1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that a website stores in your browser, so it can recognise the browser on the next page or the next visit. Similar technologies, such as the browser's local storage and session storage, keep information on your device in the same way. This policy covers all of them.
2. Types of cookies
Strictly necessary cookies
They make the Platform work: signing in and staying signed in, sessions, security and the essential functions of the website. They do not need your consent, because PCT cannot work without them. These are the only cookies PCT uses.
Analytics cookies
PCT uses none, and no outside analytics service. It counts how the Platform is used in its own records, without cookies, as the Privacy Policy explains.
Marketing cookies
PCT uses none: no Meta Pixel, no Google Ads and no advertising of any kind.
Preference cookies
PCT uses none.
3. Cookie table
Everything PCT stores in your browser:
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Duration | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pct.session_token (cookie) | PCT | Keeps you signed in, so the platform knows it is you on every page. Set only when you sign in. | 30 days, renewed while you use PCT. Removed when you sign out. | Strictly necessary |
| pct.admin_session (cookie) | PCT | Only for the PCT team: keeps their own sign-in while they view the platform as a member, to help with a question. | Up to 1 hour | Strictly necessary |
| pct.two_factor (cookie) | PCT | Only for accounts with two-step sign-in: remembers, between the password and the code from the email, who is signing in. | 10 minutes, removed once you are signed in | Strictly necessary |
| pct.trust_device (cookie) | PCT | Only when you tick Trust this device while signing in with two steps: this device then signs in without a code. | 30 days | Strictly necessary |
| pct.card_return (cookie) | PCT | Set when you open Stripe's card page from your membership, so PCT knows you really came back from it before it tries your new card. | 1 hour, removed when you come back | Strictly necessary |
| pct_lang (cookie) | PCT | Remembers the language you chose on the website or in Settings, so PCT stops suggesting another one and its pages follow it. Set when you pick a language, or sign in to an account that has one. | 1 year | Strictly necessary |
| pct-site-account (session storage) | PCT | Remembers, for the open tab, whether you are signed in, so the website's top bar shows My account at once. | Until the tab is closed | Strictly necessary |
You pay for your membership on Stripe's own payment page. Stripe sets its own cookies there, for example to prevent fraud; they are described in Stripe's cookie policy. The contact form and the application form also load Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks that a person, not a program, is sending them (see the Privacy Policy). Apart from Stripe and Turnstile, PCT's pages load no outside scripts and set no outside cookies.
4. Cookie consent
Because PCT uses only strictly necessary cookies, there is nothing to accept or refuse, so no cookie banner is shown.
If PCT ever uses cookies that need your consent, it will ask you first with a banner (Accept all, Reject optional, Customise), and those cookies will not be set before you agree.
5. Cookie settings
You can open the cookie settings at any time from Cookie settings at the foot of every page, or here:
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser's settings. If you block the strictly necessary ones, you cannot sign in.
6. Changes to this policy
PCT updates this policy when the cookies it uses change. The date of the last update is at the top of this page, and earlier versions are listed under Version history. Questions: write to us through the contact page.
Version history
| Version | Date | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-18 | 18 October 2026 | The contact form and the application form load Cloudflare Turnstile. |
| draft-2026-10-14 | 14 October 2026 | Three more strictly necessary cookies: two for two-step sign-in, one for the way back from the card page. |
| draft-2026-10-11 | 11 October 2026 | The cookie table, the types of cookies and Cookie settings. |
| draft-2026-10-10 | 10 October 2026 | The first version: the sign-in cookies. |