Cookie notice

This notice explains the cookies and other browser storage terrymanu.com uses, and how you can control them. It sits alongside my privacy notice, which explains how I handle personal data more generally.

The short version

• Nothing optional runs, and no cookie is set, until you say yes.
• Saying no is as easy as saying yes. There are three optional kinds: analytics, advertising measurement, and personalised advertising and retargeting. You choose each one separately.
• Before you choose, the site stores nothing in your browser. Once you choose, it remembers your answer there.
• You can change your mind at any time with the "Cookie settings" link in the footer of every page.

What cookies and browser storage are

Cookies are small files a website saves in your browser. Browser storage (called localStorage) works in a similar way, but it stays in your browser and isn't sent to the website with each visit. UK law (PECR) treats both the same way: anything that isn't strictly necessary needs your consent first.

What the site stores

The Google Analytics cookies are _ga and _ga_ followed by the site's Google Analytics ID. They are set only if you say yes to analytics.

Strictly necessary

The cookie choice is the only thing the site stores without asking, because it's needed to respect your answer. It records which version of the banner you answered, whether you said yes or no to each optional kind, and the time you chose. When the choices on offer change, the banner asks again. It isn't a cookie, it's never sent to me, and it doesn't identify you. If your browser blocks storage, your choice lasts only for the page you're on, and nothing optional runs.

Analytics

If you say yes to analytics, the site loads Google Analytics 4, run by Google. It tells me which pages are read, how people arrive and roughly where they are, so I can see what is useful. It also counts a few actions: reading most of an essay, using a share or copy button, signing up to the newsletter, sending a message and following a link to a next step. It records that the action happened, on which essay, never what you typed or copied. Google keeps this data for 14 months, then deletes it, and Google signals and ad personalisation are switched off. Google Analytics loads from, and sends its data first to, the site's own address, data.terrymanu.com, which passes it on to Google. Google may process this data outside the UK. The privacy notice explains the safeguards.

If you say no, or don't choose, Google Analytics doesn't load at all. The site sends nothing to Google and sets no Google cookie.

If you say yes and later change your mind, the site stops Google Analytics and deletes its cookies from your browser straight away.

At the moment Google Analytics isn't switched on, so nothing loads whatever you choose. I'll update this notice before it is.

Advertising measurement

If you say yes to advertising measurement, the site loads the advertising tags of Google Ads, Meta (for Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn and Microsoft Advertising (for Bing). They tell me whether my adverts on those platforms lead to people signing up to the newsletter, confirming the sign-up, sending a message or downloading a resource. When one of those happens, the site tells each platform that it happened, and on which page. It never sends what you typed. When you send a message, the site's own server also sends Meta a scrambled form of the email address you gave (a SHA-256 hash, as Meta requires), so Meta can count the result once. It never sends the message itself.

Personalised advertising and retargeting

If you say yes to personalised advertising and retargeting, the same four platforms are told which pages of this site you visit, so they can show my adverts to people who have visited the site.

You can say yes to either kind without the other. If you say no to both, or don't choose, none of the four advertising tags loads, the site sends nothing to them and sets none of their cookies.

The advertising cookies

These are set on this site only after a yes to advertising measurement or to personalised advertising (Google Ads' only after a yes to advertising measurement):

• Google Ads: _gcl_au and _gcl_aw, 90 days.
• Meta: _fbp and _fbc, 90 days.
• LinkedIn: li_fat_id, 30 days; li_giant, 7 days; ln_or, 1 day.
• Microsoft Advertising: _uetsid, 1 day; _uetvid, 13 months; _uetmsclkid, 90 days. Microsoft also keeps _uetsid and _uetvid in browser storage on this site.

When their tags load, the platforms also set cookies on their own websites, such as IDE on doubleclick.net (Google), fr on facebook.com (Meta), bcookie, lidc and UserMatchHistory on linkedin.com, and MUID on bing.com (Microsoft). Those are their cookies, under their own notices: this site can't read or delete them. You can delete them in your browser's settings, and manage how each platform uses your data for advertising in your settings with Google, Meta, LinkedIn and Microsoft.

Google, Meta, LinkedIn and Microsoft may process this data outside the UK, including in the United States. The privacy notice explains the safeguards.

At the moment none of the advertising tags is switched on, so nothing loads whatever you choose. I'll update this notice before any is.

Changing your choice

Use the "Cookie settings" link in the footer of any page. Your cookie settings open with your current choices, and you can change each one or reject everything optional. If you turn a kind off, the site stops its tags straight away (the page reloads when an advertising tag was running) and deletes the cookies they set on this site. It can't delete the cookies the platforms set on their own websites; your browser's settings can. You can also clear cookies and site data in your browser's settings. The banner will then ask again on your next visit.

Links to other sites

Some pages link to other websites, such as LinkedIn. Those sites have their own cookies and notices, which I don't control. Nothing from them loads on this site unless you follow the link.

Changes to this notice

I'll update this notice whenever the cookies or storage the site uses change.

This notice was last updated on 17 October 2026.