A cookie is a small text file — typically consisting of letters and numbers, and usually less than 4 kilobytes in size — that a website you visit causes your browser to store on your device. When you later revisit that website, your browser sends the cookie back to the server, allowing the server to recognise your device as the one that visited before. Cookies were originally designed to overcome the fact that the web's underlying protocol (HTTP) is stateless — that is, each request is independent and the server has no built-in way to remember anything about you between requests. Cookies solve that problem by carrying a small amount of state between requests.

Cookies are created by the website you are visiting (first-party cookies) or by other services embedded in or called by that website (third-party cookies). They can be “session” cookies, which are deleted when you close your browser, or “persistent” cookies, which remain on your device for a set period or until you delete them. Cookies can also be classified by their purpose: strictly necessary, preference, functionality, analytics, and advertising — categories that the EU and UK transparency rules require us to distinguish.

In addition to cookies, modern browsers offer several other storage mechanisms that serve similar purposes: local storage, which can hold a larger amount of data and persists until you clear it; session storage, which is similar but is cleared when the browsing session ends; IndexedDB, a structured database in the browser; and the Cache API, used for offline content. We refer to all of these collectively as “similar technologies.” When we use the word “cookies” in this policy, we mean cookies specifically; where we mean the broader set, we say “cookies and similar technologies.”

Basepedia uses the following categories of cookies and similar technologies. We have organised them by the standard functional categories, and for each category we explain the purpose, whether it is essential, and whether you can opt out.

2.1 Strictly Necessary (Essential) Cookies — These cookies are required for the Service to function at all. They enable core functionality such as authentication, session management, and security. You cannot opt out of essential cookies through the Service, because the Service would not be usable without them. If you block them in your browser, you may not be able to log in or to use features that depend on a session.

• Authentication cookies — issued when you log in, these identify your session so that each request you make is associated with your account. Without them, you would have to log in again on every page.
• Security cookies — support protection against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) and other session-based attacks by carrying tokens that authenticate state-changing requests.
• Session cookies — maintain your browsing state (for example, the current tab, the open article, and your scroll position) as you navigate between pages within a single visit. These are typically deleted when you close your browser.

2.2 Preference Cookies — These remember the settings you have chosen so that the Service is configured the way you like it on every visit. They are not essential, but disabling them means your preferences are not remembered between visits.

• Theme preference — whether you use dark or light mode.
• Font family and size — your preferred reading typography.
• Line spacing — your preferred vertical spacing for article reading.
• Interface language — your selected interface language (English or Hindi).
• Reading-display settings — whether to show the reading progress bar, related images, reading-time estimates, and similar optional elements.
• AI search settings — your AI fallback preference (whether to generate an AI article when Wikipedia has none) and your preferred AI response depth.
• Notification preferences — which reminders and alerts you have enabled (streak reminders, weekly summary, reading reminders, goal alerts, streak warnings).
• Reduce-motion setting — whether you have asked the Service to minimise animations.

2.3 Functionality Cookies and Local Storage — These enable enhanced features and personalisation. They store your reading history, saved articles, workspaces, flashcards, and reading-progress data. Because much of this data is too large for a traditional cookie, we store it in the browser's local storage rather than in cookies; we describe it here because it serves the same purpose and is subject to the same controls.

• Reading history — the list of articles you have opened, used to support the resume-where-you-left-off feature and recommendations.
• Saved articles — the articles you have bookmarked for later reading, including a reference to the underlying content.
• Workspaces — your saved workspaces and their contents (articles, notes, highlights, focus time, colour label).
• Flashcards — the flashcards you have generated or edited, together with the spaced-repetition metadata (ease factor, interval, next-review date).
• Reading goals and streaks — your daily article goal, the days you have read, your current and longest streak, and the articles marked as finished.
• Offline article cache — full article content cached on your device so that you can read without an internet connection.
• Search history — your most recent search queries, used to power quick-repeat searches and to personalise results.
• Achievement badges and statistics — derived metrics shown on your profile.

2.4 Analytics Cookies and Technologies — These help us understand, in aggregated and de-identified form, how visitors interact with the Service so that we can improve its functionality, performance, and reliability. We configure analytics to minimise the personal data collected and to rely on pseudonymised or aggregated data wherever possible. Analytics data is not used to identify you personally or to build a profile for cross-site advertising.

2.5 Security and Anti-Abuse Cookies — These help us detect unauthorised access, defend against automated attacks, and enforce our acceptable-use rules. They may carry rate-limit counters, device-fingerprint-style integrity tokens, or flags that indicate suspicious activity. These are essential to the integrity of the Service and cannot be disabled through the Service.

2.6 Third-Party Cookies — When you interact with third-party services through Basepedia — for example when an article is fetched from Wikipedia, when an image is loaded from Unsplash or Picsum, or when an AI feature calls a model provider — those services may set their own cookies on your device. We do not control these cookies and are not responsible for them. We list the principal third parties in the dedicated section below and recommend that you review their cookie policies.

This section explains, purpose by purpose, exactly which technologies we use and why, so that you can see the connection between what we store and what it does for you. We do not use cookies or similar technologies for cross-site advertising, behavioural-advertising profiling, or selling data about you to third parties.

• To authenticate your identity and maintain your login session securely — essential authentication and security cookies.
• To remember your theme, language, font, line spacing, and other preferences across visits — preference cookies and preference local storage.
• To store your reading history, saved articles, workspaces, notes, highlights, flashcards, and reading-progress data — functionality local storage.
• To cache articles for offline reading when you are not connected to the internet — the offline-cache local-storage key.
• To track your reading streaks, goals, and achievements over time — streaks and goals in local storage and, for registered users, on our servers.
• To store your flashcard data and spaced-repetition schedules for effective studying — flashcard records in the database and, for offline use, in local storage.
• To analyse, in aggregated and de-identified form, how the Service is used and to identify areas for improvement — analytics cookies and technologies.
• To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security threats — security and anti-abuse cookies and log data.
• To optimise the performance and speed of the Service — caching technologies including ETags and the Cache API.
• To provide personalised content recommendations based on your reading history — derived from functionality data, processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
• To remember whether you have dismissed a notice or completed an onboarding step — small preference flags.

We do not use cookies to display targeted advertising. We do not sell data collected through cookies to third parties. We do not use cookies to track you across other websites for advertising purposes. The data stored in cookies and local storage is primarily for your benefit — to provide a seamless, personalised, and persistent reading experience across sessions and devices.

In addition to cookies, Basepedia uses the browser's local storage to store larger amounts of data on your device. Local storage lets us save your reading preferences, saved articles, cached article content, and other data that would be too large for traditional cookies. Local storage data persists on your device until you clear your browser data or explicitly delete it through the Service's Settings. The keys we use are listed below so that you can find and inspect them if you wish.

• basepedia_prefs — your reading preferences (theme, font, language, line spacing, AI behaviour, notification settings, and feature toggles).
• basepedia_reading_history — the list of articles you have recently visited, used for the resume-where-you-left-off feature and recommendations.
• basepedia_saved_articles — the articles you have bookmarked for later reading.
• basepedia_offline_articles — the full content of articles cached for offline reading.
• basepedia_reading_goals — your daily article goal, your streak data, and the list of articles marked as finished.
• basepedia_streak — your current and historical streak information.
• omnipedia_recent_searches — up to 8 recent search queries for quick-repeat searches.

Local storage data is stored on your device and is not transmitted to our servers unless you explicitly sync your account, in which case the relevant subset is uploaded so that it can be made available on your other devices. You can manage and clear this data at any time through the Settings page or through your browser's privacy controls. Clearing local storage will not log you out of your account (that is governed by authentication cookies), but it will remove your offline cache and local preferences, which you may then need to reconfigure.

Cookies and similar technologies used by Basepedia have different lifespans depending on their purpose. The table below sets out, for each category, how long it typically lasts and what triggers its deletion.

• Session cookies — temporary; deleted when you close your browser. Used to maintain your session during a single visit.
• Persistent authentication cookies — remain on your device for the duration of your login session or until you log out, at which point they are invalidated. They may persist across browser restarts so that you do not have to log in again.
• Preference cookies — remain on your device until you delete them or until they expire. Typically persist for several months so that your settings are remembered between visits.
• Functionality local storage — persists on your device until you manually clear it. Has no automatic expiration by default.
• Offline-cache local storage — persists on your device until you clear the cache through Settings or clear browser data.
• Analytics cookies — typically persist for a limited period (for example 14 months) and are then automatically deleted.
• Security cookies — persist for as long as necessary to protect the session and are then deleted.

Most preference and functionality cookies used by Basepedia are persistent, because they are designed to remember your settings between visits. You can delete them at any time through your browser settings or the in-app Settings page. Deleting persistent cookies does not delete the underlying data they reference (for example, your saved articles on the server); it only means the Service will not remember the associated preference locally until you set it again.

You have several options for managing cookies and local storage on your device. The level of control you have depends on the browser or application you are using, and on whether you are managing cookies set by Basepedia or by third parties.

6.1 In-App Settings: Basepedia provides built-in controls for managing your data:

• Clear Search History — removes your recent search queries stored on your device.
• Clear Reading History — removes the list of articles you have recently visited.
• Clear Offline Cache — removes all cached articles stored for offline reading.
• Reset All Settings — resets all preferences to their default values.
• Export My Data — downloads a copy of your current settings and preferences so that you can keep a backup before clearing.
• Track Reading History toggle — enable or disable tracking of your reading activity.
• AI Fallback toggle — enable or disable AI article generation when Wikipedia has no article.

6.2 Browser Settings: Most web browsers allow you to manage cookies through their settings or preferences menu. You can typically:

• View all cookies stored on your device and delete individual or all cookies.
• Block all cookies or only third-party cookies.
• Set preferences to accept or reject cookies from specific websites.
• Enable the Do Not Track signal in your browser.
• Use private or incognito browsing mode to prevent cookies from being stored beyond the session.
• Clear your browsing data, including cookies, cache, and local storage, on a schedule or on demand.
• Install browser extensions that block trackers, manage consent, or sandbox storage per site.

6.3 Mobile Application Settings: If you use Basepedia through a mobile application, the application's settings and your operating system's privacy controls allow you to clear the application's data, which removes cookies and local storage associated with it. Uninstalling the application removes all locally stored data.

Please note that if you block or delete essential cookies, you may not be able to use certain features of Basepedia — for example maintaining your login session or completing actions that depend on a session. If you delete preference cookies, you will need to reconfigure your settings the next time you use the Service. If you delete functionality local storage, you will lose your offline cache and any locally stored reading history, search history, and streak data that have not been synced to your account.

When you use Basepedia, you may interact with third-party services that set their own cookies. We do not control these cookies and are not responsible for their content or duration. The principal third-party services include:

• Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation — when you search for or view articles, your requests are sent to Wikipedia's API servers. Wikimedia may set cookies to track usage and improve its services. See wikimediafoundation.org for their policy.
• AI service providers — when you use AI-powered features (summaries, quizzes, flashcards, translations, insights), your data may be processed by AI providers, which may use cookies for their own purposes.
• Image services — we use Unsplash, Picsum, and similar services for fallback images. These services may set cookies to track image loading and usage.
• Content delivery networks (CDNs) — we may use CDNs to deliver content efficiently. CDNs may set cookies for performance optimisation.
• AI assistant clients — when you connect an AI assistant through our MCP server, the assistant's client may set cookies on its own surfaces; those cookies are governed by the assistant provider's policy.

We recommend reviewing the cookie policies of these third parties to understand how they use cookies and how you can manage them. Links to their policies are typically available on their respective websites. Where a third-party service offers an opt-out, we encourage you to use it if you are concerned about the data it collects.

By using Basepedia, you consent to our use of cookies and similar technologies as described in this policy. We do not display intrusive cookie-consent banners, because our use of cookies is primarily for functionality and personalisation rather than advertising tracking, and the EU and UK rules permit the use of strictly necessary cookies without prior consent. Where a cookie or technology is not strictly necessary, we rely on your consent, which you give by using the Service and can withdraw at any time.

You always have the right to manage or withdraw your consent by:

• Clearing cookies and local storage through your browser settings.
• Using the in-app Settings page to clear your data.
• Disabling cookies in your browser preferences (note: this may affect functionality).
• Using private browsing mode to prevent cookies from being stored permanently.
• Opting out of reading-history tracking through the Settings page.
• Opting out of AI fallback through the Settings page.
• Disconnecting any AI assistant you have connected through the MCP server.

If you are located in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or California, you have additional rights under the GDPR, the ePrivacy Directive, and the CCPA respectively regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies. See our Privacy Policy for more information on your data-protection rights and how to exercise them.

In addition to cookies, Basepedia and our third-party service providers may use web beacons (also known as clear GIFs, tracking pixels, or pixel tags) to track user interactions and measure the effectiveness of the Service. Web beacons are tiny, transparent graphic images — often just 1x1 pixel in size — embedded in web pages, emails, or other digital content. They do not themselves store data on your device, but they work with cookies to record that a particular page or email has been accessed.

• Page tracking — web beacons help us count how many times a page has been visited and understand overall traffic patterns.
• Email tracking — if we send you emails (for example notifications or updates), we may use web beacons to determine whether the email was opened.
• Feature analytics — we use web beacons to measure how often specific features are used, helping us prioritise improvements.
• Conversion tracking — we may use web beacons to measure the effectiveness of specific actions or features.

Web beacons do not collect the same type of information as cookies (such as your name or email address), but they work in conjunction with cookies to track user behaviour. If you disable cookies in your browser, web beacons may still record your visit as an anonymous event, but they will not be able to link it to your specific profile or preferences.

Basepedia uses standard browser-caching mechanisms, including ETags (entity tags) and the Cache API, to improve performance and reduce bandwidth. ETags are tokens that the browser sends to the server to check whether a cached resource has changed; if it has not, the server tells the browser to use its cached copy. ETags are not cookies and do not carry personal data, but they can, in combination with other signals, be used to identify a specific browser. We do not use ETags for tracking; we use them only to make the Service faster. Clearing your browser cache removes cached resources and ETags.

Some older websites use Flash cookies, also known as Local Shared Objects (LSOs), to store data on your device. Flash cookies are different from standard browser cookies and were managed by the Adobe Flash Player. Basepedia does not use Flash cookies, and Flash itself has been discontinued and is no longer supported by modern browsers. We include this section for completeness, because some legacy third-party content could, in principle, have used them. If you are concerned about Flash cookies, the most effective protection is to use a modern browser that does not support Flash.

Device fingerprinting is a technology that collects information about your device — such as browser type, operating system, screen resolution, installed fonts, time zone, and other characteristics — to create a unique identifier that can be used to track you across websites even if you have disabled cookies. Device fingerprinting is difficult to detect and manage because it does not rely on stored files that you can delete.

Basepedia does not intentionally use device fingerprinting to track users. However, some third-party services we integrate with may use this technology. The most effective way to limit fingerprinting is to use privacy-focused browsers or browser extensions that block or randomise the signals used to construct a fingerprint. We are committed to minimising tracking on Basepedia and will continue to evaluate our practices to protect your privacy.

Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (DNT) feature that sends a signal to websites requesting that they not track your browsing activity. The interpretation of, and response to, DNT signals varies across the industry, and there is no universal standard for how websites should respond. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has noted that DNT is a request, not a requirement.

Basepedia does not currently respond to DNT signals, because our use of cookies and tracking technologies is primarily for functionality and personalisation rather than cross-site advertising tracking, and because the legal meaning of DNT is not settled. However, we are committed to user privacy and minimise tracking to what is necessary for the Service to function. We continuously monitor industry practices and regulatory developments regarding DNT and may update our practices in the future.

Even without responding to DNT signals, we provide you with robust controls to manage your data through the in-app Settings page and your browser's privacy settings. We recommend using these controls in combination with your browser's privacy features for the best possible privacy protection.

Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a browser setting that, when enabled, sends a signal indicating that the user does not want their personal information sold or shared for cross-context behavioural advertising. Because we do not sell personal information and do not engage in cross-context behavioural advertising, GPC does not trigger any additional obligation on our part. If we ever change our position and engage in such practices, we will honour GPC signals as required by the CCPA and other applicable laws.

We take the security of cookies and tracking technologies seriously. Cookies set by Basepedia are designed to store only the information necessary for the Service to function and do not contain sensitive data such as passwords, credit-card numbers, or other highly confidential information. We use secure, HTTP-only cookies where appropriate to prevent them from being accessed by malicious scripts.

• Secure cookies — we use the Secure flag on sensitive cookies to ensure they are only transmitted over encrypted (HTTPS) connections.
• HTTP-only cookies — where applicable, we set the HTTPOnly flag to prevent cookies from being accessed via JavaScript, reducing the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.
• SameSite attribute — we use the SameSite attribute to provide additional protection against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks.
• Regular audits — we periodically review our cookie usage to ensure that only necessary cookies are set and that security best practices are followed.

Despite our security measures, no system is completely secure. If you suspect that your cookies or account have been compromised, please contact us immediately and change your account password. We will investigate any reported security incidents and take appropriate action to protect your data.

When you connect an AI assistant to Basepedia through the MCP server, the assistant's client may set its own cookies on its own surfaces. Those cookies are governed by the assistant provider's cookie policy, not by this policy. The MCP server itself is a data interface and does not set cookies on your device; however, the connection between the assistant and the server is authenticated using tokens that are stored and managed by the assistant client. You can revoke an assistant's access at any time by disconnecting it, as described on the Connect page within the Service.

We may update this Cookies Policy from time to time to reflect changes in technology, regulation, or our practices. When we make material changes — for example adding a new category of cookie or a new third party that sets cookies — we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page and may notify you through the Service. We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we use cookies.

Your continued use of Basepedia after any changes to this policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms. If you do not agree with the changes, you should stop using the Service and clear your cookies through your browser settings or the in-app Settings page.

This Cookies Policy is part of our broader privacy framework, which includes our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. We recommend reading all three documents to fully understand how we collect, use, and protect your data. Each document addresses a different aspect of our data practices:

• Privacy Policy — explains what personal data we collect, how we use it, your privacy rights, and how we comply with the GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, PIPEDA, and other regulations.
• Terms & Conditions — outlines the rules and conditions for using the Service, including user conduct, intellectual property, and liability.
• Cookies Policy (this document) — details our use of cookies and similar tracking technologies, the types we use, and how you can manage them.

If there is any conflict between this Cookies Policy and our Privacy Policy or Terms & Conditions, the more specific policy will prevail for the matter in question. We are committed to maintaining transparent, user-friendly policies that respect your privacy and give you control over your data.

If you have any questions about this Cookies Policy or our use of cookies and similar technologies, please contact us through the official Base44 support channel or through the in-app contact option in Settings. We are committed to transparency and will be happy to provide additional information about our cookie practices.

Thank you for using Basepedia. We are dedicated to providing a secure, private, and enjoyable research experience for all our users, and we appreciate your trust in our Service.