Cookies
Last updated
Reading this archive sets no cookies at all. Cookies are only set if you sign in, or if you choose to accept analytics — and you can change that choice at any time.
What a cookie is
A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to keep, and which your browser sends back on later visits. Some are necessary for a site to work — remembering that you signed in, for instance, which is otherwise forgotten the moment you open the next page. Others are optional, and are used to count and understand visits.
Cookies this site can set
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
archive_session | This site | Keeps you signed in, and records that your subscription was checked. Only set when you sign in, and deleted when you sign out. | 30 days |
archive_device | This site | Recognises this browser when you come back, so you are not asked for your subscription details again once the sign-in above has expired. Deleted when you sign out. | 1 year |
_ga | Google Analytics | Tells one visitor apart from another, so we can count how many people use the archive. Only set if you accept analytics. | 2 years |
_ga_<id> | Google Analytics | Keeps track of a single visit — which pages were opened, and in what order. Only set if you accept analytics. | 2 years |
Cookies we need
The two archive_ cookies are necessary for signing in, so they are not optional — but they are only ever set once you do sign in. Reading the archive without signing in sets neither.
Both are protected the same way: neither can be read by scripts running on the page, both are only sent over a secure connection, both are only sent to this site and not to anyone you arrive from, and both are deleted when you sign out. Signing out means signing out — it clears the second one too, so a shared computer does not carry your subscription to the next person.
Cookies you can choose
If you accept analytics, we use Google Analytics to understand how the archive is used: how many people visit, which editions are opened, and what people search for. We use it to decide what to digitise next, not to identify you.
Nothing is requested from Google, and no cookie of theirs is set, until you accept. If you decline, or simply ignore the banner, the analytics code is never loaded at all — not loaded and disabled, but never fetched. Your IP address is anonymised before Google records it. Their cookies are set by Google rather than by us, and the expiry times above are Google’s own defaults, which are theirs to change.
The archive works exactly the same either way. Declining costs you nothing: every edition, every search and every page behaves identically.
Changing your mind
Select Cookie settings at the bottom of any page. You can accept what you previously declined, or withdraw what you previously accepted — withdrawing deletes the Google cookies we can reach and stops the analytics code loading from then on.
Your answer is not itself a cookie. It is kept in your browser’s local storage and is never sent to us, which also means it is per-site and per-browser: answering here does not answer for another archive, or for the same one on a different device. Clearing your browser data clears it, and you will be asked again.
Controlling cookies yourself
You can delete or block cookies in your browser settings at any time, and every browser lets you do this per site. Blocking ours will not stop you reading the archive, but it will stop you staying signed in — the sign-in cookie is how the site remembers you between pages, so blocking it means signing in again on each one.
What we do not do
We set nothing for advertising, and nothing that follows you to other sites. We do not sell or share what analytics collects. No cookie here records what you read in a way that is tied to your name or your subscription.
One thing worth knowing: opening an edition loads the reader from Pocketmags, which is a separate service with its own cookies and its own notice. That reader is what displays the pages themselves, and what it sets is governed by Pocketmags rather than by this page.