What are cookies?
A “cookie” is a piece of information stored on your computer’s hard drive, which remembers your movements on a website (what you clicked on and when, things like that). They’re quite helpful really, as they mean that when you revisit a website, you can be presented with more tailored options based on your previous visit. Cookies can also be used to analyse traffic and for advertising and marketing purposes. They are used on nearly every website, and are perfectly harmless! In fact, they’re rather useful little things.
My cookie policy
If you leave a comment on my site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. This is a GOOD thing, as it means you don’t have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. No one has time for all that. These cookies only last a year, though, so make sure you leave a comment at least once every twelve months or else you’ll have to put your details in again.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, a temporary cookie will be set to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, several cookies will be set up to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. Simple, right?
Can I stop cookies?
The way I see it is that if cookies were inherently evil, they’d have been named after something evil, like beetroot or rats.
As it is, they’ve been given a very nice name, but I understand that some of you will think this is simply a cover-up for the underground activity of an evil Web dictator. If this is the case, then take a look at your browser settings, which will probably offer options to change the types of cookies you accept, and/or a setting which will allow you to refuse all/some cookies on particular websites. Remember, though, that if you block all cookies, you may not be able to access the whole of this website – or, indeed, other websites that you may like more.
Stuck for something to do? You can find out more about cookies here www.allaboutcookies.org.
Anything else I should be aware of?
Yes, since you ask. I carefully select a few relevant third parties to advertise on this website – only ones I think you might appreciate (for example, parenting websites and resources, Christian bookshops, and so on). Remember that these companies may also use cookies, and I don’t have any control over those ones, just my own.
If you switch off cookies, it WON’T stop you seeing these ads – it will simply mean that they’re less tailored to you.
Affiliate programme participation
As you may know, I include affiliate links to products I think are just great, which I think you’d enjoy too. I embed a tracking link into this website, and if you click on it you’ll be taken to a third party website. When you do so, a cookie is placed on your browser simply to track any sale you might make, meaning that the commission (paid by the vendor, at no extra cost to you) can be traced back to me.
Emails from Lucy Rycroft
My newsletters and emails may contain tracking pixels. This is embedded in emails and allows me to analyse how successful (or not) my emails are. This means I can see if and when you open an email and which links within the email you click. Trust me, I rarely have time to actually look at this information, but sometimes it’s helpful for me to know what people are reading and enjoying so that I can make future emails better and more tailored. I promise not to pass this information on to third parties.
And if you’re unhappy with this, you can always unsubscribe (using the unoriginally-named ‘Unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of each email).