The cookie
One, named session. It is set when you sign in and it holds nothing but a
random identifier that the server matches to your account. It is
HttpOnly, so no script can read it — including any script belonging to
an advertiser — Secure, so it never travels over plain HTTP, and
SameSite=Lax, so another site cannot make your browser send it.
It is not used to track you, it does not follow you to other sites, and there is no second cookie doing something else. Signing out deletes it. It cannot be refused, because refusing it means not being able to sign in.
What your browser stores for you
These are not cookies and they are never sent anywhere. They are your own settings and your own saved work, kept by the browser so the app is the same when you open it again.
- metarlab.prefs
- Theme, accent colour, how many questions a practice round has, and your minima.
- metarlab.profile
- A copy of your name and your picture, so the circle at the top is drawn before the server answers.
- metarlab.route
- The last route you drew on the map.
- metarlab.vfr500sheet
- Which VFR500 sheet you last looked at, so it is the one offered next time.
- metarlab.quiz.round
- How many practice rounds you have started, which is what keeps the questions from repeating in the same order.
- metarlab.upsell.dismissed, metarlab.install-notice.dismissed
- That you closed a notice, so it is not shown again.
- metarlab.consent.ads
- Your answer to the advertising question. Stored here rather than on the server, so your opinion is not kept against your account.
There is also a database called metarlab, held by the browser, containing
the charts and flashcards you have opened so they work with no connection. It is on your
device only.
All of it can be cleared at any time from Settings, or by clearing site data in your browser. Signing out also tells the app to forget what it cached.
Advertising, and the only thing you are asked about
The free version of MetarLab may show advertising, and an advertisement is loaded from another company. That company can see that a browser opened the app, and may set storage of its own. This is the only part of MetarLab that involves anybody else, which is why it is the only part you are asked about.
If you say no, nothing of theirs is loaded at all. Not hidden with a stylesheet, not loaded and left blank — the request is never made, so nothing of theirs is ever set. Saying nothing counts as saying no.
An advertisement is always in a box with a border, under a heading that says Advertisement, below the weather and never among it. It is never shown on a chart and never between a report and its forecast. What MetarLab shows you as weather is what the authority published, and nothing else is ever dressed up as it.
The advertiser's code runs in a frame of its own with no access to the page around it, no access to your session, and no access to anything you have typed, followed or uploaded.
A subscription removes it entirely. Not by hiding it: for an account that pays, the frame is never built and the server refuses to serve it, so no advertiser is ever contacted at all.
Changing your mind
Your answer is stored on this device, so it is asked again on a new device or after you clear your browser's data. You can change it at any time in Settings.
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