Cookies and counting
Three cookies, all functional, none of them about you — and a visit count that stores nothing on your device at all. There is no consent banner here because there is nothing stored on your machine to consent to.
Last updated 14 August 2026
What we set
gfd-locale — remembers which language you chose, so the bare address takes you back to it. Set only when you pick a language yourself.
gfd-admin — the sign-in session for the desk's own tool. Only ever set for someone who signed in, and it expires after twelve hours.
gfd_member — the sign-in session for the members' area. Only ever set for someone who signed in through a link we mailed them, and it expires after thirty days.
How we count visits
We count which pages are opened, and when a report is shared and to which network. That is measurement of the site, and we would rather say so plainly than run it quietly.
It works without touching your device. No cookie is set for it, nothing is written to local storage, and nothing is read back. A visitor is a one-way hash of your network address and browser description, mixed with a key that changes at midnight — so two pages in one afternoon count as one person, and the same person tomorrow is a different number that cannot be joined to today's.
What is kept: the page path, the day, the visitor number for that day, and share clicks. What is never written down: your address, your browser string, where you came from, or any trail across days.
Why there is still no banner
Under the Dutch Telecommunications Act, consent is about storing information on your device or reading what is already there. This counting does neither. So there is nothing to ask you to accept — which is a better outcome than a banner, and the reason we built it this way rather than installing something that needed one.
No third party is involved. The counting is our own code on our own server; no analytics provider, no advertising network and no social plugin receives anything. The share buttons are ordinary links that do nothing until you click them.
If you are signed in
In the members' area we know who you are, because you told us when you signed in. Sign-ins and pages read there are recorded against your address so the desk can see how the service is used and support you properly. Those records are deleted after ninety days; the anonymous counts above are kept for a year.
What we still do not do
No advertising or retargeting. No fingerprinting. No cross-site tracking. No selling or sharing of any of it — there is no one to sell it to, and it would not be worth what it would cost us.
Turning them off
Your browser can refuse all three cookies. The site works either way; it will simply stop remembering your language, and the two sign-ins will stop being able to hold a session.