Cookies Policy

1. What Cookies Are

A cookie is a small text file placed in the browser when a page loads. It lets a site recognise the same browser on a later visit.

A cookie holds an identifier and a value, not a name or an address. It does not name a reader, but because it singles out one browser it is treated as personal information here.

Similar technologies exist, including local storage and tracking pixels. They are covered by this policy in the same way as cookies.

A cookie is readable only by the domain that set it. A cookie from this site cannot be read by an unrelated website.

Deleting cookies is done from the browser and takes effect at once. Nothing has to be requested from the site for that.

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 on this site collects a name, an email address or a payment detail.

Every category other than the essential one depends on the choice made in the consent banner.

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.

These cookies are set without consent, because the site cannot be delivered without them.

Most of these expire when the browser closes or after a short fixed period. The cookie holding the consent choice is the exception and is kept for up to twelve months.

The security cookie in this group guards against automated form submissions. It carries a single-use value and nothing else.

Blocking this category does not stop a page from being read. 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, and none carries data beyond the value it was set to hold.

4. Preference Cookies

Preference cookies store a setting a reader has chosen, such as a display option or a dismissed notice.

Nothing in this category is required to read a page. Blocking it means the setting resets on the next visit.

A preference cookie holds a setting value and the date it was stored. It is not shared with any third party.

The category is kept small, because 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. It shows that a page was opened a number of times, not who opened it.

The figures are used to decide which pages need expanding and which sections are skipped.

Individual sessions are not replayed or reconstructed. Only totals and averages across all visits are looked at.

This category is set only after consent is given in the banner.

IP addresses used for approximate location are truncated before the figures are stored, so a precise address is not retained.

6. Affiliate and Marketing Cookies

A link to an operator may set a cookie that records the referral. It allows the operator to attribute a later registration to this site.

The cookie records the source of the visit. It does not carry a name, an email address or anything typed into the contact form.

These cookies are set by the operator or by its tracking platform, not by this site.

They are placed only after consent is given, and blocking them has no effect on the terms an operator offers.

The lifetime of a tracking cookie is set by the operator and commonly runs for several weeks after the click.

Where consent is refused, a link still works. 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. Affiliate tracking is third-party: that cookie is set by the operator or its tracking platform, which publishes its own policy.

A browser setting that blocks third-party cookies removes affiliate tracking without affecting analytics or the essential group.

Some browsers block third-party cookies by default, and several shorten the life of cookies set by scripts. 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. It is used for jobs that only matter while a page is open.

A persistent cookie stays for a set period, which ranges from days to months depending on its purpose.

The consent record is stored as a persistent cookie so that the banner does not reappear on every page.

A persistent cookie can also 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.

The data is not sold, and it is not passed to an advertising network for use on other websites.

No cookie on this site records what is typed into a field or how a mouse moves. Analytics records events such as a page view or an outbound click, not the content of any field.

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 it was set.

Consent is recorded with a timestamp so that the choice can be evidenced later.

A refusal is stored in the same way as an acceptance. The banner does not reappear on every page after a refusal.

Consent applies to this domain only. It does not extend to any other site a reader visits afterwards.

11. Changing or Withdrawing a Choice

A choice can be changed at any time. Clearing cookies for this site in the browser brings the banner back on the next visit.

Withdrawing consent stops further collection. It does not remove data already gathered while consent was in place.

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, and the wording differs between versions.

A setting applied by the operating system, such as limiting app tracking on a phone, works on a different layer and does not change how the browser stores cookies.

An extension that blocks trackers stops many of these requests as the page loads. It records no choice on this site and leaves first-party cookies in place.

12. Cookies on Operator Websites

A reader who follows a link to an operator leaves this site. The operator sets its own cookies under its own policy.

The choice made in the banner here does not carry across. A separate banner usually appears on the operator site.

Questions about an operator cookie are answered by that operator rather than here.

The operator privacy policy governs what happens once an account is opened there, including any marketing cookie set at that point.

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.

A signal that cannot be interpreted reliably is ignored, and the banner choice applies instead.

A choice set in the banner is recorded explicitly and applies to this site alone.

14. Changes and Cookie Questions

This policy is updated when the cookies in use change. The version published here is the one in force.

A change to the categories resets the consent record, and the banner appears again.

Questions about cookies on this site go through the contact form.

A request for the current list of cookies in use is answered through the same form.