browser identifier that tells new visitors from returning ones. Not readable by scripts on the page. | 400 days |
pcst_visit_v2 | The current visit: when it started, on which page and where you came from. | 30 minutes after the last action |
Both are set on the shared domain pc.st, so they also work on podcast pages such as name.pc.st.
Yandex Metrica
The site runs a Yandex Metrica counter: it shows how the site is used and helps improve it. The operator is Yandex LLC. The counter collects the pages visited, visit length, referral source, clicks on external links, device type, browser, screen resolution and the region, which is determined from the IP address. Click maps and Session Replay are on: Session Replay records how a visitor scrolls the page, moves the mouse and clicks links and buttons. The site has no forms for personal data, only podcast search.
| Name | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
_ym_uid | Tells one visitor from another | 1 year |
_ym_d | Date of the first visit | 1 year |
_ym_isad | Whether you use an ad blocker | 20 hours |
_ym_visorc_* | Needed for Session Replay | 30 minutes |
Besides these cookies, Metrica keeps service records in localStorage and sets its own cookies on Yandex domains. The full list is in the Metrica documentation; how the data is handled is set out in the Yandex Metrica terms of use and the Yandex privacy policy.
What the site does not have
- Google Analytics, Meta Pixel or other third-party counters;
- advertising pixels and retargeting;
- embedded widgets from other services: podcast pages only link to them.
Artwork loads from Apple’s servers, episodes from podcast hosts’ servers and fonts from Google Fonts: these services see ordinary browser requests and handle them under their own rules. Once you leave for Apple Podcasts, Spotify or another service, their rules apply.
Podcaster dashboard
In the dashboard at my.pc.st, podcasters manage their podcast pages. It sets its own records and runs no statistics counters.
| Name | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
sid | Signs you in to the dashboard: an encrypted session. Not readable by scripts on the page. | 30 days |
NEXT_LOCALE | The dashboard language, if you picked one yourself. | 1 year |
sidebar:state | Whether the sidebar is collapsed. | 7 days |
The dashboard keeps its colour theme in localStorage under theme, and the closed cookie notice in cookies_ok. Without sid you cannot sign in to the dashboard.
How to manage cookies
The notice at the bottom of the page only informs: the OK button hides it, and cookies_ok keeps that choice for a year.
- Switch back to the system theme in the site footer and
themeis removed. - Any browser can show, delete and block cookies, usually under “Privacy”: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge.
- Metrica’s data collection can be turned off with the Yandex Metrica blocker extension or any tracker blocker.
If you block cookies entirely, the site keeps working: podcast pages, search and the player do not depend on them.
Changes
If we add statistics systems or change the set of cookies, we will update this page and the revision date at its top.
Questions
Write to mail@pc.st and we will answer any question about cookies and data.