What we collect, and what we do not
Short version: one analytics tool, switched off until you allow it, and no advertising trackers anywhere on the site.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which articles people actually read. That tells us what to write more of. It is the only tracking on the site.
It does not run until you allow it. When you first arrive, analytics is set to denied and no cookie is written — we have checked this on a clean browser rather than taking Google’s word for it. If you choose “Allow analytics” on the banner, it switches on. If you choose “Decline”, it stays off and the banner does not come back.
One detail we would rather state than gloss over. While consent is denied, Google’s tag still sends a single request that records a page was viewed, flagged as having no consent. It carries no identifier and sets nothing on your device, so you cannot be recognised or followed between visits — but a request does leave your browser. That is how Google’s consent system is built, and we cannot switch it off while using their tag at all.
When it is on, Google Analytics collects the page you viewed, roughly when, the approximate area you are in (from your IP address, which we ask Google to shorten), and general details about your browser and device. It sets an identifier so repeat visits in the same browser are not counted as new people. We do not see your name, your email, or your exact location, and we never try to work out who an individual reader is.
Changing your mind
You can reverse your choice at any time.
Clearing your browser’s site data for this domain also resets it.
What we do not do
- No advertising cookies, and no advertising or remarketing tags of any kind. These are explicitly switched off in our Google configuration, whatever you choose.
- No selling or sharing of visitor data with anyone.
- No accounts, no newsletter list, no comment system — so there is nothing for us to store about you.
- No tracking of which outbound links you click, including the supplier links on compound articles.
The other things that touch your browser
Google Fonts. Our two typefaces load from Google’s font servers, which means Google receives a request from your browser for them. This happens on page load and is not something you can decline without blocking the fonts.
Local storage. Your analytics choice is saved in your own browser so we do not ask again. It never leaves your device.
Our host. The site is served by Vercel, which keeps standard server logs.
Supplier links. Articles about a named compound link to Nalu Labs. Following that link takes you to their site, where their privacy practices apply, not ours. See our commercial relationship.
Your rights, and reaching us
If you are in the UK or EU, you have the right to ask what data relates to you, to ask for it to be deleted, and to withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing is the button above. For anything else, email us and we will answer.
Because we hold no accounts and no contact list, in most cases the honest answer is that we hold nothing about you at all beyond aggregate counts.