Your browser holds a handful of small files for every site you open. They are inert text, not programs. This page accounts for the ones that belong to PastaPeak.
Revisions
Cookies come and go as services change, and this page follows them. It is updated when something actually changes, not periodically for appearance, and the date above says when.
The cookies on this site
- Strictly needed. Without these the page will not load properly, stay secure, or remember that you already answered the cookie prompt.
- Audience statistics. Google Analytics, counted in bulk: which pages hold attention and where readers come from. Nothing that names you.
- Advertising. Cookies set by Google AdSense decide which ads appear and stop the same one following you around.
Expiry
Some of these last only as long as the tab stays open. Others, the measurement and ad cookies in particular, sit there for months.
The cookies by name
- Analytics sets _ga and _gid: they separate one browser from another and nothing more.
- Advertising sets __gads and __gpi, used by AdSense to choose ads and cap how often each is shown.
- WordPress itself sets wordpress_test_cookie to verify cookies function, plus wp-settings-* for preferences.
- Commenting sets comment_author_* so you do not retype your details.
It is worth saying what is absent. No cookie here reaches your files, tracks you outside the browser, or gets sold. None exists to put a name to a reader.
The opt-out links
- Google’s own controls sit at adssettings.google.com and cover personalised advertising wherever you meet it.
- Analytics measurement is refused site-wide by installing Google’s opt-out add-on from tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
- Nothing above depends on us: your browser can block third-party cookies outright, or clear this site’s cookies alone.
Your answer
Anything beyond the strictly necessary is set only after you have answered, in the regions where that is required. Your answer is stored in your browser and nowhere else.
Third-party embeds
An embedded player or map is served by its own operator, and it can set cookies when it loads. Refusing third-party cookies in your browser is what stops that.
Do Not Track
Do Not Track headers exist but mean different things to different operators, so we do not claim to act on them. The controls above are the ones with a predictable result.
How to say no
Cookies live in your browser and your browser can clear them. Drop the strictly needed ones and pages start misbehaving; drop the rest and you will not notice a difference.
Getting in touch
Questions go to the contact page.