Cookie policy

1. What this covers

A cookie is a small file a website stores on your device. Some are needed for the site to work. Others are optional and we ask before using them.

This page lists everything AFN stores on your device, including the things kept in your browser's local storage, which are not technically cookies but do the same job and deserve the same disclosure.

2. Strictly necessary

These are set without asking, because the site cannot do what you asked without them.

• sb-boxaqtgfdfyoofxvdjsp-auth-token: keeps you signed in. Set by our authentication provider. Cleared when you sign out.
• afn-consent-analytics: remembers whether you agreed to analytics. Stored in your browser's local storage, and kept until you clear it. Storing your refusal is what stops us asking again on every page.
• afn-consent-ads: remembers whether you agreed to advertising. Local storage, kept until you clear it. It is a separate record from the analytics one because they are separate choices.
• afn-colour-mode: remembers whether you chose light or dark. Local storage, kept until you clear it.

3. Functional

• afn_country, a two-letter country code, so the homepage can lead with recipes from your part of the world. Lasts 7 days. It holds no identifier and cannot be used to recognise you.
• afn_no_geo: remembers that you dismissed the localised recipe band, so it does not come back. Lasts 1 year.

4. Analytics, only if you agree

If you allow analytics, Google Analytics sets cookies that tell us which pages are read, roughly where readers are, and what device they use. We use this to decide what to publish next. What Google Analytics collects is not used to target adverts at you.

If you decline, or if you never answer, Google Analytics is never loaded. Nothing is set and nothing is sent.

Analytics is not advertising. Allowing analytics does not allow advertising cookies, which are covered in the next section and asked for separately.

5. Advertising, only if you agree

If you allow advertising, Google AdSense sets cookies and reads an advertising identifier on your device. It uses them to choose which adverts you see, to avoid showing you the same advert over and over, and to count whether an advert was seen or clicked.

If you decline, or if you never answer, the AdSense code is never loaded. No request reaches Google's advertising servers, nothing is set and nothing is sent. Declining removes the adverts and nothing else: every recipe, article and feature on the site works exactly the same way.

Advertising is a separate question from analytics, with its own answer. Allowing one does not allow the other, and you can change either on its own at any time.

6. Changing your mind

Use the cookie settings link in the footer of any page. Analytics and advertising are listed there separately, so you can change one without touching the other.

A change takes effect straight away. Withdrawing analytics sets Google's own opt-out flag for our property immediately rather than waiting for a page reload. Withdrawing advertising reloads the page, so the advertising code is gone rather than merely hidden behind something.

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you block the strictly necessary ones, you will not be able to stay signed in.