Cookie policy
What is stored in your browser, and how to change your mind.
Last updated
Change your choices
Advertising and analytics cookies are off until you say otherwise, wherever you are. Change that here — it applies immediately and is remembered for next time.
Currently: no cookies beyond the ones needed to sign in.
Refusing takes one click, the same as agreeing. The last button is only useful where Google shows its own consent message — the UK, the EEA and Switzerland.
Cookies we set
Three, all of them needed to sign in and stay signed in. None track you and none follow you off this site. Browsing signed out sets none of them at all — a request to this site from a browser with no session gets no Set-Cookie back.
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
sb-…-auth-token | ShareYourPets | Keeps you signed in. Http-only, so page scripts cannot read it. The middle of the name is our database project’s id, and it may be split across a numbered pair when the session is long. | Until you sign out |
syp_g_state | ShareYourPets | A one-time value that proves a returning sign-in is the one you started, rather than a link somebody sent you. Http-only. | 10 minutes |
syp_g_next | ShareYourPets | Remembers which page to return you to after signing in. Http-only, and only ever holds a path on this site. | 10 minutes |
The analytics cookies are Google’s and are listed below. The other thing that counts page views — Cloudflare Web Analytics — works without any cookie at all, which is why it appears in no table on this page. It is described on the privacy page.
Cookies Google Analytics sets
None of these exist until you agree to them. Analytics storage starts denied for every visitor, so Google Analytics runs without cookies and without recognising anyone until consent is given. Refuse, or never answer, and the table below stays empty in your browser.
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics | Recognises your browser between visits, so two visits a week apart are counted as one returning browser rather than two new ones. | 2 years |
_ga_PMZ31C10ZE | Google Analytics | Keeps the state of your current visit — when it started and whether it is still going. The suffix is this site’s measurement id. | 2 years |
Cookies Google sets for adverts
The adverts come from Google AdSense, and it sets its own cookies to choose and measure them — including on the basis of your visits to other sites. That profiling is Google’s, not ours: we cannot see it, hold it, or switch it off for you.
Nothing is set until you agree, wherever you are. Advertising storage starts denied for every visitor, not only the ones whose law requires it. The UK asks first and California gives you a right to refuse; rather than sorting people by passport and giving the rest whatever we could get away with, everyone gets the stricter of the two.
Where a consent message is shown it has three options — Consent, Do not consent and Manage options — and refusing takes one click, the same as agreeing.
If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, that is treated as a refusal already given. We do not ask again and we do not take a later click as overriding it — you have answered, and asking until you say yes is not consent.
Declining does not remove the adverts. It removes the profiling behind them: you see adverts chosen by the page you are on rather than by your history.
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
__gads | Delivers adverts and measures how they performed. | About 13 months | |
__gpi | Decides whether adverts you see are personalised. | About 13 months | |
__eoi | Detects advertising fraud and invalid traffic. | About 6 months | |
FCNEC | Stores the answer you gave the consent message, so you are not asked again on every page. | About 13 months | |
IDE | Google (doubleclick.net) | Measures and targets adverts across sites. | About 13 months |
test_cookie | Google (doubleclick.net) | Checks whether your browser accepts cookies at all. | 15 minutes |
Those are the ones you are most likely to see, and Google — not us — decides the full set and how long each lasts, so it can change without this page changing. The current list is on Google’s advertising cookies page. None of them are set while advertising storage is denied.
Other ways to control this
These work from anywhere, whether or not you were shown a message.
- Google My Ad Center — turns off personalised advertising across everything Google serves, not only here.
- Block third-party cookies in your browser. This site works exactly the same without them.
- Clear this site’s data — forgets your answer, so you are asked again next time.
- See who is involved on Google’s partner-sites page.
Anything else
The fuller picture — what we collect, who else is involved, and what you can ask us to delete — is on the privacy page. Questions to [email protected].
Draft. Accurate about what the site does, but not reviewed by a lawyer.