Your information
Cookie policy
What we store in your browser, why, and how to change your answer whenever you like.
Checking your saved choice…
Everything that is set
The full list, by name. Anything marked browser storage is not a cookie — it stays in your browser and is never sent to us — but it is listed anyway, because “what are you keeping on my machine” is not really a question about transport.
Essential — always on
Set because the site cannot do what you asked without them. There is nothing to consent to: refusing them and refusing to sign in are the same act.
| Name | Set by | What it does | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
sb-qxlsjhcgmmzpibkttpqw-auth-token | RecipeWiki | Keeps you signed in. Holds the session token issued when you sign in, and is refreshed as you browse. In practice it is too large for a single cookie, so you will see it split into numbered parts — …-auth-token.0 and …-auth-token.1. | Until you sign out, or the session expires. |
rw_g_state | RecipeWiki | A one-time random value used only while you are signing in with Google, so the reply that comes back can be checked as a genuine answer to the request we sent. It is what stops somebody else's sign-in being substituted for yours. | Deleted the moment sign-in finishes. |
rw_g_next | RecipeWiki | Remembers the page you were on when you started signing in with Google, so you are returned there afterwards instead of to the home page. | Deleted the moment sign-in finishes. |
recipewiki.consentbrowser storage | RecipeWiki | Your answer to the cookie question — the word “accepted” or “rejected”, and nothing else. This is the one that stops you being asked on every page, so clearing it means being asked again. | Until you clear this site's data. |
recipewiki:prefer-origin-languagebrowser storage | RecipeWiki | Remembers that you switched a recipe to its original language, so the next one you open is shown the same way. | Until you clear this site's data. |
recipewiki:draft:…browser storage | RecipeWiki | An unfinished recipe or edit you were writing, kept in your own browser so a closed tab or a stray reload does not lose your work. It is not sent to us until you publish. | Until you publish the edit or clear this site's data. |
Measurement — only if you agree
Set only after you agree, and only to count how the site is used. Nothing here is set while your answer is no or missing.
| Name | Set by | What it does | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics | Tells Google Analytics whether this browser has been here before, so two visits from you are not counted as two people. It holds a random number, not your name or address. | 2 years. |
_ga_<container> | Google Analytics | Keeps the state of your current visit — when it started, and whether it is still going — so a single session is not counted as several. | 2 years. |
Advertising — only if you agree
Set only after you agree. Refusing does not remove the advertising — it makes it generic, chosen without using anything about you.
| Name | Set by | What it does | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
__gads | Google AdSense | Measures how ads on this site perform and limits how many times you are shown the same one. | About 13 months. |
__gpi | Google AdSense | Used by Google to choose which advertising to show you and to limit repeats across the sites that use it. | About 13 months. |
__eoi | Google AdSense | Used by Google to reduce the number of times the same ad is shown to you. | About 6 months. |
test_cookie | Google (doubleclick.net) | Written and read immediately, once, purely to check whether your browser accepts cookies at all. It holds nothing about you. | About 15 minutes. |
IDE | Google (doubleclick.net) | Google's advertising identifier for this browser, used to select ads and to record whether an ad led anywhere. Set only where personalised advertising has been agreed to. | About 13 months. |
FCNEC | Google Funding Choices | Stores the answer you gave to Google's own consent message, so it is not shown to you again. Only set where that message is the one that asks — the EEA, the UK and Switzerland. | About 13 months. |
The security layer, which sets none
Cloudflare sits in front of this site to filter attacks and serve pages from somewhere near you, so every request passes through it — your IP address, the page you asked for, and what browser you are using. That happens before any of the above and is not something consent applies to; it is how the site is reachable at all.
It is worth saying plainly that it currently sets no cookie here. Cloudflare can set one — __cf_bm, to tell automated traffic from people — but only where its bot protection is switched on, and it is not. We check the live site’s response headers rather than trusting this paragraph: if a cookie we have not listed ever starts arriving, the check fails and this page gets updated.
Nothing is set before you answer
Until you give an answer, and for as long as your answer is no, Google is told to store nothing. The tag still loads, but in a mode where it writes no cookies and identifies nobody. That instruction is sent before any Google code runs rather than after, which is the difference between asking first and apologising later.
One standard, wherever you are
Two places set the bar, and they do it differently. The UK and the EU require opt-in: nothing non-essential may be set until you agree. California requires that a Global Privacy Control signal, sent by your browser, be honoured as a binding request without anyone asking you anything.
We apply the stricter half of each to everybody. You are asked first, wherever you are reading from, and your browser’s signal is honoured if it sends one — not because your address requires it of us, but because deciding how much privacy someone gets by looking up where they live is a poor way to run a website.
If your browser sends a signal
Global Privacy Control is a setting in some browsers and extensions that tells every site you visit not to sell or share your information. Where we see it, nothing non-essential is stored, no banner appears, and it overrides an acceptance recorded here — a deliberate browser setting is a clearer statement than a banner click from months ago. The panel at the top of this page will tell you when that is what is happening, so it is never a mystery.
Who asks is not always us
Google requires a certified consent platform for advertising in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and a banner we wrote ourselves does not qualify however carefully it is built. So Google’s own message asks there, with three answers — consent, do not consent, or choose purpose by purpose — and ours stands aside so nobody is asked twice. Everywhere else, our banner asks. The protection is the same either way; only the message differs. The control at the top of this page opens whichever one applies to you.
If you would rather use your browser
Every browser can block or delete cookies for a single site, and blocking ours will not break the recipes — only staying signed in. Clearing this site’s data also erases your saved answer, so you will be asked again on your next visit.
The fuller account of what we collect, who handles it and what you can ask us to delete is on the privacy page.