Cookies & storage
Talescout does not use advertising cookies and currently uses no third-party analytics. What it does keep on your device is functional and limited to the app:
- An anonymous session id — one random identifier held in a persistent, Secure, SameSite, HttpOnly cookie so the app can remember your reading between visits. Browser JavaScript cannot read it. It is not linked to your name, email or any account.
- Small preference flags — things like which one-time introductions you’ve already seen and whether you’ve dismissed the install prompt, so the app doesn’t repeat itself.
- Offline reading copies — the last full story you deliberately opened and up to 100 shelf entries (book title and author only). The service worker may also cache recently requested Talescout pages, first-party data and static assets. This is graceful read-through, not a full offline sync.
- A native push token, only if you allow it — held in the installed app’s app-scoped preferences. No sender is connected today, so Talescout does not send notifications.
This storage is strictly necessary for the app to work — under the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations such storage doesn’t require a consent banner, but we tell you about it here. Without it, core features (a feed that remembers you) don’t function.
Third-party sites
If you click through to a retailer (for example Bookshop.org or Amazon), that site may set its own cookies under its own policies — we don’t control those. See the Affiliate disclosure.
Clearing it
Clear the site’s data in your browser at any time — that removes the session id, preferences and offline copies and fully disconnects your device from past reading signals. In the native app, clearing app storage or uninstalling does the same. This is also the fastest way to reset personalisation; see Privacy.