Cookies Policy

1. Introduction

This Cookies Policy explains how Top 200 Repos ("Top 200 Repos," "we," "us," or "our") uses cookies and related browser-storage technologies when you visit or interact with top200repos.com (the "Website" or "Service"). It describes what these technologies do, when they are used, how long relevant information is retained, what information may reach external services, and how you can control your choices.

Top 200 Repos is an open-source discovery and research platform featuring GitHub repository rankings, growth histories, AI agents, source-backed use cases, video guides, saved items, and optional dashboard personalization. We aim to make its browsing experience useful without relying on behavioral advertising or cross-site tracking.

Our current website uses limited first-party functional cookies and browser-local storage. Our first-party aggregate analytics do not use analytics cookies or persistent visitor identifiers. Some features, such as signing in or choosing to load an external video, may involve cookies or technologies operated by the relevant service provider. Those distinctions are explained below.

This Cookies Policy should be read together with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. If a privacy issue is not specifically addressed here, the Privacy Policy provides further information about how personal information is handled.

2. What Cookies Are

A cookie is a small piece of data that a website asks your browser to store on your computer, phone, or other device. A browser may return that data when requesting pages from the same site. Cookies can help a website remember settings, maintain a sign-in session, or enable features requested by the visitor.

Cookies can be classified in several ways:

• First-party cookies are set for the website you are visiting, including cookies set by its application or hosting environment.
• Third-party cookies may be set by a different domain, typically when a third-party service is loaded into a page.
• Session cookies generally end when the relevant browser session ends, subject to browser session-restoration behavior.
• Persistent cookies remain until their expiry, deletion, or removal by the browser or another system rule.
• Strictly necessary or functional cookies support functions such as a requested sign-in, security protection, or settings that you deliberately choose to preserve.
• Non-essential cookies may serve optional purposes such as advertising, cross-site measurement, or certain analytics functions and can require prior consent under applicable law.

The mere presence of a cookie does not necessarily mean that a person is being tracked for advertising. Its purpose, data, recipient, and implementation are what matter.

3. Cookies Versus Other Browser Storage

The term cookies is sometimes used broadly, but browsers offer other ways to retain information. Top 200 Repos also uses local storage for certain device-only conveniences, including saved use cases, notes, collections, theme preferences, and a last-visit marker.

Cookies and local storage differ in important ways. Cookies can accompany requests to the relevant website, depending on their settings. Local-storage values ordinarily stay in the browser and are not automatically attached to each web request. Information stored only in local storage can nevertheless be accessed by scripts running on the website, and a particular feature may transmit information when you deliberately use it.

Some privacy laws apply to both cookies and similar technologies that store information on, or access information from, your device. This Policy covers both kinds of technology so you can understand the full range of relevant choices.

4. Our Current Cookie Practices at a Glance

Top 200 Repos uses the following approach:

1. Language selection: A first-party cookie remembers whether you selected English or French.
2. Dashboard customization: A first-party cookie stores your chosen dashboard configuration when you explicitly select Save. You can undo this through Reset to default.
3. Sign-in sessions: Where a sign-in feature is available and you use it, the authentication provider or host may use cookies necessary to maintain and secure your session.
4. Device-only features: Browser storage remembers saved content, notes, collections, theme choices, and certain convenience information.
5. First-party aggregate analytics: Page and action totals are counted without analytics cookies, advertising identifiers, or visitor-level profiles.
6. External video content: Video thumbnails may be requested from YouTube's image infrastructure. A YouTube player is loaded only if you choose the on-page playback option.

We do not use third-party behavioral advertising cookies, retargeting cookies, cross-site advertising profiles, or third-party analytics cookies as part of the current Website. We do not sell browser-storage data to advertisers.

5. First-Party Cookie Inventory

The following functional cookies are documented for the current Website. Cookie behavior can also be affected by browser settings and security controls.

These periods are maximum ages specified by the application. A browser may remove cookies earlier, for example because of your privacy settings, a cleanup tool, limited storage, or a browser policy.

5.1 Language Cookie: gt200-locale

When you select English or French, the Website stores that choice so the interface can use the selected language on subsequent visits. The value is a language preference, not a name, email address, or advertising identifier.

You can change the preference using the website's language control. The new selection replaces the previous cookie value. Alternatively, you can delete the cookie in your browser's site-data settings. If it is missing, the Website uses its applicable default language behavior.

5.2 Dashboard Cookie: gt200-dashboard

The dashboard customization feature lets you specify matters such as interests, preferred programming languages, agents or tools, the opening rankings period, content sections and their order, display density, and whether to show video guides.

The cookie is created only after you explicitly save your dashboard choices. It contains the preference configuration needed to display your chosen layout. It is not an advertising-tracking identifier, does not store a raw account identifier, and does not change the published rankings or ranking calculations.

The cookie's preference data is encoded for storage; encoding is not the same as encryption. You should not treat your saved dashboard choices as secret information. The cookie is configured as HttpOnly, which prevents ordinary browser-side JavaScript from reading its contents, and it uses the Secure attribute on HTTPS connections.

Selecting Reset to default removes the dashboard cookie and restores the standard dashboard. If you are signed in and account-backed dashboard preferences are available, the same reset also removes the corresponding saved account preferences.

6. Sign-In and Authentication Cookies

Public browsing of repository rankings, agents, and use cases does not require a user account. Where the Website offers a sign-in feature, the authentication or hosting service may set cookies to recognize an authenticated session, protect account access, or support the sign-in and sign-out process.

Those cookies are used in connection with the authentication functionality you request. Their technical names, exact persistence periods, and renewal behavior can depend on the active authentication or hosting system rather than the two first-party preference cookies listed above. Signing out and deleting site cookies are practical ways to end locally stored session state, although an identity provider may also maintain a separate session on its own website.

If you open an external identity-provider page to sign in, cookies used on that provider's own domain are subject to the provider's policies and settings. Top 200 Repos does not present those external cookies as cookies it directly sets or controls.

7. Browser-Local Storage Inventory

In addition to cookies, the current Website uses local storage for these purposes:

These are browser-storage entries, not additional HTTP cookies. In particular, the random device value is not a cross-site advertising identifier. When an applicable interaction calls for server-side vote counting or abuse prevention, the server-side system is designed to rely on one-way hashes rather than store the raw device value as its vote identifier.

Local storage is generally specific to a browser profile, device, and website origin. A saved collection in one browser does not automatically appear in another. Private-browsing sessions, browser cleanup, storage restrictions, reinstallations, and device changes may erase locally stored information.

Important: Clearing site data may permanently delete saved notes, personal collections, and other items that exist only on your device. Export any information you want to keep before clearing storage, where an export function is offered.

8. How Theme Preferences Work

The Website can initially follow your device or browser's light/dark appearance preference. Simply reading that system preference is not the same as writing a tracking cookie.

When you explicitly switch themes, the Website stores the selected appearance using explorer-theme in local storage so that the choice can be used on future visits. If local storage is unavailable, theme switching may still work for the current page or session without being remembered.

You can change the appearance again using the theme control or delete the relevant local-storage entry through your browser's developer or site-data tools.

9. Saved Repositories, Use Cases, Notes, and Collections

The Website offers personal research features, including saving items and organizing information for later reference. Their ordinary device-only operation does not require an advertising cookie or an account-based tracking profile.

Saved use cases and related notes or collections are retained in your browser. These contents are not automatically uploaded simply because you save an item locally. Sharing a public page link does not automatically include your locally saved notes or collections.

If you choose a feature that explicitly submits information to Top 200 Repos, such as sending a report, signing up for a digest, or voting where enabled, the submitted information is handled separately from locally saved content. Those server-side activities are explained more fully in our Privacy Policy.

10. Dashboard Personalization and Signed-In Preferences

Dashboard preferences are optional and do not determine the underlying public rankings. All visitors continue to see rankings based on the same published source data, regardless of their personal layout choices.

For visitors who are not signed in, saving a customized dashboard creates the gt200-dashboard cookie described above. Where account-backed customization is available to signed-in visitors, the Website may also store those preferences in its server database against a one-way hash of the account identifier, rather than a raw account identifier in that preference record.

When an account-backed preference record exists, the Website may use it in preference to an older device cookie so that your dashboard settings remain consistent where supported. You can restore the default configuration with Reset to default. Clearing a browser cookie alone does not necessarily delete an account-backed record; the website's reset function is the appropriate choice for clearing both when available.

11. Analytics Without Analytics Cookies

Top 200 Repos uses limited first-party analytics to understand which pages and functions are useful and whether the Website is operating as expected. These measurements consist of daily totals for pages and actions, such as viewing a page, using a feature, following an outbound link, or copying a prompt.

The current analytics design does not use:

• Analytics cookies;
• Advertising IDs or cross-site tracking pixels;
• A persistent analytics visitor ID;
• Raw IP addresses stored in the aggregate analytics records; or
• An individual browsing-history profile assembled for targeted advertising.

Aggregate analytics records are generally retained for approximately 13 months, as described in our Privacy Policy. This is the retention period for the aggregate records, not a cookie lifetime.

The current Website does not count these analytics events when the browser provides a recognized Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal or a Do Not Track (DNT) signal. Support for such signals depends on the browser and its configuration. Cookies may still be used for functions you explicitly request, such as saving dashboard settings or signing in.

Security, error, rate-limiting, and operational records are separate from these aggregate analytics and may be handled according to the Privacy Policy. A cookie-free analytics design does not mean that every ordinary network request is invisible to hosting infrastructure.

12. Video Thumbnails and YouTube Playback

Some pages display video guides associated with repositories or AI tools. Their thumbnails may be loaded directly from YouTube's image service, including the domain i.ytimg.com.

When your browser retrieves a thumbnail from that external service, YouTube or its infrastructure can receive ordinary request information, such as your IP address and browser or network details. This network contact can occur even though Top 200 Repos has not set a third-party analytics or advertising cookie.

For on-page playback, the Website uses an optional Play Here interaction. The embedded YouTube player is not loaded before you choose that action. When you do so, the site uses YouTube's privacy-enhanced embedding domain, youtube-nocookie.com.

Privacy-enhanced embedding limits certain forms of cookie use before playback but does not mean YouTube processes no information at all. After you choose playback, Google or YouTube may process technical information, use storage technologies, or apply account-related settings in accordance with their own policies. Opening a video directly on YouTube similarly subjects that visit to YouTube's independent practices.

For more information, see the Google Privacy Policy. You can avoid loading an embedded player by not choosing the on-page playback action.

13. External Links, GitHub, Sponsors, and Other Websites

Top 200 Repos links to GitHub repositories, source documentation, videos, community discussions, external tools, sponsor websites, and other independent destinations.

Merely displaying a conventional hyperlink does not necessarily cause a destination website to set cookies on your device. When you select an external link, however, the destination may receive ordinary network and referral information and may set its own cookies according to its policies.

GitHub, Google, YouTube, sponsors, and other external services control the cookies and tracking technologies used on their own websites. Top 200 Repos does not control their cookie expiration, consent interfaces, or advertising practices.

Sponsored content, where offered, is distinguished from editorial ranking methodology. The current Website does not rely on sponsor-supplied behavioral advertising cookies to personalize its rankings.

14. What We Do Not Use Cookies For

As described in the current live Website's disclosures, Top 200 Repos does not use cookies or browser storage to:

• Sell your browsing history to advertisers;
• Track you across unrelated websites for behavioral ad targeting;
• Build cross-site advertising audience profiles;
• Change the published GitHub ranking order based on your personal preferences;
• Connect local notes and saved collections to a marketing profile without your action; or
• Run third-party cookie-based analytics on the Website.

These statements concern the technologies Top 200 Repos currently deploys on its own Website. They do not override the policies of independent websites or video services that you choose to visit or activate.

15. Legal Basis and Cookie Consent

The legal rules applicable to cookies and device storage depend on where you live and which services are offered to you. In jurisdictions with electronic-privacy or similar requirements, non-essential cookies and comparable storage technologies generally require valid consent before they are used. Certain technologies that are strictly necessary for a service you explicitly request, or for transmission of communications, may be exempt from that consent requirement.

The Website's language and dashboard preference cookies are used in response to deliberate user choices. Authentication cookies, where applicable, support a sign-in service requested by the visitor. Whether a particular storage technology qualifies for an exemption is determined by its actual purpose and the law that applies, not simply by calling it "functional."

Top 200 Repos does not treat continued browsing or silence as consent to optional advertising or tracking. The current Website does not deploy the non-essential behavioral advertising or third-party analytics cookies that would require an advertising or analytics preference choice.

If the Website introduces new non-essential cookie uses that require consent, those technologies must not be activated for affected users before the necessary choice has been obtained. Any such change will also be reflected in the relevant user-facing disclosures and controls.

16. How to Manage Cookies on Top 200 Repos

You can manage the technologies described in this Policy through a combination of Website controls and browser settings.

Deleting a cookie or local-storage value does not automatically delete server records already created by a separate submission, newsletter subscription, vote, or account action. Those records and your rights concerning them are addressed in the Privacy Policy.

17. Managing Cookies Through Your Browser

Most modern browsers allow you to inspect, remove, block, or restrict cookies and other site data. The wording of these controls differs between browsers and versions, but they are generally found under Privacy, Security, Cookies, Site Settings, or Website Data.

Common options include:

1. Viewing cookies stored for top200repos.com.
2. Deleting individual cookies or all data associated with the Website.
3. Blocking third-party cookies.
4. Blocking or clearing cookies when the browser closes.
5. Restricting local storage or using private-browsing modes.
6. Configuring recognized privacy signals, where the browser supports them.

Blocking all cookies can prevent dashboard choices from being remembered and can interfere with sign-in functionality. Deleting local storage can also erase saved notes or collections. You can generally continue to read the public ranking and editorial content without accepting optional personalization.

Browser controls may not delete cookies stored for an unrelated domain, such as a separate identity provider or YouTube. Use that service's browser-site settings or its own controls when necessary.

18. Private Browsing, Multiple Devices, and Shared Computers

A private-browsing window may discard locally stored data when all private windows close, but its precise behavior depends on the browser. Private browsing does not necessarily stop websites or external services from receiving ordinary connection information.

Your browser-local saved items and preferences generally do not synchronize across devices merely because you use the same website. Where a signed-in dashboard-preferences feature exists, the applicable account-backed settings may be available across devices, as described in Section 10.

On a shared device, other people who use the same browser profile may be able to see locally saved items or notes. Do not store sensitive information in device-only notes on a shared computer unless you are comfortable with that access. Clear the browser's Website data or use a separate browser profile when appropriate.

19. Retention and Expiration

Retention depends on the storage technology and the feature involved:

• The gt200-locale cookie has an application-defined maximum age of 365 days.
• The gt200-dashboard cookie has an application-defined maximum age of 180 days and is removed through Reset to default.
• Browser-local theme choices, saved items, collections, and last-visit information generally remain until changed, deleted, or cleared by the browser.
• A sign-in cookie's duration depends on the active authentication or hosting system, the session, and related security settings.
• Third-party media providers determine the duration of any cookies or storage they control on their domains.
• Cookie-free aggregate analytics records are generally held for approximately 13 months.

An expired or deleted cookie does not necessarily erase information separately stored on our servers, and the existence of server records does not necessarily imply the use of a cookie. Refer to the Privacy Policy for the retention and deletion of data submitted to the Website.

20. Security and Protection of Cookie Data

We use technical controls appropriate to the function of the relevant cookies. For example, the dashboard cookie uses HttpOnly and SameSite=Lax attributes, with Secure enabled for HTTPS requests. These settings help limit certain forms of access or transmission but do not make every cookie immune to security risks.

You also play a role in protecting your browser data. Keep your device and browser updated, avoid installing untrusted browser extensions, sign out of shared computers, and remove sensitive saved content when you no longer need it.

No website or storage method can guarantee absolute security. The Privacy Policy provides further information about our broader approach to protecting personal information.

21. Children and Younger Users

The Website is a general-purpose source of open-source and developer information rather than a service designed to track children for advertising. Our current cookie and analytics practices do not involve behavioral advertising profiles.

Parents and guardians may use browser-level privacy and site-data controls on devices used by younger visitors. The handling of personal information voluntarily submitted through any Website form is governed by the Privacy Policy and applicable law.

22. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your location and the nature of the information processed, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal information, or to withdraw consent where processing depends on consent.

Your device-only saved information is ordinarily under your control through the Website and browser. For server-held data, including a newsletter subscription or a submission that you made, additional rights and procedures are described in the Privacy Policy.

You may exercise applicable rights or raise concerns using the contact methods in Section 25. If you believe a data-protection rule has been breached, you may also have the right to contact the competent supervisory authority for your location.

23. Changes to Cookies and Related Technologies

We may update the technologies used by the Website as its features, hosting, authentication, and legal obligations evolve. If we make a material change to the categories or purposes of cookies or similar storage, we will update this Policy and, where required, provide additional notice or obtain consent before introducing non-essential technologies.

We will update the Last Updated date when this document changes. The version displayed on this page applies to the Website from its stated effective date, subject to any additional notice required by law.

24. Relationship to Other Policies

This Cookies Policy focuses on information stored on or read from your device and related third-party content interactions. For broader information about personal data, including submissions, newsletters, server-side security, analytics retention, privacy rights, and data transfers, consult our Privacy Policy.

For the conditions governing your use of the Website, consult our Terms of Service.

Nothing in this Policy limits mandatory rights or protections provided by applicable law.

25. Contact Us

For questions about cookies, browser storage, privacy choices, or a request concerning your personal information, contact Top 200 Repos using either of these methods:

• Contact Page: https://top200repos.com/contact
• Email: [email protected]

These are the contact methods designated for this Policy.

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Top 200 Repos
https://top200repos.com
Cookies Policy, Effective November 11, 2026