Cookies and local storage

Short version: Hoops Nightly sets no advertising cookies. One first-party identifier in local storage counts return visits, and you can switch it off below. What the site stores on your device is listed here in full.

Strictly necessary

• Cloudflare security cookie (__cf_bm, and occasionally cf_clearance): set by our content delivery network to tell real visitors from automated traffic. Expires within 30 minutes to a day. Cannot be switched off without breaking the site.

Preferences (local storage, not cookies)

• hn-theme: whether you asked for the light or the dark theme. Stored in your browser's local storage, never sent to us.
• hn_team: a first-party cookie with the slug of the team you marked as yours (the star in the header), so the home page can put it first. One year, no identifier, never used for advertising; remove it with "not my team" on the home page or by clearing cookies.

Audience measurement (local storage, not cookies)

• hn_vid: a random identifier created by this site the first time you visit, so we can count how many readers come back and how often (for example "40% of readers returned this month"). It is first-party only, used for nothing but our own visitor statistics, never shared, never combined with other sites and never used for advertising. It is not renewed on each visit: it expires 13 months after it was created and a new one starts. On our servers we keep only a salted hash of it, never the identifier itself. It is not created at all if your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track.

Third-party content

Embedded videos use YouTube's privacy-enhanced player, which sets cookies only if you press play. Embedded social posts may set their platform's cookies when displayed; we keep those embeds to official team and league accounts.

What happens when we add advertising or analytics

If we add audience measurement or advertising, visitors in the EU/EEA and UK will see a consent banner before any non-essential cookie is set, and this page will list every cookie, its purpose and its lifetime. Visitors in California will get a "Do Not Sell or Share" control (see the privacy policy).

Managing cookies

You can delete or block cookies and local storage in your browser settings at any time. Blocking the Cloudflare cookie may prevent the site from loading.