Cookie Policy
Every cookie this site sets or permits, who sets it, what it does, and how to change your mind.
What a cookie is, briefly
A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to store. It comes back with every later request, which lets a site recognise a returning browser. "Similar technologies" — local storage, session storage, pixels, and software development kits — do much the same job by different means. This policy covers all of them; we just say "cookies" throughout.
Cookies set by compatgrid.com are first-party. Cookies set by anyone else through our pages — advertisers, mostly — are third-party, and we do not control what they contain.
The four categories
| Category | What it does | Do we need your consent? |
|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Makes the site work at all — security, load balancing, remembering your cookie choices | No. These are exempt in the EEA and UK because the site cannot be delivered without them. |
| Preferences | Remembers settings such as light or dark theme | Yes, in the EEA and UK |
| Analytics | Counts visits and tells us which pages are read | Yes, in the EEA and UK |
| Advertising | Selects ads, limits how often you see the same one, measures whether an ad worked | Yes, in the EEA and UK. In the US, see the opt-out below. |
In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, nothing outside "strictly necessary" is set until you consent. If affiliate conversion pixels are ever used, they are advertising, not strictly necessary, and would be treated accordingly.
The cookies themselves
TODO(owner): verify this table against a real scan of the live site before launch, and re-scan whenever an ad partner or embed is added. If the consent platform generates and refreshes a table automatically, use that instead of maintaining this one by hand — a table that drifts is a written inaccuracy in a legal document.
| Cookie | Set by | Purpose | Type | Duration | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consent record (name set by the CMP) | Our consent platform — TODO(owner): name it | Stores the choices you made in the consent banner | First party | Up to 12 months | Strictly necessary |
__gads, __gpi | Google (googlesyndication.com) | Ad selection, frequency capping, fraud prevention | Third party | Up to 13 months | Advertising |
IDE, test_cookie | Google (doubleclick.net) | Ad personalisation and measurement | Third party | Up to 13 months / 15 minutes | Advertising |
NID | Google (google.com) | Ad preferences and settings | Third party | Up to 6 months | Advertising |
We count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser, so it has no row in this table. The Analytics consent category above covers analytics cookies only; this cookieless page-view counting is not in it.
Durations are the maximum the provider states; the actual lifetime can be shorter, and browsers increasingly cap third-party cookie lifetimes on their own.
Third parties and their policies
- Google — How Google uses information from sites that use its services, and Google's cookie policy.
- Cloudflare (Web Analytics) — Cloudflare Privacy Policy.
- TODO(owner): add the consent platform, host and CDN.
How to change your mind
On this site
Reopen the preference centre at any time and change any choice, including withdrawing consent entirely:
Withdrawing is as easy as granting — one click, same control, no dark patterns, and nothing on this site stops working if you refuse.
In your browser
Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies, and most now block third-party cookies by default. Look for "Cookies and site data" in settings, under Privacy. Blocking all cookies will break some sites; it will not break this one.
Across the ad industry
- Google Ads Settings — turn off ad personalisation for your Google account.
- aboutads.info/choices (US) and youronlinechoices.eu (Europe).
- Network Advertising Initiative opt-out.
- Enable Global Privacy Control — we honour it automatically.
More detail
For what happens to the data these cookies generate — who receives it, how long it is kept, and how to get it deleted — see the Privacy Policy.