Cookies and similar technologies

Necessary

Authentication and security cookies may be used by our authentication service to keep signed-in sessions working. Guest journeys are stored only when you use the save feature. If you ask the site to remember a privacy choice, it stores that choice in localStorage under what-a-night-consent-v1. This includes the Product research and external-media choices. The site mirrors the Product research part in the first-party what-a-night-product-research-consent-v1 preference cookie. The server uses that cookie only to enforce the choice you made before accepting detailed product-research events or daily reach data. Direct-demo prompts use in-memory state rather than browser storage.

If a page is opened with ?silent=1, or the main site is running in Animation mode, the site stores only the value1 under what-a-night:analytics-silent-visit:v1 in sessionStorage. This necessary tab-session preference prevents What a Night analytics and daily-reach requests during internal navigation. The marker is never sent to the server and ends with the tab session.

Animation mode also keeps a short-lived server-side activation window so recording sessions can reopen the main site without exposing mode parameters in the address bar. The server converts the request IP address immediately into a keyed HMAC value and stores only that derived value with an expiry of up to 45 minutes. The raw IP address is not stored in the Animation-mode table, and ordinary requests do not extend the expiry.

Identifier-free aggregate measurement

The site counts landing-page views, country selections, region-card clicks, real tab clicks, playlist additions/removals, My Night opens, journey starts and actual video starts by immediately adding each event to a UTC-day aggregate. The demo start/stop controls are counted the same way. These counters do not set or read cookies, localStorage or sessionStorage to identify or follow a visitor and do not use a session ID, visitor ID, account ID, IP address, IP hash, browser fingerprint, full referrer, fbclid or gclid. No raw event row is retained. Limited UTM source, medium, campaign and content labels from the landing URL may be used to separate campaign totals. Tracked landing routes also count whether the page remained visible for 20 or 50 accumulated seconds before any pointer, touch, mouse, keyboard, scroll, wheel, input or change interaction. Hiding the page pauses this clock. A coarse traffic channel (Meta, other tagged campaign, organic search, referral, direct or unknown) may be derived, while the full referrer is discarded rather than stored. The site also reduces the sender to an allowlisted website/app category and reduces the browser environment to an allowlisted regular-browser, recognised in-app-browser or unknown category. The raw User-Agent and full referrer are never stored. The Spain demo additionally counts whether at least half of its main experience stayed visible for 3 or 10 seconds, the first play pointer interaction, play activation, display and acceptance of the contextual external-media choice, and actual playback. For landing views, passive landing stages, actual video starts, and these Spain demo stages, the server also converts request headers immediately into one coarse category: desktop (including notebooks), mobile, tablet, or unknown. The raw User-Agent is not retained, and the category is not used to identify or follow a visitor.

The Any Night builder separately increments daily aggregate totals for page loads, pages that remain visible for 20 or 50 accumulated seconds, successful video additions, and Journey starts. Hiding the browser tab pauses the visible-time clock. These Any Night counters contain no campaign dimension, cookie, localStorage or sessionStorage identifier, visitor or session ID, account ID, IP address, IP hash, browser fingerprint, raw event row, full referrer or raw User-Agent.

This measurement is not controlled by the optional Product research switch because it does not access the device to identify or follow a visitor. It produces event totals rather than unique visitor counts or session-level conversion rates. The Any Night totals likewise represent page loads and actions, not distinct people or browsers. ?silent=1 is an explicit exception that disables these requests for the current tab visit using only the necessary opt-out marker described above. Animation mode applies the same Silent behavior automatically. It cannot retract requests sent before activation or suppress the hosting provider's technical logs.

Product research

When enabled, the site stores what-a-night-validation-visitor-id in localStorage. It is a random browser identifier used to connect validation-survey answers from the same browser and to count that browser at most once per UTC day in the anonymous reach graph. The database stores a one-way hash for the daily count, not the browser identifier itself. When available, the daily record also stores the two-letter country code estimated by the hosting provider from the request; it does not store the raw IP address.

The same optional category also creates random analytics-session and journeyidentifiers in sessionStorage. They connect product-funnel events within one browser-tab session: landing-page view, country selection, region-card click, real tab click, playlist changes, My Night opening, journey start, and a real YouTube video start. Events may include destination slugs and the utm_source, utm_campaign, and utm_content labels supplied in the landing URL. We do not store advertising click identifiers such as fbclid or gclid, full referrer URLs, raw IP addresses, names, email addresses, or account IDs in this product-events table. Raw product events are intended to be deleted after 90 days.

Rejecting this category removes the local product-research identifiers and markers. Withdrawing it stops future event collection and clears the current analytics session and journey. Survey answers can still be submitted without this category.

Advertising integrations

What a Night does not currently load advertising-network scripts, request display or preview advertisements, or send Google Ads conversion events. The site's own aggregate and optional product-research measurement are described above.

External media

The main landing page does not load YouTube code and shows no consent banner. When you try to play a journey, the player shows a contextual choice before loading YouTube's iframe API, embedded videos, or the journey's Google Map. Enabling external media may send your IP address, device and browser information, and interaction data to Google/YouTube. YouTube thumbnails shown before that choice are requested through What a Night's same-origin image proxy, so the browser does not contact YouTube for them directly.

The contextual choice applies only to the current visit unless you select Remember my choice on this device. The checkbox is off by default. A remembered choice is saved in localStorage and can be withdrawn from the footer settings.

Changing your choice

Use the Privacy & video settings link in the site footer at any time. Optional categories are disabled by default until you make the relevant choice.

Newsletter choice

Newsletter consent is separate from cookies and the optional categories above. It is stored with your account and can be changed in My account.