Cookies and browser storage
Small pieces of browser information help keep you signed in and keep the service secure. Blocking essential sign-in cookies may stop your account working.
Operator: Adrian-Nesta Nelson. Updated 12 October 2026.
What cookies do
Cookies are small pieces of information kept by your browser. Clerk uses them to recognise a browser, refresh sign-in sessions and protect account access. Our production authentication services use clerk.rankerelo.com and accounts.rankerelo.com; Clerk also serves profile images from img.clerk.com. Some authentication-state and security cookies are present before you sign in. The table below records cookies seen on rankerelo.com before and after sign-in in a fresh Chrome Incognito session on 12 October 2026. The observed lifetimes can change with browser behaviour and provider settings.
Essential use and optional tracking
We use authentication and security storage for the sign-in and protection functions you request. Storage that is strictly necessary for those functions does not require an optional cookie choice when used only for that purpose. Rankerelo’s application source contains no added advertising, visitor-analytics or behavioural recommendation tracking, and none was visible in the inspected signed-out and signed-in cookie lists. Service providers still process technical requests to operate and protect their services; these snapshots are not a complete review of all browser storage or provider scripts. Before adding optional tracking, we will explain its purpose and provide consent or an objection choice as required by the applicable rules. Rejecting optional tracking must not prevent essential sign-in.
Google sign-in
Choosing Google sign-in takes you to Google’s authentication service. Google controls the cookies and storage on its own pages under its privacy information. Signing in with Google does not grant Rankerelo access to your Gmail messages or contacts.
Other browser storage and sign-out
Clerk also uses local storage on rankerelo.com for its sign-in configuration and Protect security state. The observed keys are listed below. The same key names were visible signed in and signed out; session storage was empty in both inspected snapshots. The operator also reported the same storage-key pattern after signing out. In the inspected sign-out cookie list, the application session cookies and active-context cookie were no longer listed, while browser-state and security cookies remained. Signing out does not clear every browser-storage item. Local storage has no automatic browser expiry; Clerk can refresh, replace or remove its entries. Clearing site data or ending an Incognito session can remove them.
Your browser choices
You can inspect cookie names, domains and expiry dates in your browser’s site-data settings or developer tools, and clear or block them in browser settings. Clearing authentication cookies may sign you out; blocking them may prevent sign-in. A short-lived sign-in token can be refreshed while you remain signed in, so its validity period is different from the overall sign-in session and the browser cookie’s stored expiry. You can contact support about a cookie or storage item you do not understand.
Observed sign-in and security cookies
Cookie names and domains were checked before and after sign-in and after sign-out on 12 October 2026; stored expiry was recorded from the signed-in browser. Purposes are described using provider documentation and Clerk’s authentication implementation. An asterisk (*) represents an instance-specific suffix. These checks cover the inspected browser states, rather than every browser, sign-in method, account-portal page or security challenge.
| Cookie | Scope | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| __session and __session_* | rankerelo.com; path / | Carries the token used to authenticate requests. | Stored expiry was about one year in the inspected browser. The token normally remains valid for 60 seconds and is refreshed while signed in; neither duration defines the permitted overall sign-in session. |
| __client | .clerk.rankerelo.com; path / | Recognises the browser for Clerk and supports authentication refresh. | Persistent, about 400 days in the inspected Chrome browser. Clerk and the browser control expiry; this is not a promise of a 400-day sign-in session. |
| __client_uat and __client_uat_* | .rankerelo.com; path / | Records when authentication state was updated so Clerk can check it. | Persistent, about 400 days in the inspected Chrome browser. Clerk and the browser control expiry. |
| clerk_active_context | rankerelo.com; path / | Keeps the active sign-in context consistent when Clerk updates authentication across browser tabs. | Browser session; shown as Session in the inspected browser. |
| __cf_bm | .clerk.rankerelo.com; also listed for .img.clerk.com after sign-in; path / | Cloudflare bot protection on Clerk’s authentication and image services. | Cloudflare documents expiry after 30 minutes of continuous inactivity. The browser may restrict the third-party image-service cookie. |
| _cfuvid | .clerk.rankerelo.com; path / | Cloudflare rate limiting distinguishes visitors sharing an IP address to protect Clerk’s authentication service. | Browser session; shown as Session in the inspected browser. |
Clerk may also use temporary __clerk_handshake cookies during authentication redirects; these were not visible in the inspected snapshots. Browser expiry and the permitted sign-in session length can differ. Closing all Incognito windows or clearing site data can remove cookies earlier.
Observed local storage
| Storage key | Location | Purpose | Persistence |
|---|---|---|---|
| __clerk_environment | Local storage on https://rankerelo.com | Caches Clerk’s sign-in configuration so authentication can initialise if a request is delayed or unavailable. | The reviewed Clerk SDK caches configuration for 24 hours and removes an expired entry when reading it. Updates can refresh the cache; this is not a browser-enforced expiry or a sign-in session length. |
| __clerk_protect_pid | Local storage on https://rankerelo.com | A browser identifier used by Clerk Protect to correlate requests for abuse protection. | Persistent local storage. No fixed expiry for this identifier was established; it can remain until replaced or removed by Clerk, or cleared by the browser or user. |
| __clerk_protect_st | Local storage on https://rankerelo.com | Caches a Clerk Protect security token and associated state for reuse across browser tabs during sign-in and sign-up checks. | The key can remain after sign-out. Clerk checks the cached token’s validity and refreshes it as needed; token validity does not define how long the stored entry remains. |
No session-storage entries were visible for https://rankerelo.com in the inspected signed-out and signed-in snapshots. A stored security identifier or token is not an advertising choice or proof that an account remains signed in.
The descriptions of these keys follow Clerk’s configuration cache and Protect storage implementation. Provider updates may change these details.
Read more in Clerk’s cookie descriptions, its authentication guide, and Cloudflare’s security-cookie information. For Google’s pages, see Google’s cookie information.