Legal · Cookies & local storage

No tracking cookies. No analytics pixels. No consent banner.

And this page explains why. The only client-side persistence on hikariblue.com is three local preferences stored in your own browser, never transmitted to our servers.

Effective · May 12, 2026 Contact · direct email

1. Summary

hikariblue.com sets no tracking cookies. We do not run third-party analytics, advertising pixels, retargeting, session recording, or behavioral profiling. Client-side persistence is limited to functional preferences in localStorage and short-lived context in sessionStorage that dies when the tab closes. Usage measurement is first-party, cookieless, and anonymized; section 6 explains how it works and how to turn it off.

2. What we use and why

This page distinguishes between three commonly conflated technologies: cookies (small files set by the server, automatically sent on every request), localStorage (key-value store managed by the browser, never auto-transmitted), and sessionStorage (same as localStorage, cleared when the tab closes). We use the second category for functional preferences, and the third for short-lived context: campaign source memory and one anonymous session marker.

Key Purpose Type Duration Category
hkb_theme Remembers your preferred theme (light, dark, or auto) localStorage Until cleared Strictly necessary
hkb_lang Remembers your language preference (site served in US English) localStorage Until cleared Strictly necessary
hkb_region Remembers your selected region preset localStorage Until cleared Strictly necessary
hkb_sid Anonymous random session marker for first-party audience measurement; carries no identity sessionStorage Tab close Audience measurement (exempt)
hkb_utm_* Remembers the campaign parameters of your arrival so a form you send later credits the right source sessionStorage Tab close Audience measurement (exempt)
hkb_analytics Your opt-out flag: when set to "off", no measurement event leaves your browser localStorage Until cleared Strictly necessary

The preference values are never transmitted to our servers. The session marker travels only with our own anonymized measurement events, described in section 6, and never to a third party.

3. Cookie categories: what we do and don't use

  • Strictly necessary: required for the Site to function (functional preferences above). Set without consent under ePrivacy Directive Art. 5(3) exception. ✓ Used.
  • Performance / analytics: measure usage to improve the Site. Analytics cookies require prior opt-in consent. ✗ No analytics cookie is used. Our audience measurement is cookieless, first-party, and anonymized (section 6), built to stay within the audience-measurement exemption of the CNIL guidelines.
  • Functionality: remember choices and personalize experience. Requires prior opt-in consent if non-essential. ✗ Not used.
  • Advertising / targeting: build a profile, deliver targeted ads, retarget across sites. Requires prior opt-in consent. ✗ Not used.
  • Social media: embed widgets that track you across sites. Requires prior opt-in consent. ✗ Not used.

4. Why no consent banner

Under the EU ePrivacy Directive (Article 5(3) exception), the UK PECR, and equivalent US state laws, strictly necessary functional storage that is (a) set only following an explicit user action, (b) used only to deliver the service the user requested, and (c) not used for tracking, profiling, or any other secondary purpose, does not require prior consent.

Our theme, language, and region preferences fall squarely in that category. They are set only when you actively change a preference, are used only to render the Site in your chosen state, and are never read by anyone but your own browser.

Our audience measurement needs no banner either: it uses no cookie and no persistent identifier, runs strictly on our own origin, serves the sole purpose of measuring this Site, and is anonymized before storage. That is the exact design the CNIL exempts from consent for audience measurement, and it honors Do Not Track, Global Privacy Control, and the on-page opt-out below.

If we ever introduce a tool that falls outside those exemptions (advertising, cross-site tracking, or marketing tooling), a proper granular consent banner (compliant with the IAB Transparency & Consent Framework, the CNIL recommendations, and the relevant state privacy acts) will be deployed before any such tool is active.

5. How to clear stored preferences

You can clear the stored preferences at any time:

  • From your browser settings: "Clear browsing data" → select "Cookies and other site data" → clear for hikariblue.com.
  • From DevTools: open Application → Local Storage → https://hikariblue.com, and remove the three keys above.
  • From the console: run localStorage.removeItem('hkb_theme'); localStorage.removeItem('hkb_lang'); localStorage.removeItem('hkb_region');
  • To opt out of audience measurement: run window.hkbAnalytics.optOut() in the console, or enable Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control in your browser. Either signal stops every measurement event before it leaves your browser.

Clearing these values simply resets the Site to its defaults (light theme if your system is in light mode, English language, no region preset).

6. Third parties on this Site

This Site does not embed third-party scripts, fonts, video players, or analytics. All assets (fonts such as Inter Variable, images, scripts) are served from our own origin or our hosting provider's CDN (Netlify). No external request is made from your browser to any third-party domain when you simply visit a page.

Audience measurement, in full. Our own script sends a small event to our own origin (/api/collect) when a page is viewed or a button is used: page path, event name, referrer domain, campaign parameters, language, and viewport class. No name, no email, no message content, no form value ever leaves with it. Server-side, your IP address is never stored; it is replaced by a hash salted with a key that rotates every 24 hours, so visits cannot be joined across days. Nothing is shared with, or readable by, any third party.

One exception: when you actively use the Ask Hikari feature (⌘K), your question is sent to our backend, which then calls Anthropic's Claude API. This is documented in the Sub-processors section of our Privacy Policy.

7. Texas, EU, UK, and California: applicable laws

This statement is drafted to comply with:

  • Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA, Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Chapter 541, effective July 1, 2024), for Texas residents.
  • California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA / CPRA, Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.100 et seq.), for California residents.
  • EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), for EU/EEA residents.
  • EU ePrivacy Directive (Directive 2002/58/EC, as amended), for cookie consent in the EU.
  • UK GDPR & PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003), for UK residents.

Because we operate no tracking technology requiring consent, none of these regimes triggers a banner obligation for the current state of the Site.

8. Updates to this statement

This Cookies & Local Storage statement is reviewed quarterly and updated whenever we introduce a new storage technology, a new third-party integration, or a material change to existing values.

9. Contact

Questions about this statement: direct email

Postal mail: UNITED4 LLC, Attn: Privacy, 14205 N Mopac Expy, Suite 570, Austin, TX 78728, USA