How We UseCookies
Cookies keep the Site working, tell us which articles are worth writing, and pay for the hosting. Here is the full list, and how to say no.
Last updated:
This page explains how Fox Hut uses cookies and similar technologies on foxhut.online. Read it alongside our privacy policy, which covers personal information more generally.
1. What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file stored on your device when you visit a website. Some are set by us (first-party) and some by other services we use (third-party). Some disappear when you close the browser (session cookies) and some stay until they expire or you delete them (persistent cookies). Web beacons, pixels and local storage do similar jobs, and we call all of them cookies here.
2. What we use them for
- Essential. Making the Site work and remembering your cookie choices. These cannot be switched off, because without them the Site cannot function or honour your preferences.
- Analytics. Understanding which articles get read, which get abandoned, and what people search for before they arrive — this is genuinely how we decide what to write and what to correct.
- Advertising. Paying for the Site. Ads are what keep Fox Hut free to read and free of a paywall.
3. The cookies actually set
Third parties control these names and durations and change them from time to time, so treat this table as a good-faith guide rather than an exact specification.
| Cookie | Set by | Type | Purpose | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FCCDCF | Google (consent tool) | Essential | Stores your consent choices so you are not asked again | Up to 13 months |
| FCNEC | Google (consent tool) | Essential | Records non-personalised-ads consent state | Up to 13 months |
| _ga | Google Analytics | Analytics | Tells returning visitors apart | Up to 2 years |
| _ga_<id> | Google Analytics | Analytics | Keeps session state in GA4 | Up to 2 years |
| _gid | Google Analytics | Analytics | Distinguishes users | 24 hours |
| IDE | Google (DoubleClick) | Advertising | Ad delivery and measurement | Up to ~13 months |
| test_cookie | Google (DoubleClick) | Advertising | Checks the browser accepts cookies | ~15 minutes |
| _clck | Microsoft Clarity | Analytics | Holds a Clarity user ID and preferences | 1 year |
| _clsk | Microsoft Clarity | Analytics | Joins page views into one session | 1 day |
| CLID | Microsoft Clarity | Analytics | Identifies first-time Clarity users | 1 year |
| ANONCHK | Microsoft | Analytics | Checks whether MUID is used for ads | 10 minutes |
| MUID / MR / SM | Microsoft | Analytics | Identifies browsers across Microsoft domains | 7 days – 1 year |
4. How we ask for your consent
Consent is handled by Google's certified consent management platform (Privacy & messaging in AdSense, formerly Funding Choices) — the consent tool built into Google AdSense. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland it shows a consent message before any advertising or analytics cookie is set, as Google's EU user consent policy and the UK and EU GDPR require. In the United States it presents a state-privacy message where one is required.
- Nothing non-essential is set until you answer. Declining is a real option and does not restrict anything you can read here.
- Your answer becomes a standard signal — an IAB TCF v2.2 string in Europe, an IAB Global Privacy Platform string in the US — which is passed to Google and the ad vendors it works with, so your choice travels with the ad request.
- Declining personalised ads does not remove ads. You will see non-personalised, contextual ads instead, which still use cookies for frequency capping, measurement and fraud prevention.
- If you opt out in the US, we enable Google's restricted data processing, under which Google processes the data only as a service provider for a limited set of purposes rather than for profiling.
- You can change your answer whenever you like through the “Privacy & cookie settings” link in the footer of every page.
5. Your other choices
How to take control of cookies
- Use the consent message. Where the law requires consent, decline non-essential cookies before they are set, and reopen the choices any time through the “Privacy & cookie settings” link in the footer.
- Change your browser settings. Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies and block third-party cookies — see the help pages for Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge.
- Turn off personalised ads. Use Google My Ad Center, and for other vendors the Digital Advertising Alliance or Your Online Choices in Europe.
- Opt out of analytics. Install the Google Analytics opt-out add-on to exclude yourself on every site, not just this one.
- Turn on Global Privacy Control in a browser that supports it. We honour GPC as an opt-out of sharing for advertising.
Blocking cookies will not stop you reading anything on Fox Hut. Every article is fully readable with cookies declined and JavaScript switched off.
6. Do Not Track
Browsers offer a Do Not Track setting, but no agreed standard exists for how sites should respond to it, so we do not act on it. We do honour Global Privacy Control signals, which are well defined.
7. Changes
We will update this page when the cookies we use change, and revise the date at the top when we do.
8. Contact
Questions about cookies? Email contact@foxhut.online.