Cookie Policy
Last updated September 29, 2026
Effective date: 29 September 2026
This policy lists every cookie and similar technology used on this website, explains what each does, and tells you how to control them. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which covers the wider question of how we handle personal data.
1. What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store on your device. On your next visit the site reads it back, which is how it remembers things — that you are logged in, what your preferences are, or that you have visited before.
Cookies are not programs. They cannot execute code, cannot read files on your device, and cannot carry viruses. They are text, and they are limited to the domain that set them, so a cookie from one website cannot be read by another.
What makes them a privacy matter is third-party cookies: set by a domain other than the one you are visiting, they allow a company present on many websites to build a picture of your browsing across all of them. That is how interest-based advertising works, and it is why advertising cookies require your consent in the EU, the UK and Switzerland.
Similar technologies include local storage, pixels and tags. We treat them all the same way, and they are listed below where we use them.
2. Our consent approach
When you first visit, a banner appears offering three choices:
- Accept all — necessary, analytics and advertising cookies
- Reject non-essential — necessary cookies only, with non-personalised contextual advertising
- Customise — choose analytics and advertising separately
No advertising or analytics cookie is set before you make a choice. We set Google Consent Mode v2 defaults to denied for ad_storage, ad_user_data, ad_personalization and analytics_storage before any tag can act. This matters: many sites let tags set cookies first and communicate consent afterwards, which is exactly what consent mode exists to prevent.
You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the Cookie preferences link in the footer of every page. Withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it, which is a legal requirement rather than a courtesy.
Your choice is stored in a strictly necessary cookie and in your browser's local storage, and we retain a record of it for 36 months as evidence of consent.
3. Category 1: strictly necessary
These make the site work. They require no consent under the ePrivacy Directive and are set on the basis of our legitimate interest in operating a functional, secure website. You can block them in your browser, but parts of the site will stop working.
| Name | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
ll_consent_v1 (local storage) | Records your cookie preferences so we do not ask again | Until you clear it |
ll_prefs_open (local storage) | Remembers whether the preferences panel was expanded | Session |
| Session identifier | Maintains your session and prevents cross-site request forgery on forms | Session |
| Load-balancer cookie | Routes your request to the same server for consistency | Session |
We do not use any strictly necessary cookie for tracking, analytics or advertising.
4. Category 2: analytics (consent required)
No analytics cookies are currently set on this site. If analytics are ever enabled, the cookies in this category would be:
These tell us which guides are read, where people stop reading, and which searches return nothing — which is how we decide what to write next. They are aggregated and, where our provider supports it, IP addresses are truncated before storage.
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics 4 | Distinguishes unique visitors | 2 years |
_ga_<container> | Google Analytics 4 | Maintains session state | 2 years |
_gid | Google Analytics 4 | Distinguishes visitors within a 24-hour window | 24 hours |
Analytics cookies are only set if you consent. If you decline, we receive no data about your visit and we request non-personalised advertising instead.
Google Analytics is configured with IP anonymisation, with advertising features disabled unless you consent to advertising cookies separately, and with data retention set to 14 months at user level. Google's own documentation of its data handling is at policies.google.com.
5. Category 3: advertising (consent required)
These are set by Google AdSense and its partners to serve and measure advertising. This is the category that requires your consent under Google's EU User Consent Policy and the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework.
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
__gads | Publisher-side ad targeting and frequency capping | Up to 13 months | |
__gpi | Google Publisher ad measurement and frequency | Up to 13 months | |
IDE | Google / DoubleClick | Ad delivery, reporting and personalisation | Up to 13 months |
DSID | Targeting for users signed in to a Google account | Up to 2 weeks | |
NID | Remembers preferences and ad personalisation state | Up to 6 months | |
AEC | Ensures requests within a session are made by the user | Up to 6 months | |
SOCS | Stores your cookie consent state for Google services | Up to 13 months |
5.1 The disclosure Google requires
Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to this website or other websites.
Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting 0 , or opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies by visiting 1 or 2 .
5.2 If you decline advertising cookies
We request non-personalised advertising. You will still see adverts, but they will be chosen based on the content of the page you are reading and your general location rather than your browsing history. Persistent targeting cookies are not set.
Worth stating honestly: Google still receives a request containing your IP address and the page URL when a non-personalised ad is served. Declining consent reduces tracking substantially but it is not the same as sending no data at all. Only an ad blocker achieves that, and it is a legitimate choice — see section 8.
Non-personalised ads pay the site considerably less than personalised ones. Declining does not restrict your access to any content and we will never treat you differently for it, but it does reduce our revenue from your visit, which is why we keep the content free of paywalls and would rather explain the trade than hide it.
5.3 Ad technology partners
Google works with a published list of ad technology providers that may receive information when ads are served here. The current list is at Google's Ad Technology Provider disclosure. Once advertising is active, visitors in the EEA, UK and Switzerland will see Google's certified "Privacy & messaging" consent message, where individual ad partners can be selected or restricted.
6. Cookies we do not use
For clarity, this site does not use:
- Social media tracking pixels or share-button trackers
- Cross-site behavioural profiling beyond Google's advertising services
- Fingerprinting, canvas tracking or any technique designed to identify you without cookies
- Payment or checkout cookies — we sell nothing directly
- Login or account cookies — there are no accounts
- Affiliate cookies set by us. Where an affiliate link is clicked, the destination merchant may set its own cookie under its own policy, which we do not control. See our Affiliate Disclosure
7. How to control cookies
7.1 On this site
Use the Cookie preferences link in the footer of any page. It reopens the banner with your current choices shown, and lets you change category by category. This is the fastest method and it takes effect immediately.
7.2 In your browser
Every major browser lets you view, block and delete cookies:
- Chrome / Edge: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data
- Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
- Safari: Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data
- Mobile browsers: equivalent sections under Settings → Privacy
You can block all cookies, block only third-party cookies, or delete cookies when you close the browser. Blocking third-party cookies alone removes most advertising tracking while leaving the site fully functional.
Note that blocking all cookies will break parts of many websites, including the mechanism that remembers your preferences here — so the banner may reappear on every visit.
7.3 Industry opt-outs
These set their own opt-out cookies, so they must be repeated per browser and per device, and they are undone if you clear your cookies:
- US: aboutads.info/choices and networkadvertising.org/choices
- EU: youronlinechoices.eu
- Google specifically: myadcenter.google.com
7.4 Do Not Track
Some browsers send a Do Not Track signal. There is no industry-wide standard for honouring it, and most advertising systems do not. Our approach: we treat a DNT signal as a refusal of non-essential cookies, default to essential-only, and request non-personalised advertising. You can override this via Cookie preferences.
8. Ad blocking
Using an ad blocker on this site is permitted and we will not block your access, show a nag screen, or serve you reduced content because of it. The site remains fully readable.
We would ask you to consider that advertising is the only revenue this site has, and it is what allows everything here to be free with no account and no paywall. If you block ads, an alternative is to allow this domain specifically, or to decline personalised advertising rather than all advertising — which reduces the tracking you object to without removing the revenue entirely. That is entirely your choice and we will not enforce either position.
9. Changes
Cookie usage changes when we add a service, when a provider changes its own cookies, or when the law changes. We update this page when that happens and revise the effective date at the top. Because third-party cookies can change without notice from the provider, the list above is accurate as at the effective date and may lag reality.
If you find a cookie in your browser that is not listed here, tell us via the contact page and we will investigate and update this policy.
10. More information
- Our Privacy Policy — how we handle personal data overall, including your rights under GDPR and the CCPA
- Google's Privacy Policy — how Google handles data collected through its advertising and analytics services
- Google's explanation of how advertising works — what personalised advertising uses and how to control it
- Your national data protection authority — for complaints. In the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office
11. Contact
Questions about cookies: see our Contact page, or email the privacy address listed there and mark your message "Cookies".