About this guide

Privacy at Next Door

No forms, accounts or ad trackers here, and you can email us. The visit counter sets no cookies, yet an outside service gets your IP address and browser type. Two small choices, the theme and a chosen town, stay in the reader's own browser.

By the Crossing DeskChecked October 7 to 9, 2026

What stays in the browser

The theme a reader picks is held in the open browser tab. Close that tab and the choice goes with it. The town picked on the home page works a little differently: it stays in that browser, and only there. Your town choice stays in the browser. Cookie-free counting still sends an outside counter page addresses, your network address and browser type, which can hint at your town.

Visits are counted without cookies, but each page view sends the page, referrer, title, language, screen size, time zone, IP address and browser to a statistics service. The site has no forms to fill in and no accounts, but you can write to us at the site's email address. A reader from Dégelis, Houlton or Summerside can check a straight-line distance or compare two clocks without handing over a name.

Nothing loaded from outside

Next Door loads no outside scripts, fonts or maps. Visits are tallied with no cookie set, yet a separate counting provider is sent page details, your network address and browser. Every file a page needs comes from the site's own domain.

The clocks and distances are worked out in the reader's browser. Each clock reads the time zones built into that browser, Atlantic for New Brunswick and Eastern for Québec and Maine. The one-hour difference on screen is measured at that moment, not assumed. Straight-line distances are computed on the same device, from the town the reader picked, with no call to an outside map.

Questions

Is the chosen town sent anywhere?

The chosen town is never sent. It stays only in the browser where it was picked, and Next Door receives no copy of it. The distances shown for that town are worked out in the same browser.

Does Next Door use cookies to track readers?

The site loads no outside trackers, scripts, fonts or maps. Every file comes from its own domain. No cookies are set, and there are no accounts, forms or email address.

How can a reader clear the chosen town?

Clearing the site data for Next Door in the browser's settings removes the saved town. The theme choice needs no clearing, since it ends when the tab is closed. Picking a new town on the home page replaces the old one in that browser.