Legal
Cookie Policy
Version 1.0 — last updated 23 September 2026
This Cookie Policy explains the cookies and similar browser storage that Tideward uses on this website, in its portals and on its sign-in service at auth.tideward.net: what each one does, how long it lasts, and how you can change your choice. It adds to our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle personal data generally.
Tideward is a product of Rogue Star Marine Software Ltd, trading as RSM Software (RSM Software, we, us), Pavlou Aggelinide 21, 3110 Limassol, Cyprus.
1. About cookies and browser storage
1.1 Cookies
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to keep and to send back with later requests to that website. Every cookie in the tables in sections 4 and 5 is set by Tideward itself on its own address; we call these first-party cookies.
1.2 Browser storage
Local storage and session storage are areas of your browser where a website can keep information for its own pages to read. Unlike a cookie, what is kept there is not sent to our servers automatically. Local storage lasts until it is cleared; session storage lasts until you close the browser tab.
1.3 Requests to other services
Some pages ask your browser to fetch something, such as a font, from another company's server. That is not a cookie, but the other company receives your IP address and browser details with the request. Section 7 lists these requests.
1.4 Why consent matters
EU and Cyprus law allows a website to store information on your device, or read it from there, without asking you only where that is strictly necessary to provide a service you have asked for. For anything else, the website needs your consent.
We sort what we store on your device into three kinds:
- Strictly necessary: needed to sign you in, keep you signed in, keep your account secure and remember your cookie choice;
- Preferences: remember how you have chosen to see Tideward, such as your time zone, text size or saved filters. They stay in your browser and only Tideward's own pages read them;
- Analytics: count and describe visits to this website. These load only after you consent.
2. In short
- We do not use advertising cookies or cookies that track you across other websites, and we do not sell data.
- Analytics load only after you accept them. At the time of writing we have not switched analytics on, so none run on this website.
- The portals use only strictly necessary cookies and preference storage. They load no analytics.
- You can change your choice at any time with the Cookie settings link in the footer of this website.
3. Your choices
3.1 The consent banner
When analytics are switched on and you have not yet made a choice, a banner at the bottom of the page asks you to choose. Accept analytics allows the analytics described in section 6 to load. Reject continues without them. Both buttons are shown together, and nothing optional loads until you press Accept. We remember your choice in the tw_mkt_consent cookie for 180 days; after that we ask again.
3.2 Changing your mind
Use the Cookie settings link in the footer of any page of this website to open the banner again and make a different choice. If you change from Accept to Reject, analytics are not loaded again. Reload the page you are on to make sure that analytics already running in it stop as well.
3.3 Your browser's settings
You can also block or delete cookies and browser storage in your browser's settings. If you block the strictly necessary cookies, you will not be able to sign in to Tideward. If you delete the tw_mkt_consent cookie, we will ask for your choice again. Deleting preference storage returns the settings it held to their defaults.
4. On this website
| Name | Kind | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| tw_mkt_consent | Cookie, strictly necessary | Remembers whether you accepted or rejected analytics, so that we do not ask on every page | 180 days |
If you are signed in to Tideward while you browse this website, your browser also sends the sign-in cookies listed in section 5.
The enquiry form also sends how you reached us: the address of the page where your visit began and of the page you send it from, the site that referred you, and any campaign details in those addresses (such as utm_source or gclid). While you browse, this is kept only in the memory of the open page, never stored on your device, and it is gone when you reload the page or close the tab. It leaves your browser only if you send the form.
5. When you sign in and use a portal
All the cookies in this section are strictly necessary, apart from tw_viewer_time, which is a preference. The ones marked "hidden from page scripts" are HttpOnly cookies, which the scripts on a web page cannot read.
5.1 Signing in
| Name | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| tw_pkce_verifier, tw_oauth_state, tw_oauth_redirect_uri | Protect the exchange between Tideward and our sign-in service, so that nobody else can complete your sign-in. Hidden from page scripts | 10 minutes |
| tw_post_login | Remembers the page to return you to after you sign in. Hidden from page scripts | 10 minutes |
| tw_login_portal | Remembers which portal's sign-in page you used. Hidden from page scripts | 10 minutes |
| tw_reauth_next | Remembers where you were when your session expired, so that you can continue after signing in again. Hidden from page scripts | 10 minutes |
5.2 Your session
| Name | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| tw_session.0 to tw_session.7 | Your signed-in session: the tokens our sign-in service issued, your name, the identifiers of your account and Tenant, and your plan. Split into several cookies because it is too large for one. Hidden from page scripts | 7 days, and ends when you sign out |
| tw_sf, tw_ag, tw_en, tw_pt, tw_vm | A signed pass that admits your browser to the portal you signed in to: the seafarer portal (tw_sf), the manning agency and maritime operator portals (tw_ag), the owners portal (tw_en), the port agent portal (tw_pt) or the vessel desk (tw_vm). Hidden from page scripts | 14 days, and ends when you sign out |
| tw_ent_sf, tw_ent_ag, tw_ent_en, tw_ent_pt, tw_ent_vm | A signed pass confirming that your plan gives you access to that portal. Hidden from page scripts | 14 days, and ends when you sign out |
| tw_vm_officer.0 to tw_vm_officer.7 | On the vessel desk, the officer's own sign-in, kept beside the ship's session so that changes are recorded under the officer's name. Hidden from page scripts | 12 hours |
| tw_viewer_time | Preference: your browser's time zone and language, so that dates and times are shown in your local time | 1 year |
5.3 Our sign-in service
Our sign-in service at auth.tideward.net runs on Keycloak, which we operate ourselves. While you sign in, and for your sign-in session there, it sets its own strictly necessary cookies, such as AUTH_SESSION_ID, KC_AUTH_SESSION_HASH, KC_RESTART, KEYCLOAK_IDENTITY and KEYCLOAK_SESSION. They identify your sign-in in progress and your session with the sign-in service. They last until you close your browser, and the session they belong to ends after 30 minutes without use and after 10 hours at most.
5.4 Preferences kept in browser storage
| Name | Kind | What it keeps | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Items beginning tideward.portal. | Local storage | The text size, spacing and contrast you chose for the portals | Until you clear it |
| tideward-theme-studio | Local storage | The colour theme you chose | Until you clear it |
| Items beginning portal. and the crew register's saved filters | Local storage | Search terms, filters and rows per page you set in lists, and filters you saved | Until you clear it |
| The seafarer profile's section order | Local storage | The order in which you arranged the sections of your profile | Until you clear it |
| tw-agency-reports-last-run | Session storage | When you last ran each report in this tab | Until you close the tab |
5.5 Set only for RSM Software staff
These are set only in the browsers of our own platform staff, when they use our operator tools. They are listed so that the table is complete.
| Name | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
| tw_pa | A signed pass that admits our staff to the Control Center | 14 days |
| tw_cmd, tw_sim_tenant, tw_sim_user, tw_sim_name | Used while a member of our staff views Tideward as a particular User sees it, to diagnose a problem. Starting such a view is logged | 8 hours |
| tw_tcc_nav | Local storage: which menus in the Control Center are open | Until cleared |
6. Analytics
Analytics are optional and load only after you press Accept analytics in the consent banner. At the time of writing they are not switched on.
When we switch them on, we will use Plausible Analytics, provided by Plausible Insights OÜ in the European Union. Plausible counts visits to this website without cookies and without identifiers stored on your device, according to Plausible; it works out the country and device type from the request, and it receives the pages you visit and the site that referred you. If we ever use a different analytics service instead, we will name it and list any cookies it sets in this policy before it is used, and it too will load only after you consent.
Analytics run only on this website, never in the portals.
7. Requests to other services
These are not cookies set by us, but your browser contacts another company's server when a page loads them.
| Service | When | What the other company receives |
|---|---|---|
| Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com) | On the pages of this website and the portals, to load the typefaces and icons they use | Your IP address and browser details |
| Plausible Analytics (plausible.io) | Only if analytics are switched on and you have accepted them | As described in section 6 |
8. Services you choose to use
- Social sign-in. Where we offer it and you choose to sign in with Google, Facebook or X, you go to that provider's own pages, which set the provider's cookies under its own cookie policy.
- Payments. Checkout for paid plans and the billing portal are Stripe's own pages. Stripe sets cookies there, including for fraud prevention, under its own cookie policy.
- Job boards. A link that opens a job advert at its source takes you to the job board's own website, which has its own cookies.
We do not receive the cookies these services set.
9. Changes to this policy
We update this policy whenever we add, remove or change a cookie or storage item, or switch analytics on. The version and date at the top show which text is current. If a change means we need your consent for something new, we will ask for it through the banner before it applies.
10. Contact
Questions about cookies or this policy: dpo@rsm-software.com, or by post to Rogue Star Marine Software Ltd, Pavlou Aggelinide 21, 3110 Limassol, Cyprus. Our Privacy Policy explains your rights, including how to complain.