[withinboredom]

If it isn’t selected, the browser literally won’t send anything for that field (undefined in js parlance). Your code/language of choice has to make a decision on what to do with that state. If you specify true/false, the page will reload with that state instead of “undefined.”

For some languages it is exactly as you describe, for lower level languages (as in closer to the raw HTTP protocol) like PHP, you have to make an explicit choice before rendering the response.