Cookie Policy

The short version

This page describes what Metaexplorer stores in a reader's browser and what it does not store. Each statement below is explained in full further down the page.

• This website sets no cookies of any kind, and no session is ever started for a reader.
• One entry is written to the browser's local storage, and only after the reader clicks the theme control.
• That entry records the light or the dark appearance, carries no identifier and never leaves the device.
• Cloudflare, the network delivery and security provider in front of this website, may set its own security cookie.
• No consent banner appears, because nothing on this website requires consent.

What the law actually regulates

The rule that governs this subject is Article 5(3) of Directive 2002/58/EC, as amended by Directive 2009/136/EC. It is known as the cookie rule, although the word cookie does not define its scope.

The rule covers any storing of information, or gaining of access to information already stored, in a reader's terminal equipment. The protected object is the device itself, rather than one particular file format used on it.

The wording is technology-neutral. It therefore reaches beyond cookies to local storage, session storage, indexed databases, cache manipulation, tracking pixels, tracking parameters added to links and device fingerprinting.

The terms below are used throughout this page with a single fixed meaning.

Cookie

A small named text value that a website asks the browser to store and to send back with every later request to the same website.

Local storage

A browser feature that keeps a small named value inside the browser, where it remains until the reader clears the site data for that website.

Session

A server-side record that links successive requests from the same browser, so that a server can recognise a returning visitor within one visit.

Terminal equipment

The device that a reader uses to connect to the network, such as a computer, a tablet or a telephone.

First party

Anything served by the same domain as the page being read, rather than by a domain belonging to another organisation.

The directive is transposed into the national law of each European Union member state. Readers reach Metaexplorer from many countries, so this page describes technical behaviour rather than any single national position.

Cookies set by this website

Metaexplorer sets no cookies. That result follows from how the site is built, and the paragraphs below give the reasons.

No session is created for a reader. The pages are delivered as complete documents, so the server has no reason to link one request to an earlier one. No session identifier exists to be stored.

There is no account area, no login and no personalised content. A reader is served the same article text as every other reader of that article.

No analytics code and no advertising code runs on any page. Nothing in the browser counts pages, measures scrolling or records the order in which articles are opened.

No third-party resource is loaded. Fonts, stylesheets, scripts and illustrations are first party, and the illustrations are written directly into the page markup rather than fetched separately.

That last point is the technical reason no cookie is set by anything the page loads. A cookie belonging to another organisation is set only when the browser requests a resource from that organisation's domain. This website makes no such request.

What this website stores on your device

The table below lists everything that Metaexplorer writes to a reader's device. It contains one row, and that row is the complete list.

The stored value is a single opaque word. It carries no identifier, no session token, no counter and no timestamp.

The entry is written only after the reader clicks the theme control. A reader who never uses that control leaves this website with nothing stored on the device.

Only pages served from this website's own domain can read the entry. It is never sent to the server, and no other website can see that it exists.

Local storage was chosen instead of a cookie. A cookie is attached to every request and therefore travels across the network, while a local storage entry stays inside the browser and is read by the page itself.

Why no consent banner appears

Article 5(3) requires consent for storage that is not strictly necessary. Storage is strictly necessary when a service that the reader has explicitly requested cannot be provided without it.

Three points apply to the theme entry. The first is that it is written only in response to the reader's own action on the theme control, and never on page load.

The second is that it is strictly necessary for the service requested by that action. Without the entry, the appearance the reader has just chosen could not be shown on the next page.

The third is that user-interface customisation chosen by an explicit reader action is treated as exempt from consent. That position is set out by the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party in Opinion 04/2012 on Cookie Consent Exemption.

There is consequently nothing to consent to. No consent management platform is installed, no preference centre is offered and no consent record is kept, because no consent is required.

The network security cookie

Cloudflare delivers this website to readers and filters unwanted automated traffic before it reaches the origin server. This is the one place where a cookie may appear during a visit.

The provider may set a strictly necessary security cookie whose purpose is to distinguish automated traffic from human traffic. It allows a browser that has already passed a security check to continue without being challenged again on the next page.

The provider may also collect network error reports. Those reports record failed or degraded connections between the browser and the network, rather than anything about the article being read.

This cookie is not used for analytics and not used for advertising. BEKTAS DİJİTAL İÇERİK STÜDYOSU ANONİM ŞİRKETİ does not read its value, does not connect it to an article and receives no reader profile from the provider.

The cookie is disclosed here rather than omitted, because a policy that claimed a cookie-free connection would be inaccurate. Its presence depends on the provider's own security configuration and on the traffic it observes.

Server access logs are not covered by the storage rule

A server access log is a record written on the company's own server at the moment a request arrives. Nothing is placed on the reader's terminal equipment, and nothing already stored there is read.

Article 5(3) therefore does not apply to access logs. The rule concerns the device, and a log entry never touches the device.

General data protection law does apply to those entries. A log line can contain an internet protocol address, and an address of that kind may relate to an identifiable person.

The handling of access logs is set out in the privacy policy of Metaexplorer, which explains what a log line contains and on what basis it is kept.

Advertising and this website

Each page carries a single sponsored slot. The block is static and first-party: it is stored on the company's own server and delivered with the page.

No advertising network is involved in filling it. There is no advertising tag, no tracking pixel and no web beacon, and no click passes through a click-tracking redirect.

An advertising platform may add a click identifier to a link that leads to this website. The identifier arrives as part of the requested path and is recorded in the server access log. It is not read, not matched and not reported to any third party. Nothing is placed on the reader's device, so the storage rule does not apply to that identifier.

The slot shows identical content to every reader of a given page. Nothing about a reader is measured, segmented, scored or shared, and no cross-site profile is created.

How to remove what is stored

A browser setting clears the stored site data for a single website. Clearing the site data for this website removes the theme entry.

This website then opens in its default light appearance. The theme control remains available, and using it writes the entry again.

A browser configured to clear site data when it closes produces the same result at the end of each visit. Nothing else is affected, because the entry governs appearance and nothing more.

Articles remain readable in full when the entry is absent. No feature is withheld, and no message asks the reader to restore it.

Changes to this policy

This policy describes technical behaviour, so it is revised when that behaviour changes. If a further storage mechanism were ever introduced, this page would be updated before that mechanism was placed in service.

The table above is the authoritative inventory. Any addition would appear there as a new row, with every column completed in the same way.

Questions about this policy may be sent to contact@metaexplorer.org. Messages are answered within 5 business days.

Version

This policy was last updated on 1 September 2026. It replaces every earlier version of the cookie policy for Metaexplorer.

The policy is published by BEKTAS DİJİTAL İÇERİK STÜDYOSU ANONİM ŞİRKETİ, which operates Metaexplorer from İstanbul, Türkiye.