Cookies

What cookies are

Cookies are small files placed on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make sites work, to remember preferences, to measure performance, and to support advertising. Similar technologies include local storage, pixels, and SDK-level identifiers; we treat them under the same headings here.

Categories of cookies we use

We group cookies into the following categories. The exact technical names and lifetimes can shift as our partners update their products; the categories and purposes below are stable.

Strictly necessary

Required for the directory to function — for example, security cookies, load-balancing cookies, and any cookie set by your browser as a normal part of fetching a static page. These cannot be turned off.

Preferences and functionality

Used to remember non-essential choices (for example, theme or language preference if those are added). The directory uses very few of these today, and they are scoped to the directory's own domain.

Analytics

Used to understand how the directory is used in aggregate — which sites and articles are popular, where readers come from, and how to improve the experience. Today the apex does not run a first-party analytics tool, but advertising partners (see below) may also report aggregate measurement.

Advertising

Used by advertising partners to deliver relevant ads, measure ad performance, prevent fraud, and limit how often the same ad is shown. We use Google AdSense for advertising; AdSense and the broader Google advertising stack may set cookies on your device when an ad is rendered.

Third-party

Cookies set by services other than the directory itself — advertising partners (Google), and any service we link out to. These are governed by the third party's policies, not ours.

Cookies you may encounter

This is a category-level summary; the precise cookie names set by Google and other partners may change as they update their products. The browser developer tools panel for any apex page will show the exact names actually set on your device during your visit.

Third-party cookies and partners

The directory currently uses one third-party advertising provider:

• Google AdSense — ad delivery and measurement. See Google's Cookies overview and partner-sites notice.

You can review and adjust how Google personalises ads via Google Ads Settings.

Controlling cookies in your browser

Most browsers let you view, manage, and delete cookies for any site, and let you block third-party cookies entirely. Specifics vary by browser:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Safari
• Edge

Blocking advertising cookies may make ads less relevant, but will not stop ads from being shown.

Consent and your choices

The directory implements Google Consent Mode v2 with a deny-by-default policy: on first paint, advertising and analytics signals are denied. The consent UI itself is provided by Google Funding Choices — Google's IAB TCF v2.2-compliant consent message that appears for visitors in regions that require explicit consent (EEA, UK, Switzerland by default; configurable in the AdSense account). Once you make a choice, Funding Choices feeds it into Consent Mode and AdSense begins to honour it.

To review or change your choice at any time:

Manage cookie preferences

If the button does nothing, the Google consent UI isn't loaded for your session — typically because you're outside the regions where it's required, AdSense is not configured for this site, or a browser extension is blocking the script. In those cases the controls below still apply.

Additional controls outside this site:

• browser-level cookie controls (links above);
• Google Ads Settings for personalisation choices across Google's ad network;
• your local privacy regulator's resources (e.g. YourOnlineChoices in the EU/UK).

Changes to this notice

We may update this page as our partners or controls change. The “Last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision.