Cookie policy
Last updated 11 August 2026
This policy explains the cookies and browser storage BlackForge uses on blackforge.so, and how you control them. It covers this marketing site only. The signed-in console at app.blackforge.so has its own analytics setting, which lives in the console’s Settings and is described in our privacy policy.
Cookies and browser storage
Cookies are small files a site stores in your browser. Local storage (localStorage) and session storage are related browser mechanisms that keep small values on your device; session storage is emptied when you close the tab. All three let a site remember information, and we treat them under the same consent rules.
What we use today
BlackForge sets no cookies on blackforge.so. Everything listed below is browser storage instead. We run no advertising and no advertising trackers on this site.
The first two entries below are Necessary: they exist only to remember and enforce the choice you make. Everything else belongs to the Analytics category and is created only after you allow it: the analytics software is not loaded, requested or run until then, so before you consent there is nothing on the page to switch off.
| Key | Type | Category | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|
bf_cookie_consent | localStorage | Necessary | Remembers your cookie preferences (categories chosen, schema version, and the timestamp of your decision). | Until you clear it or reset your preferences. |
bf_ph_consent | localStorage | Necessary | Tells the analytics software itself whether you have opted in or out, so a withdrawal holds even while the page is still open. Written only once you have used the Analytics toggle. | Until you clear it or change your choice. |
ph_… | localStorage | Analytics | PostHog’s own entries: a random device identifier, the current session, and events still queued to send. Created only after you allow Analytics. | Removed as soon as you withdraw Analytics consent; otherwise until you clear site data. |
ph_… | sessionStorage | Analytics | Ties the events from one browser tab together. Created only after you allow Analytics. | Cleared when you close the tab. |
Our host, Amazon CloudFront, serves the site over HTTPS and does not set tracking cookies.
Categories
- Necessary: always on. Needed for the site to work: routing, security, and remembering your cookie choice. It cannot be switched off.
- Analytics: off by default. Product analytics and session replay, provided by PostHog in its European Union region. Loaded only after you allow it, and stopped the moment you withdraw. This toggle governs this site only.
- Marketing: off by default. We run none today; any future attribution would load only after you allow it.
What Analytics does on this site, if you allow it
PostHog acts as our processor and records the pages you open, the links and buttons you interact with, and your browser and device details. Your IP address reaches PostHog with the connection itself, as it does with every request your browser makes to any website. PostHog is configured not to store it — but before discarding it, PostHog looks it up in a geolocation database and does store an approximate location: continent, country, region, city, postal code, timezone and a pair of coordinates. That is an estimate made from your network, not a reading from your device, and the database’s own margin of error is typically around 50 km. It also records a session replay: a reconstruction of your visit rebuilt from the page’s own structure plus your clicks, scrolling and pointer movement. It is not a video and it cannot see other tabs or anything outside this site.
Everything you type is masked. Field values are replaced with a placeholder before the recording leaves your browser, the request-access and contact forms are marked so their text is masked as well, and the contents of network requests and responses are stripped out. Browser console output is not recorded. The data is sent to PostHog’s EU region and stored on infrastructure in the European Union, and recordings are deleted automatically after 30 days. Full detail is in our privacy policy.
Managing your choices
On your first visit a banner lets you accept all, reject all, or choose per category. You can change your decision at any time. Analytics and Marketing are never pre-ticked, and rejecting keeps only the necessary entries above. You can also clear the stored values through your browser’s site-data settings.
Withdrawing is as easy as consenting and takes effect immediately, without reloading the page: recording stops, no further events are sent, and PostHog removes the entries it had put in your local storage. Nothing else on the site changes.
If you also have a BlackForge account, note that this choice does not travel to the console at app.blackforge.so. Analytics there rests on a different legal basis and is switched off in the console’s own Settings. Our privacy policy explains both.
Changes
If we introduce new cookies or storage, we will update this page and, where required, ask for your consent again. The “last updated” date reflects the current version.
Contact
Questions about cookies? Email hello@blackforge.so. For how we handle personal data, see our privacy policy.