What cookies and local storage are

A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to keep and send back on later visits. Local storage is a similar store that stays on your device and is read only by pages from the same site; it is never sent to a server by itself. Both can be used to remember preferences, and cookies in particular can be used to track people across websites. avi.ge does the first and not the second.

What avi.ge stores

Everything avi.ge keeps in your browser, as of the date of this policy
NameTypePurposeHow longSet by
avi-langlocal storageRemembers the language you chose in the language menu so the site stops suggesting another oneUntil you clear itavi.ge
avi-hint-closedlocal storageRemembers that you closed the "read this page in your language" barUntil you clear itavi.ge
avi-chk-(page)local storageRemembers which boxes you ticked in a checklist on a guide pageUntil you clear itavi.ge

None of these values leaves your device, none identifies you, and none is read by anyone but the page you are on. avi.ge sets no cookies of its own: no login, no session, no advertising and no analytics cookies.

Third parties

  • Google Fonts. Pages load their typefaces from fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. Your browser sends your IP address and browser details to Google to fetch the font files. According to Google, the Fonts service does not set cookies; its privacy policy applies to the request.
  • Hosting. The site is delivered by a hosting provider. Depending on the provider, a technical cookie for bot protection or load balancing may be set on the provider's behalf; it is strictly necessary to serve the site and is not used for tracking.
  • WhatsApp and Google Maps. Links to WhatsApp and Google Maps only open those services when you click them. They do not load anything on avi.ge pages beforehand.
  • Analytics. None is installed at the date of this policy. If we add one, this page will name it, list its cookies and, where the law requires, ask for your consent before it runs.

To be added by the team: the hosting provider's name (Netlify or Cloudflare Pages) and the exact technical cookies it sets, to be filled in after the site is published; name of any analytics tool once chosen.

Because avi.ge uses no cookies that require consent, the site shows no cookie banner. Strictly necessary storage, such as a language preference you set yourself, does not need consent under the Law of Georgia on Personal Data Protection or, for visitors in the European Union, under the ePrivacy rules and the GDPR. If that changes, a consent request will appear before any non-essential cookie is set.

How to control storage

  • Clear local storage for avi.ge in your browser's site settings (usually under "Cookies and site data"); the site then forgets your language choice and checklist ticks.
  • Block cookies and site data for avi.ge in the same settings. The site keeps working; it only stops remembering preferences.
  • Block fonts.googleapis.com with a content blocker if you do not want Google to receive the font request; the site falls back to a system font.

Related pages

How we handle personal data as a whole is described in the privacy policy. The terms of use cover the website in general.

Changes to this policy

When storage or third parties change, this page is updated with a new "Last checked" date and a dated line in the change log below.

Why there is no cookie banner

Most property websites greet you with a banner because they load advertising, analytics and remarketing scripts that set cookies to follow you across the web, and the law in many countries requires consent for that. This site loads none of those scripts. The only things it keeps in your browser are three preferences you set yourself, stored on your own device and never sent anywhere, and the law does not require consent for storage that exists only to do what you asked, such as remembering the language you chose. A banner on this site would therefore be theatre: it would ask you to consent to nothing, and it would teach you to click "accept" without reading, which is the opposite of what a site about reading documents carefully should do. If that ever changes, because we add a tool that needs consent, the consent request will be specific, will say what the tool does and will appear before the tool runs, as the section on consent above states.

What each stored preference does

None of these values is a cookie in the technical sense: they are kept in the browser's local storage, which is read only by pages from this site and is never attached to a request to a server. A technician can confirm this in any browser's developer tools, under the storage panel for avi.ge, where these three entries and no cookies of ours will be listed.

The font request, in detail

The site's typefaces are loaded from Google's font service rather than hosted on our own server, which is the one connection a page makes to a third party without your action. When a page loads, your browser asks Google for the font files, and that request carries your IP address and the usual browser details, as every web request does. Google states that the font service does not set cookies and that it logs the request for serving and security purposes under its own privacy policy. We have chosen this arrangement for speed and reliability, and we recognise that some readers prefer no contact with Google at all; for them the control section above explains how a content blocker stops the request, after which the site uses a typeface from your own device and looks slightly different but works in full. We will revisit hosting the fonts ourselves, which would remove this request entirely, and the change log on this page will record the decision.

What the hosting provider may set

A static site like this one is delivered by a hosting provider from servers around the world. Some providers set a technical cookie as part of protecting a site against automated abuse or distributing traffic between servers; such a cookie carries no information about you beyond what is needed to recognise your browser for that purpose during a visit, is not used for advertising, and falls under the strictly necessary category that does not require consent. We will name the provider and list its exact cookies, with their names and lifetimes, in the table above as soon as the site is live on its final host, which is the subject of the yellow box above. Until then this page states what is true of the site's own code, which sets no cookies at all.

How to check this page's claims yourself

  1. Open the developer tools

    In most desktop browsers, right-click a page and choose "Inspect", or press F12. Choose the panel called Application, Storage or Privacy, depending on the browser.

  2. Look at cookies

    Under Cookies, select avi.ge. The list shows any cookie set for this site. Ours sets none; anything listed will be from the hosting provider and will be named here once the site is live.

  3. Look at local storage

    Under Local storage, select avi.ge. You will see the entries described above, if you have set a language, closed the suggestion bar or ticked a checklist, and nothing else.

  4. Look at the network

    The Network panel lists every request a page makes. Reload the page and you will see requests to avi.ge for the page, its stylesheet, its script and the search index, and requests to Google's font domains for the typefaces. There are no requests to advertising or analytics domains.

  5. Tell us if you see something else

    If you find a request or a stored value that this page does not describe, use the report-an-error page; it will be checked and either explained here or removed.

What would change if we added analytics

At some point we may want to know which guides are read most and in which language, so that we write the right pages next. If we decide to measure that, we will prefer a method that needs no consent, such as a privacy-preserving counter that stores nothing in your browser and does not identify you, and this page will describe it before it runs. If we instead choose a tool that sets cookies or identifies visitors, the law requires consent first, and the site will show a specific request that names the tool, says what it collects and lets you refuse without losing any function. In either case the table on this page is updated, the change is dated in the log below, and the newsletter announces it. We will not add a measurement tool quietly, and we will not add advertising or remarketing tools at all.

Several devices, shared computers and private browsing

Because the preferences live in the browser, they are specific to the browser and the device: a language chosen on your phone is not known to your laptop, and ticks made in one browser do not appear in another. On a shared computer, the next person to use the same browser will see the language you chose and the ticks you made unless you clear the site's storage, which the control section explains; nothing stored identifies you, but the ticks could show which checklist you were working through. In private or incognito mode the browser discards the storage when the window closes, so the site will suggest a language again on the next visit and checklist ticks will not be kept.

What this policy covers and does not

This policy covers avi.ge and the pages served from it in all five languages. It does not cover the third-party sites the site links to, including WhatsApp, Google Maps, the official sources cited on guides and the research houses' reports, each of which has its own cookie practices that apply once you click through. It does not cover email or WhatsApp conversations with us, which the privacy policy describes. And it does not cover any newsletter service that may be connected in future, which will be described on the newsletter page and here when it is chosen.

To be added by the team: the partner lawyer to confirm that the "strictly necessary" classification of the three stored preferences and of any hosting cookie is correct under Georgia's Law on Personal Data Protection and, for visitors from the EU/EEA, under the ePrivacy rules; the owner to decide on self-hosted fonts and on any analytics tool.

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Change log

  • - Draft published for lawyer review.
WhatsAppContact
Language choiceEvery page exists in five languages, and the site can suggest the version that matches your browser's language. When you pick a language from the menu, the choice is stored so that the site stops suggesting a different one on the next page and on your next visit. It contains a two-letter language code and nothing else. Without it, the site still works; it simply shows the suggestion bar again.
Suggestion bar closedIf the site suggests another language and you close the bar without switching, that fact is stored so the bar does not reappear on every page. It is a single yes-or-no value.
Checklist ticksGuides with checklists let you tick items as you complete them, for example the documents for a residence permit application. The ticks are stored per page so that you can come back later and see where you were. They contain the position of the ticked items and nothing about you. Printing the checklist or clearing the storage removes them.