Cookie policy
What is stored in your browser while you read, what will be stored if analytics and advertising are switched on, and how to change your mind.
What the site stores today
Reading this site sets no cookies at all. One thing is stored locally: if you switch between the light and dark theme, that preference is kept in your browser’s local storage. It is not a cookie, it is never transmitted with a request, and clearing your browser data removes it — after which the site follows your operating system setting again.
A session cookie exists for the site’s own administration area, but it is only ever set for a signed-in administrator. Readers never receive it.
Categories, present and planned
| Category | Status | Purpose | Set by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | In use | Signing in to the administration area. Not set for readers. | This site |
| Preferences (local storage) | In use | Remembering your light or dark theme choice. | This site |
| Analytics | In use — no cookie | Counting page views in aggregate so we know which articles are read. Sets nothing in your browser. | Umami, self-hosted on this site's own server |
| Analytics (dormant) | Switched off, consent required | A second measurement integration that is not switched on. If it ever is, it loads only after consent. | Google Analytics 4 |
| Advertising | Planned, consent required | Delivering and measuring advertising, limiting repetition, and in some configurations personalising ads. | Google AdSense and its partners |
Our analytics sets no cookie at all. No advertising cookie, and no cookie from the dormant Google integration, is set before consent is given.
Consent, and the default answer
The site implements Google Consent Mode v2, and every storage purpose — analytics_storage, ad_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization — starts denied. That default is set by the very first script in the page, so nothing measurement- or advertising-related can run before you have answered.
The question itself is asked by a Google-certified consent management platform, which is what Google requires for serving ads to readers in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. We do not use a custom banner for advertising consent, because a custom banner is not certified and would not satisfy that requirement.
Third-party advertising cookies
When advertising is introduced, Google and its advertising partners may set and read cookies and similar identifiers from their own domains. These are used to serve ads, to cap how often you see the same one, to measure whether an ad was seen, and — only where you have consented to it — to personalise what is shown.
Those cookies are set by the third party, not by this site, and their names, purposes and lifetimes are documented by the provider. We do not receive them and cannot read them.
Changing your mind
- Cookie preferences. Once a consent manager is running on the site, a “Cookie preferences” link appears in the footer and reopens it. Your previous answer can be changed there at any time.
- Your browser. Every browser can block or delete cookies and site data, either for this site or entirely. Blocking them does not prevent you from reading anything here; at most the site forgets your theme preference.
- Google’s own controls. Google publishes account-level settings that govern ad personalisation across the sites that use its advertising products.
Questions
Anything unclear here is worth telling us about — write to hello@wattcurious.com or use the contact page. What data is processed, by whom, and for how long is set out in the privacy policy.