What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files stored on your device by websites you visit. "Local storage" is a similar mechanism used by web applications to store data on your device. Both serve similar purposes — keeping you logged in, remembering preferences, and enabling the application to function.

What does Kinward store on your device?

Kinward uses browser local storage (not traditional cookies) to store two essential items required for the platform to function:

Storage item	Purpose	Type	Duration
kinward_user	Stores your current session information (name, role, care home) so you remain logged in while using the platform	Essential — session	Until you sign out or clear browser storage
supa_token	Stores your authentication token to securely authenticate your API requests to the database	Essential — security	Until you sign out or clear browser storage

What we do NOT use

• We do not use advertising or marketing cookies
• We do not use analytics tracking cookies (e.g. Google Analytics)
• We do not use third-party cookies of any kind
• We do not use persistent tracking identifiers
• We do not use fingerprinting or any other tracking technology
• We do not share any cookie or storage data with advertisers

Why no consent banner?

Under the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), consent is only required for cookies that are not "strictly necessary" for the service to function. Because Kinward uses only essential storage items — without which login and security would be impossible — no consent banner is legally required.

If we ever introduce non-essential cookies in the future, we will update this notice and implement appropriate consent mechanisms before doing so.

How to control local storage

You can clear all local storage (including Kinward's session data) through your browser settings:

• Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Clear browsing data → Cached images and files / Site data
• Safari: Settings → Safari → Advanced → Website Data → Remove All Website Data
• Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Clear Data → Cookies and Site Data
• Edge: Settings → Privacy, search, and services → Clear browsing data

Clearing local storage will sign you out of Kinward. Your account data remains intact on our servers — clearing local storage only removes the local session, it does not delete your account.

Third-party services

Kinward uses the following third-party services which may set their own storage items in relation to infrastructure and security functions:

Service	Purpose	Their privacy policy
Cloudflare	DDoS protection, CDN, security	cloudflare.com/privacypolicy
Supabase	Database and authentication	supabase.com/privacy
Netlify	Web hosting	netlify.com/privacy

Cloudflare may set a __cf_bm cookie for bot management purposes. This is an essential security measure and does not track you for advertising purposes.

Contact us

If you have any questions about how Kinward uses storage or cookies, please contact us at [email protected].