How we use cookies

By using the Site, you consent to the use of cookies as described in this policy, except where your consent is required by law and not given.

1. What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work, to make them work more efficiently, and to provide information to the site’s owners.

Cookies may be first-party, set by the site you are visiting, or third-party, set by another service such as an advertising or analytics provider. They may be session cookies, deleted when you close your browser, or persistent cookies, which remain until they expire or you delete them. We also use similar technologies such as web beacons, pixels and local storage, which we refer to collectively as “cookies” in this policy.

2. How we use cookies

We use cookies to keep the Site working properly and secure, to remember your preferences, to understand how visitors find and use the Site so we can improve it, and to display advertising that keeps every guide here free to read. We group the cookies we use into three categories.

a. Essential cookies

Necessary for the Site to function, and they cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually set in response to actions you take, such as recording your cookie preferences or basic security. The Site cannot function properly without them.

b. Analytics cookies

These help us understand how readers interact with the Site, which guides are most used, and where people give up part-way through, so we can improve the writing and the structure. We use Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity for this purpose. See section 3.

c. Advertising cookies

Set through the Site by our advertising partner, Google AdSense, and by other advertising vendors. They are used to make advertising more relevant, to limit the number of times you see a given ad, and to measure the effectiveness of advertising. See section 3.

3. Third-party cookies we use

Because the Site uses Google AdSense, Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, some cookies are set by these third parties. Each is governed by that provider’s own privacy policy.

Google AdSense (advertising)

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this Site and/or other sites on the internet. These cookies may be set from domains such as doubleclick.net, googlesyndication.com and googleadservices.com. You can read more at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Google Analytics (analytics)

We use Google Analytics 4 to collect aggregated, largely anonymous statistics about how the Site is used, such as pages viewed, session length and general traffic sources. In GA4, IP addresses are not logged or stored by default.

Microsoft Clarity (analytics and session replay)

We use Microsoft Clarity to understand how readers interact with the Site through behavioural metrics, heatmaps and session replay. Clarity captures data such as mouse movements, clicks, scrolls and pages visited, and automatically masks sensitive input fields. For more information, see the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

Cookies at a glance

Cookie names and durations are set by these third parties and may change over time. This table is provided as a good-faith guide rather than an exhaustive guarantee.

4. Your cookie choices

Browser settings

Most browsers let you view, delete and block cookies. To manage cookies, see your browser’s help pages:

• Google Chrome: support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647
• Mozilla Firefox: support.mozilla.org
• Apple Safari: support.apple.com
• Microsoft Edge: support.microsoft.com

Blocking or deleting cookies may affect how the Site functions.

Opt out of personalised advertising

• Google: myadcenter.google.com (also adssettings.google.com).
• Many other vendors: the Digital Advertising Alliance tool at optout.aboutads.info and youradchoices.com, or for mobile apps AppChoices.

Opt out of Google Analytics

Install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout to prevent your data being used by Google Analytics across all websites.

Global Privacy Control

Where applicable, we honour GPC browser signals as a request to opt out of the sharing of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.

Consent banner

Where the law requires your consent before non-essential cookies are set, we show a banner. We use Google’s consent management platform, certified under the IAB Europe Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) v2.2. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are asked to accept or reject advertising and analytics cookies before any are set, and can review the individual purposes and vendors first. Visitors in United States states with an applicable privacy law are shown that state’s notice and opt-out.

Your choice is remembered. To change it at any time, use the Privacy & cookie settings link in the footer of every page, which reopens the same dialog.

Consent Mode

We implement Google Consent Mode v2. Until you consent, advertising and analytics storage default to denied for visitors in the regions above, so the tags described in section 3 load without setting or reading advertising or analytics cookies, and ad requests are sent without advertising identifiers. Microsoft Clarity is started with consent withheld and only begins recording if the consent framework reports that you have agreed, or if you are outside its scope and your browser is not sending a Global Privacy Control signal.

5. Do Not Track

Some browsers offer a Do Not Track setting. Because there is no common industry standard for how to respond to DNT signals, the Site does not currently respond to them. We do, however, honour Global Privacy Control signals as described above.

6. Changes to this Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the cookies we use, or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons. When we make material changes, we will post the updated policy on this page and revise the date shown above.

7. Contact us

If you have any questions about our use of cookies, please contact us:

See also our Privacy Policy for how we handle personal information more generally.