Legal information
Cookies and local storage
Last updated : · Version 1.0
This is a translation of the French document, provided for information only. It has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer and may contain inaccuracies; the French version is available below.
Document in preparation: 1 item(s) of information are still to be completed by the publisher. They are highlighted as follows: …
A cookie is a small file placed in your browser. Local storage (localStorage, sessionStorage) and the cache of a web application work in a comparable way. The law governs them in the same manner: they may be used without your consent only if they are strictly necessary for the service you request (Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act (loi Informatique et Libertés), CNIL guidelines of 17 September 2020).
In summary
- No advertising cookies, no audience measurement, no social media buttons.
- Without an account, Gaston places no cookies: your trips and settings remain in your browser's local storage.
- With an account, a session cookie keeps you signed in.
- All these items are necessary for the service to function and are exempt from consent: this is why Gaston does not display a cookie banner.
1. Cookies placed by Gaston
- Name
- sb-‹project›-auth-token (sometimes split into .0, .1…)
- Purpose
- Your account session: keeps you signed in and secures access to your trips
- Duration
- Until you sign out, and for no more than 400 days; renewed during use
- Consent
- Not required (authentication)
- Name
- sb-‹project›-auth-token-code-verifier, and its variants sb-‹project›-auth-token-flow-‹identifier›-code-verifier and sb-‹project›-auth-token-flows-code-verifier
- Purpose
- Secures sign-in via an email link and password reset
- Duration
- Normally deleted once sign-in is complete; otherwise no more than 400 days
- Consent
- Not required (authentication security)
During the private beta phase, access to the website may be protected by a username and password requested by the browser; this mechanism does not use a cookie.
2. Your browser's local storage
- Key
- roadvan:trips
- Content and purpose
- Your trips saved on this device, viewable offline (with, for a preview created without an account, the token that allows it to be linked to your account)
- Consent
- Not required (service requested)
- Key
- roadvan:trips:corrupt:‹date›
- Content and purpose
- Backup copy of trips that have become unreadable, so that they are never lost (rare)
- Consent
- Not required (service requested)
- Key
- gaston:apparence
- Content and purpose
- Chosen theme: light or dark
- Consent
- Not required (interface customisation)
- Key
- roadvan:mapmode
- Content and purpose
- Chosen map type: map or satellite
- Consent
- Not required (interface customisation)
- Key
- gaston:tools-hint
- Content and purpose
- Remembers that the tip about the tools has already been shown
- Consent
- Not required (interface customisation)
- Key
- gaston:budget:‹trip›
- Content and purpose
- The expenses you enter in a trip's budget
- Consent
- Not required (service requested)
- Key
- gaston:demarches:‹trip›
- Content and purpose
- The formalities you have ticked as done
- Consent
- Not required (service requested)
- Key
- gaston:pays:‹trip›:‹days›
- Content and purpose
- List of the countries crossed, kept to avoid recalculating it
- Consent
- Not required (service requested)
- Key
- gaston:invite
- Content and purpose
- Pending invitation link while you sign in; deleted as soon as it is used
- Consent
- Not required (service requested)
- Key
- gaston:imported:‹account›
- Content and purpose
- Indicates that the trips on this device have already been added to your account
- Consent
- Not required (service requested)
- Key
- gaston:view:‹trip›
- Content and purpose
- Day, tab and top 10 layer displayed, to restore the page as you left it
- Consent
- Not required (interface customisation)
- Key
- gaston:explore:‹trip›
- Content and purpose
- Category, filters and results of the search on the map
- Consent
- Not required (interface customisation)
3. Offline cache of the application
When the website is installed or used in production, a “service worker” keeps in the browser cache (Cache Storage) the pages and files of the application (“gaston-shell” cache) and the map tiles already displayed (“gaston-tiles” cache), so that Gaston opens and the map remains readable without a network connection. These caches contain neither identifiers nor browsing data transmitted to third parties; they are replaced with each new version of the website. Public trip links and exchanges with our servers (/api/ addresses) are never cached. Consent: not required (service requested).
4. Third-party content
To display the map and photos, your browser contacts certain third-party services directly, which then receive your IP address and your browser's technical information (see the privacy policy):
- Service
- OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org)
- Why
- Base maps
- Cookies
- No cookies observed during our tests (October 2026)
- Service
- MapTiler (api.maptiler.com)
- Why
- Address search, satellite map and terrain
- Cookies
- The server may offer a technical cookie from its hosting provider (_cfuvid); Gaston's requests are sent without cookies, so the browser does not store it
- Service
- Google (lh3.googleusercontent.com)
- Why
- Place photos from Google Maps
- Cookies
- No cookies observed during our tests (October 2026)
- Service
- Wikimedia (thumb.wikimedia.org, upload.wikimedia.org)
- Why
- Photos from Wikimedia Commons
- Cookies
- Wikimedia's server places cookies (WMF-Uniq, up to 365 days, used according to Wikimedia to count visitors, for A/B testing and for protection against attacks; GeoIP, approximate location derived from the IP address, deleted when the browser is closed; NetworkProbeLimit, 1 hour), if your browser accepts third-party cookies
Wikimedia photos
These cookies are Wikimedia's responsibility and are not necessary for Gaston. To be completed: fix to be applied before going live: load these photos without cookies (or from our servers), then update this line. You can already block third-party cookies in your browser settings: the photos will remain visible.
Find out more: Wikimedia cookie statement.
5. Why there is no cookie banner
According to the CNIL guidelines, trackers that are exempt from consent include, in particular, those intended for authentication, those that store interface customisation choices where such customisation is an intrinsic and expected element of the service, and those strictly necessary for the provision of a service expressly requested. All of Gaston's trackers fall within these categories. Gaston uses no tracker for audience measurement, advertising or social media sharing. Should this change, your consent would be requested beforehand, with the option to refuse as easily as to accept.
6. Managing or deleting this data
- Signing out deletes the session cookie.
- Deleting a trip in “My trips” erases it from local storage.
- Your browser settings allow you to clear cookies, local storage and the cache for this website, or to block them. Please note: your trips saved without an account would then be lost, and you could no longer sign in while cookies are blocked.
- Uninstalling the application installed from the browser deletes its offline cache.