Cookie policy

What we store

Cookies are set only if you press Accept on the small panel about analytics; they are described in the next part. Everything else is a small note kept in your browser, listed below by the name your browser shows for each. None of these notes leaves your device, and the site works fully without them.

The notes that disappear when you close the tab (session storage):

• seed-pre: the opening animation has played, so it does not play again on every page of this visit.
• seed-ttl: which chapter titles on the home page have already gathered from grains, so each one does it only once per visit.
• zx-warm: followed by a page address, one for each page you open: that page’s moving scenes have been prepared in the background, so this is not repeated while the tab stays open.
• zx-open: when you open a project from the work page, which project you opened and where on the screen you clicked, so the next page can open from that spot. That page removes the note as soon as it opens.
• zd-biz: a business name you typed into the seed field on the home page, so the line under the title can repeat it.
• zx-sound-t0: the moment the music started in this visit, so it carries on from the same place on the next page instead of starting again.
• zx-back: the garden has already said “Welcome back” in this visit, so it says it only once.
• zx-night: the late-night line under the questions has been shown, so it appears only once per visit.
• zx-planted-now: you planted a seed in this visit, so the garden does not greet you as a returning visitor.
• zx-cine: on a phone that would struggle with the live 3D scene, the site plays short films of it instead and remembers that choice for this visit.

The notes that stay until you clear your browser’s site data (local storage):

• zx-sound: whether you switched the sound on or off, so the next visit starts the way you left it.
• zx-weather: whether you switched the live weather off, so the scene stays the way you chose.
• zx-weather-last: the last weather reading the site received, so the next page can show the sky at once instead of waiting for a new one.
• zx-my-seed: only if you plant a seed in the garden: its number and the time you planted it, so the garden can show your light and welcome you back. Never your name, your word or your key.
• zx-gc-tapped: on a phone, you have already tapped a seed in the garden, so the «Tap a seed» hint is not shown again.
• zx-consent: your answer on the analytics panel, granted after Accept or denied after Decline, and the date you gave it, so the site does not ask again on every page. After six months it asks once more.

Planting a seed sets no cookies. The only note it leaves is zx-my-seed above. Your key is on your card; keep it yourself.

Analytics, only if you agree

We use Google Analytics 4, run for us by Google Ireland Limited, to count visits and to see which pages help people find what they need. We use it for nothing else: no advertising, no Google signals, no ad personalisation, and nothing that links your visit to who you are.

It measures the pages you open and how long you stay, the page that brought you here, your type of device, browser and screen, and your approximate region, which Google works out from your IP address without storing the address itself.

The panel at the foot of the screen asks first, and both answers take one press. Until you choose, or if you press Decline, Google Analytics sets no cookies and reads none: the page only tells it that a visit happened, with no identifier that could recognise you again, so we still see rough totals.

Only after you press Accept does it set these two cookies:

• _ga: a random number that tells one browser from another, so we can count returning visitors without knowing who they are. Kept for six months at most.
• _ga_ followed by our measurement code: keeps the pages of one visit together, so we can see how a visit moves through the site. Kept for six months at most.

Google Analytics keeps the visit data for two months and then deletes it automatically. We see totals and trends, never a name. Google may process this data in the United States under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework; more in the privacy policy.

Changing your mind

Open Cookie settings at the foot of any page and choose again. Decline stops analytics at once and removes the _ga cookies from your browser. Without a new answer, the site asks again after six months.

You can also clear site data at any time in your browser settings. That clears your answer too, so the panel asks again, and the website works fully without it.