A cookie is a small file kept by your browser on a site’s behalf. It cannot run, and it cannot read anything else on your machine. This page lists the ones BrokeAndBuff relies on and why each exists.
Revisions
Expect this list to move over time. It is revised whenever the underlying services change, and the revision date sits at the top of the page.
Which cookies are set
- Essential. Required for the site to load, stay secure, and remember your cookie preference.
- Measurement. Aggregate statistics through Google Analytics: pages read, traffic sources, nothing identifying.
- Ads. Google AdSense uses cookies to select advertising and limit repetition.
Lifetime
Session cookies disappear when you close the browser. The analytics and advertising ones persist for months unless you clear them yourself.
The actual names
- _ga and _gid come from Google Analytics and exist to tell browsers apart when counting visits.
- __gads and __gpi come from Google AdSense, which uses them to pick ads and limit repeats.
- wordpress_test_cookie and the wp-settings-* family are WordPress internals: a capability check and your display preferences.
- comment_author_* appears only after you comment, and only so the form is pre-filled the next time.
What none of these do: they do not read files on your device, they do not follow you into other applications, and they are not sold to anyone. There is no cookie here whose purpose is to identify you by name.
Content from elsewhere
Some pages embed content from elsewhere, a video player for example. An embed can set its own cookies once it loads, under its provider’s policy rather than ours. Pages without embeds do not carry them.
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.
Automated signals
There is no settled meaning for Do Not Track, so promising to respect it would be promising something undefined. Cookie blocking and the opt-out links above do have defined effects.
Turning them off
None of this is locked. Browser privacy settings remove cookies already stored and refuse new ones — at the cost of some site behaviour if you include the technical ones.
Questions
Questions go to the contact page.