Cookie policy

1. What a cookie is, in plain terms

A cookie is a small piece of text a website asks your browser to keep and send back on your next visit. It is how a site remembers that you are signed in, or that you asked for Hausa rather than English.

It is not a program and it cannot read files on your device. What it can do is identify the same browser across visits, which is why some cookies are worth being careful about and others are not.

2. Essential cookies — the ones we cannot do without

Two cookies from our authentication provider keep you signed in and refresh your session as you move around. Without them you would be signed out on every page.

One cookie remembers the language you chose, so the platform stays in Hausa, French or English until you change it.

For staff accounts, one short-lived cookie records that a member of staff proved their identity with an authenticator in the last fifteen minutes. It is what stands between a stolen laptop and a payout.

These are set because you asked for the service — signing in, choosing a language — and there is no way to turn them off and still have the platform work. If you block all cookies in your browser, signing in will not work.

3. Optional cookies — and what they do

When you arrive through a link a vendor shared, one cookie remembers which shop sent you, for thirty days. It exists so that the vendor gets credited if you go on to order, and it holds nothing but that shop's identifier — no name, no browsing history.

Refusing it costs you nothing at all. The only effect is that a vendor who introduced you may not be credited for it.

4. What we do not do

We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not let anybody else set cookies through our pages for their own advertising.

We do not use third-party analytics that follow you across other websites. What we measure about how the platform is used, we measure on our own servers, and the Privacy Policy explains how to opt out of personalisation.

5. How to manage or remove them

Every browser lets you see the cookies a site has set and delete them. In Chrome on Android: Settings, then Site settings, then Cookies. On an iPhone, in Safari: Settings, then Safari, then Advanced, then Website Data. On a computer, in Chrome, Edge or Firefox: look for Privacy in Settings, then Cookies and site data.

You can delete our cookies at any time. Deleting the essential ones signs you out and forgets your language; deleting the optional one removes the vendor attribution described above.

You can also block cookies entirely. The public parts of the platform — browsing, the FAQ page, this page — will still work; signing in, the basket and checkout will not.

6. Questions

If anything here is unclear, write to support@arewathreads.com and a person will answer.