Cookies

Every cookie this site can set

There are three, and only one of them is a choice. Reading the site sets none of them.

1. Your sign-in

smv_session — set only when you sign in to manage a listing. It holds a random token and nothing else: no name, no email, nothing readable. It is how the site knows the next page you ask for is still you.

Strictly necessary. Ninety days, or one day for staff accounts. Signing out deletes it. Refusing it is possible and means you cannot sign in.

2. Counting readers

Cloudflare Web Analytics tells us which pages are read. It uses no cookie at all and no device fingerprint, and it cannot follow you to another site. We chose it over Google Analytics for exactly that reason, and it is why this site can be useful without asking you anything.

3. Advertising — the one that is a choice

Some pages carry Google advertising, and Google sets cookies to choose and measure adverts. In the EU and UK you are asked first, through Google’s own consent tool, and refusing is a real choice: you still get the whole site, and you still get adverts — they are simply not personalised.

Changed your mind? The banner can be reopened at any time from the link at the foot of any page carrying advertising. Or block them in your browser; nothing here will break.

What there is none of

• No advertising or analytics cookie on a page showing an official record about a named institution.
• No social media tracking pixels. No Facebook pixel, no LinkedIn tag, no TikTok pixel.
• No cross-site profile of you, built by us, at all.

More detail on what is collected and why is on the privacy page.

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