Cookies Policy

1. What Cookies Are

A cookie is a small text file placed in the browser when a page loads, letting a site recognise the same browser on a later visit. It holds an identifier and a value rather than a name or an address, but because it singles out one browser it is treated as personal information here. Local storage and tracking pixels are covered by this policy in the same way.

A cookie is readable only by the domain that set it, so one from this site cannot be read by an unrelated website. Deleting cookies is done from the browser and takes effect at once, with nothing to request from the site.

2. Why Cookies Are Used Here

Cookies are used for a small number of jobs on this site: keeping pages working, storing a setting, counting visits and recording the source of a referral. No cookie here collects a name, an email address or a payment detail, and only the categories set out below are in use — an addition to them is reflected in this policy before it takes effect.

3. Essential Cookies

Essential cookies keep the site usable: they hold the cookie choice itself, manage security and keep a page from breaking between requests, and are set without consent because the site cannot be delivered without them. Most expire when the browser closes or after a short fixed period, except the consent cookie, kept for up to twelve months. Its security cookie guards against automated form submissions with a single-use value and nothing else.

Blocking this category does not stop a page from being read, though the banner reappears on every visit and the contact form may reject a submission because the security value cannot be stored. No essential cookie is shared with a third party.

4. Preference Cookies

Preference cookies store a setting a reader has chosen, such as a display option or a dismissed notice, and are not shared with any third party. Nothing in this category is required to read a page — blocking it just resets the setting on the next visit — and the category is kept small, since most of the site needs no stored state to display a page.

5. Analytics Cookies

Analytics cookies count visits and record which pages are opened, how long they are read and which page a reader arrived from. The data is read in aggregate to decide which pages need expanding — it shows that a page was opened a number of times, not who opened it — and individual sessions are not replayed or reconstructed. IP addresses used for approximate location are truncated before the figures are stored, and this category is set only after consent is given in the banner.

6. Affiliate and Marketing Cookies

A link to an operator may set a cookie that records the referral, allowing the operator to attribute a later registration to this site. The cookie records the source of the visit only — it carries no name, email address or anything typed into the contact form — and is set by the operator or its tracking platform, not by this site.

These cookies are placed only after consent is given, and blocking them has no effect on the terms an operator offers. Their lifetime is set by the operator, commonly several weeks; where consent is refused, a link still works, but the visit is not attributed to this site.

7. First-Party and Third-Party Cookies

A first-party cookie is set by this site; a third-party cookie is set by another service whose code runs on the page. Analytics here uses a first-party cookie set on this domain, while affiliate tracking is third-party, set by the operator or its tracking platform under its own policy.

A browser setting that blocks third-party cookies removes affiliate tracking without affecting analytics or the essential group. Some browsers block them by default; a referral may then go unattributed, and the site is used as it is either way.

8. Session and Persistent Cookies

A session cookie lasts until the browser closes and is used for jobs that only matter while a page is open. A persistent cookie stays for a set period ranging from days to months — the consent record is one such cookie, stored so the banner does not reappear on every page — and can be removed before it expires by clearing site data in the browser.

9. Information Collected Through Cookies

The data collected through cookies on this site is limited to the following:

• A pseudonymous identifier assigned to the browser
• Pages opened, in what order and for how long
• The address that referred the visit to this site
• Approximate location derived from the IP address
• Device type, screen size and browser version
• The consent choice recorded in the banner

None of this is combined with information supplied through the contact form, nor sold or passed to advertising networks. No cookie records what is typed into a field or how a mouse moves — analytics records events such as a page view or an outbound click — and where a figure could identify a single reader, it is suppressed before the report is produced.

10. Consent

The banner appears on a first visit and lists the categories in use; nothing beyond the essential category runs until a choice is made. Consent can be given for all categories or for none, a partial choice is kept exactly as set, and it is recorded with a timestamp.

A refusal is stored in the same way as an acceptance, and the banner does not reappear on every page after a refusal. Consent applies to this domain only.

11. Changing or Withdrawing a Choice

A choice can be changed at any time — clearing cookies for this site brings the banner back on the next visit — though withdrawing consent stops further collection without removing data already gathered. Browser settings offer a broader control:

• Blocking all cookies, which may affect how the page behaves
• Blocking third-party cookies while keeping first-party ones
• Deleting stored cookies for a single site
• Clearing all cookies when the browser closes
• Using a private window, which discards cookies on exit

Each browser places these settings in a different menu. An operating-system setting such as limiting app tracking on a phone works on a different layer and does not change how the browser stores cookies, and an extension that blocks trackers stops many requests as the page loads while leaving first-party cookies in place.

12. Cookies on Operator Websites

A reader who follows a link to an operator leaves this site, and the operator sets its own cookies under its own policy — the choice made in the banner here does not carry across. Questions about an operator cookie, including what happens once an account is opened there, are answered by that operator rather than here.

13. Do Not Track and Similar Signals

Browsers send a range of privacy signals, and no single standard covers all of them. Where a recognised signal is received, it is treated as a refusal of the non-essential categories; an unclear signal is ignored, and the banner choice applies instead.

14. Changes and Cookie Questions

This policy is updated when the cookies in use change, and the version published here is the one in force; a change to the categories resets the consent record. Questions about cookies, including a request for the current list in use, go through the contact form.