Cookie Policy

The short version: the Writing Desk app uses no cookies whatsoever. This policy covers the writingdeskapp.com website only, where we use a small number of cookies for analytics and to remember your preferences.

1. What are cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on your device by a website when you visit it. They are widely used to make websites work, remember your preferences, and provide anonymised information to site owners about how their sites are used.

2. The Writing Desk app

The Writing Desk macOS application does not use cookies. It stores your preferences and settings locally on your machine using standard macOS application storage — not cookies, not cloud accounts, not any external service. Nothing about your in-app activity is tracked this way — see our Privacy Policy for how in-app usage analytics is handled separately from cookies.

3. This website

The writingdeskapp.com website uses a small number of cookies. We ask for your consent on first visit via a cookie notice. You can change your preference at any time using the "Manage cookie preferences" button above.

4. Cookies we use

Essential cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off. They do not store any personally identifiable information.

• Cookie consent — remembers whether you have accepted or declined non-essential cookies, so we don't ask you every time
• Session cookies — maintain your login session if you are signed in to a Writing Desk account

Analytics cookies

We use Google Analytics 4 to collect anonymised data about how visitors use this site — which pages are visited, how long visitors stay, and what device and browser they are using. This helps us understand what's working and improve the site.

• No personally identifiable information is collected
• IP addresses are anonymised before storage
• Data is not used for advertising or shared with third parties for commercial purposes
• Analytics cookies are only set if you consent

Google Analytics sets the following cookies:

• _ga — distinguishes users. Expires after 2 years.
• _ga_[ID] — maintains session state. Expires after 2 years.

You can read Google's privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy.

Preference cookies

We may set cookies to remember simple preferences such as your chosen display settings. These contain no personal information and expire at the end of your browser session or after 12 months.

5. Your control

You can control and manage cookies in several ways:

• Manage cookie preferences — use the button at the top of this page to change your choice at any time
• Browser settings — most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies. See your browser's help documentation for instructions
• Google Analytics opt-out — install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on to prevent your data being used across all sites

Analytics cookies are never set until you explicitly accept them via the banner or the button above — this applies regardless of any Do Not Track or similar browser signal, since we ask everyone directly rather than inferring a choice.

Please note that blocking essential cookies may affect the functionality of the website, particularly if you are signed in to a Writing Desk account.

6. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy if we change the cookies we use. The date at the top of this page indicates when it was last revised.

7. Contact

Writing Desk is operated by Ben Luxon, based in the United Kingdom.