Cookie Policy

This policy explains the cookies and similar technologies used on FurlongLab, their purposes, the legal basis for using them, how long they last and how you can control them. It should be read together with the Privacy Policy, which describes more broadly how the site processes personal information.

A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store on the device you are using to visit the site. When you return to the site, your browser sends the cookie back, which is how the site remembers that you have been there before, what your preferences are, and what state any session you started was in. Similar technologies — local storage, session storage and pixel tags — are treated by this policy in the same way as cookies, because the law of England and Wales and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations apply to them on the same basis.

The cookies used on this site

FurlongLab uses a deliberately small set of cookies. They fall into two categories: strictly necessary cookies and analytics cookies. The site does not use advertising cookies, behavioural-targeting cookies or social-network sharing cookies that follow you between sites.

Strictly necessary cookies are required for the site to operate. They include a cookie that remembers your response to the cookie banner so that you are not asked again on every page, a cookie that maintains technical session state where one is needed, and security-related tokens used to prevent abuse. These cookies do not need your consent under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations because they are strictly necessary for the service you have requested.

Analytics cookies, where loaded, are used to produce aggregated, non-identifying statistics about how the site is used: which articles are read, how readers arrive at them, and how long readers spend on a page. The analytics implementation is configured to anonymise the internet protocol address before storage and to disable any feature that would let analytics data be combined with advertising data. Analytics cookies are loaded only after you have indicated agreement on the cookie banner, and you can withdraw that agreement at any time using the controls described below.

The legal basis for strictly necessary cookies is the legitimate interest of the publisher in operating, securing and maintaining the site. The legal basis for analytics cookies is your consent, given on the cookie banner. Consent for analytics cookies is granular: you can accept or decline analytics independently of strictly necessary cookies, and you can change that decision at any time without affecting your access to the editorial content of the site.

How long cookies last

Strictly necessary cookies are session cookies or have a short duration measured in days; they are deleted automatically once they have served the purpose for which they were set. Analytics cookies, where loaded, have a longer duration, typically measured in months, because the purpose for which they exist is to recognise returning visits and produce aggregated statistics on engagement over time. The exact duration of each cookie is set in the cookie itself and is visible in your browser’s cookie inspector.

Third parties

Where analytics cookies are loaded, they may be served from infrastructure operated by a third-party analytics provider. The provider acts as a data processor on behalf of the publisher and is bound by a contract that meets the requirements of the UK GDPR for processor arrangements. The provider does not use the data collected on this site to build profiles of individual readers for its own purposes or for the purposes of unrelated third parties.

How to control cookies

You control cookies through three mechanisms. The first is the cookie banner shown on your first visit to FurlongLab, which lets you accept or decline non-essential cookies. The second is the cookie settings link in the footer of every page, which lets you change your decision at any time after the first visit. The third is your browser, which lets you delete cookies, block them for individual sites or block them globally.

Every major browser provides controls over cookies in its settings menu. Information on how to use those controls is published on the official help pages of each browser. Be aware that blocking strictly necessary cookies may prevent the site from operating correctly; blocking analytics cookies will not affect your ability to read the editorial content.

Do Not Track

The “Do Not Track” signal sent by some browsers is interpreted on FurlongLab as a refusal of consent for analytics cookies. If your browser is sending a Do Not Track signal, analytics cookies will not be loaded even if you have not interacted with the cookie banner.

Changes to this policy

This cookie policy may be updated from time to time as the technology used on the site evolves or as the regulatory framework changes. The date at the top of the page indicates when the most recent change was made. Where a material change affects the cookies set on your device or the legal basis on which they are set, you will be prompted to review your preferences on your next visit.