Cookie Policy
Cookies are small files stored by your browser. Here is every category we use and how to control it.
Last updated August 3, 2026
Managing your choices
No advertising or analytics cookies are set until you answer our banner — before then, our traffic measurement runs cookieless. Choosing “Reject personalization” means Google serves non-personalized ads instead — those still set a small number of cookies to cap repeat ads, measure performance, and prevent fraud, but they are not used to profile you. Choosing “Accept all” additionally allows personalized advertising. You can change your mind at any time; withdrawing deletes the Google advertising cookies we can reach and reloads the page:
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and opt out of personalized Google ads at Google My Ad Center or industry-wide at YourAdChoices and Your Online Choices (EU). Blocking all cookies may break parts of the site.
Cookies we use
| Category | Purpose | Examples | Duration | Consent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Remembers your cookie choice so we stop asking. Set by this site. | shakedown-consent-v1 (browser local storage) | Until you clear it | No consent required |
| Analytics | Google Analytics counts pageviews and shows us which guides get read. Before you accept, it runs in cookieless mode — the visit is counted, but nothing is stored on your device and you are not recognized from one page or visit to the next. Accepting allows the cookies below, which link your pageviews into a single session. | _ga, _ga_X69WSMY9ST (Google, first-party) | Up to 2 years | Consent required — cookieless until you accept |
| Advertising (non-personalized) | Set by Google AdSense once ads load, even if you reject personalization, to cap how often you see an ad, measure performance, and detect fraud. They do not build an interest profile. | __gads, __gpi (Google, first-party) | Up to 13 months | Set once ads load — reject personalization to limit them to this |
| Advertising (personalized) | Used by Google and its partners to build an interest profile and select ads based on it, across this and other sites. | IDE, test_cookie, __eoi (Google and partners) | Up to 13 months | Consent required — only after you accept |
| Affiliate attribution | Set by retailers and affiliate networks after you click an outbound product link, so a resulting purchase is credited to us. | Varies by network and retailer | Typically 24 hours to 30 days | Set by the destination site, on their terms |
Third parties that set cookies here
- Google Analytics — measures traffic for us. It loads on every page but stores nothing until you accept; see how Google uses information from sites that use its services, or install the Google Analytics opt-out add-on to block it everywhere.
- Google AdSense — how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
- Affiliate networks — Amazon Associates, Impact, ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Advertising. These set cookies on the destination site after you click through.
- Google Fonts — font files are requested from Google’s servers, which exposes your IP address to Google. No cookie is set by the font request itself.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Browsers do not handle “Do Not Track” consistently and we do not respond to it. We do detect Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends a GPC signal and you have not already made a choice here, we apply “Reject personalization” for you automatically and do not show the banner — no personalized advertising, no analytics cookies, and no profile built from your visit. An explicit choice you make in our banner takes precedence over the signal, so you can still opt in if you want to. See our Privacy Policy for the full picture.