1. What Are Cookies
Cookies are small text files placed on your device (computer, tablet, or phone) when you visit a website or use a web-based application. Cookies help websites and applications remember information about your visit, such as your language preference or authentication state, which makes your next visit easier and the service more useful to you.
Cookies are not the only way to store or access information on your device. Web applications may also use similar technologies such as localStorage, sessionStorage, or IndexedDB. For the purposes of this Cookie Policy, we refer to all such technologies collectively as "cookies."
2. How Very Big Machine Uses Cookies
Very Big Machine takes a minimal approach to cookies. We use only essential, functional cookies required to operate our Services. We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking cookies, or third-party behavioral analytics cookies on our own website or within our applications.
Specifically:
- We do not use cookies to track you across third-party websites.
- We do not sell or share cookie data with advertisers or data brokers.
- We do not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or similar advertising or analytics trackers on verybigmachine.com.
3. Cookies We Use
| Cookie / Storage Key | Type | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| firebase-auth-token | Essential | Maintains your authenticated session in Firebase-backed web applications. Without this, you would need to re-authenticate on every page load. | Session / up to 1 hour (refresh token may extend) |
| __session | Essential | Firebase Hosting session management cookie, used when Firebase Authentication is active on a hosted web application. | Session |
| localStorage / sessionStorage | Functional | Used within web application UIs to persist UI preferences (e.g., last-used settings) locally in your browser. Data stays on your device and is not transmitted to our servers. | Persistent (localStorage) / Session (sessionStorage) |
Note: Google Workspace Add-ons and Chrome Extensions do not set cookies on your device in the traditional sense. They may use Google's Apps Script UserProperties or Chrome extension storage APIs, which are governed by Google's platform policies and our Privacy Policy.
4. Third-Party Cookies
Our website (verybigmachine.com) loads resources from the following third-party domains, which may set their own cookies or storage entries:
| Third Party | Purpose | Policy Link |
|---|---|---|
| Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com) | Serves Inter and Oswald typefaces used in our UI | Google Privacy Policy |
| Tailwind CSS CDN (cdn.tailwindcss.com) | Delivers the Tailwind CSS framework used for page styling | Tailwind Privacy Policy |
These third-party services may set cookies or collect IP addresses to serve their resources. We do not control the behavior of these third-party cookies. Please refer to their respective privacy policies for details.
5. Your Choices and Controls
5.1 Browser Settings
Most browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically:
- View all cookies currently stored in your browser
- Delete all cookies or cookies from specific sites
- Block all cookies or only third-party cookies
- Set your browser to notify you before a cookie is placed
Instructions for common browsers: Chrome · Firefox · Safari · Edge
5.2 Impact of Disabling Cookies
If you disable essential cookies (such as Firebase authentication cookies), you may not be able to sign in to or use the authenticated features of our web applications. Our marketing pages at verybigmachine.com will remain fully functional without cookies.
5.3 No Cookie Consent Banner Required
Because we use only strictly necessary cookies (authentication and session management), we do not display a cookie consent banner on our marketing website. If we ever introduce non-essential cookies, we will update this policy and implement appropriate consent mechanisms in compliance with GDPR, the UK PECR, and applicable law.
6. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time, particularly if we add new features to our Services that involve additional cookie or storage use. We will update the "Last Reviewed" date at the top of this page when changes are made. For material changes, we will notify users via email or a notice on our website.
7. Contact
Questions about our use of cookies can be directed to:
For broader data privacy inquiries, see our Privacy Policy.