Last updated: October 29, 2026
1. What this policy covers
5th Echelon Media uses cookies and similar browser technologies to operate this website and, with the relevant choices and consents, measure readership, show advertising, and display third-party media. Read this with our Privacy Policy.
A cookie is a small browser record. Similar technologies include local or session storage, pixels, and embedded-player identifiers. First-party records belong to this site; third-party providers may set their own records when their services load.
2. Your choices come first
Analytics, Google ad loading, and automatic third-party media are off by default. You can reject optional services, allow them, or choose categories individually. Rejecting them does not prevent reading public articles.
to view or change your choices. The same control is available from the site footer and the persistent Cookie settings button.
Choosing an individual player or social widget permits that item to connect to its provider without enabling all embedded media. Changes that withdraw a previously allowed category reload the page to stop services already loaded.
3. Categories and durations
| Category / record | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
Necessary: ec_privacy_v1 | 5th Echelon | Stores category choices, policy version, and choice date. It is an HTTP-only preference cookie, not an advertising identifier. | Up to 180 days |
| Necessary: authentication and security records | 5th Echelon, Supabase, hosting providers | Maintains sessions, sign-in preferences, and service security when those features are used. This may include Supabase sb- records and existing sign-in storage. | Session or the lifetime of the relevant authentication record; some sign-in preferences last 30 days |
Optional analytics: _ga, _ga_H5DEDNKDFC | Google Analytics | Public readership and session measurement. Google Signals and advertising-personalization signals are disabled in our tag configuration. | Our tag sets a maximum cookie lifetime of 180 days |
| Optional analytics: source-attribution cookie | 5th Echelon | Associates a public content visit and referral category with later activity when analytics is allowed. | Up to 7 days |
Consent records: FCCDCF, FCNEC and related records | Google Privacy & messaging | Records applicable consent choices and message state when Google's consent service is available. | Set by Google; may persist for approximately 12–13 months depending on the record and current configuration |
| Optional advertising: Google ad identifiers, including DoubleClick records | Google and advertising partners | Ad delivery, fraud prevention, frequency capping, and aggregated measurement. Our ad loader requests non-personalized ads. | Varies by provider and record; see Google's advertising documentation and browser storage details |
| Optional embedded media: player and social-widget identifiers | YouTube, Twitch, X, and the provider shown with the content | Playback, preferences, security, and provider measurement after you allow embeds or load an individual item. | Session and persistent records, governed by the relevant provider |
Provider cookie names, expiry, and availability can change. Browser storage tools show the records present on your device. Cookie expiry is different from the time a provider retains data on its servers.
4. Google advertising and consent
Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on prior visits to this or other websites. Google's advertising cookies can enable Google and its partners to serve ads based on visits to sites across the Internet. Even non-personalized ads may use cookies for measurement, fraud prevention, and frequency capping.
Google ad loading is limited to individually approved editorial articles, your Advertising choice, and the required Google consent checks. Unknown or denied consent keeps ads off. Account pages, tools, legal pages, and articles without a current editorial ad review do not initialize our AdSense loader.
Visitors in the EEA, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland require the applicable European consent protections. Our site cookie panel is not a Google-certified CMP. Google's Privacy & messaging service must be configured and published by the publisher; a site preference alone does not authorize Google advertising.
If Google's consent controls have loaded, Cookie settings also offers Manage Google consent. Learn about Google partner-site processing, Google cookie types, and the Google Privacy Policy.
5. Opt-out and privacy signals
opens the site controls. Turn Advertising off to prevent our Google ad tag from loading. Turn Analytics off to stop our optional audience measurement.
Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals keep analytics and advertising off for this browser, including where a previous site preference allowed them. A privacy signal does not prevent you from explicitly loading an individual video or widget.
You may also use Google My Ad Center, YourAdChoices, and the Google Analytics opt-out add-on. Choices on another service may not apply to every provider or device.
6. Embedded and linked services
When you allow embedded media or load an individual item, that provider receives connection information and may set cookies. Read the privacy notices for YouTube / Google, Twitch, and X. Linked products and independently hosted tools may provide additional controls of their own.
7. Browser controls and withdrawing choices
You can review, delete, or block cookies in your browser. Deleting our choice cookie causes optional services to return to their default off state. Blocking necessary cookies can affect sign-in and remembering your settings.
When analytics is turned off, we expire accessible first-party Google Analytics cookies. We cannot directly delete cookies on another provider's domain. Use your browser and the provider's controls to remove those records or request deletion of data already collected.
Preferences apply to this browser for up to 180 days. Make your choices again on another device or after clearing cookies. Continuing to browse is not treated as optional-cookie consent.
8. Contact and updates
Contact contact@5thechelon.com or use the contact page for questions. Applicable privacy rights are described in our Privacy Policy.
This policy is revised when the services or controls change. The date above identifies the current version. Our Advertising Policy explains how ads are kept separate from editorial material.