A cookie is a small file kept by your browser on a site’s behalf. It cannot run, and it cannot read anything else on your machine. This page lists the ones TheTruckChef relies on and why each exists.
Keeping this current
This page is rewritten when the set of cookies changes, which happens when a service is added or dropped rather than on a schedule. The date at the top is when that last occurred.
What is stored
- Necessary. Make the site work: page delivery, security, your cookie choice itself. The site cannot function without them.
- Analytics. Google Analytics, in aggregate: which pages get read, how people arrive. No name attached.
- Advertising. Google AdSense may set cookies to choose and cap the ads you see.
Duration
Some of these last only as long as the tab stays open. Others, the measurement and ad cookies in particular, sit there for months.
The actual names
- _ga, _gid – Google Analytics. Distinguish one browser from another so visits are not double-counted.
- __gads, __gpi – Google AdSense. Ad selection and frequency capping.
- wordpress_test_cookie, wp-settings-* – WordPress. Check that cookies work, and remember display preferences.
- comment_author_* – set only if you leave a comment, so the form remembers your name next time.
It is worth saying what is absent. No cookie here reaches your files, tracks you outside the browser, or gets sold. None exists to put a name to a reader.
Embedded content
Where a page includes something served from another site, that provider may set cookies of its own when the embed loads. Those are governed by the provider’s policy, not by this page.
Asking first
The prompt you see on a first visit is how consent is gathered for the cookies that need it. Your decision is kept in your own browser, not in an account, which is why clearing your browser brings the prompt back.
Browser signals
We make no claim about Do Not Track: the signal has never been standardised into an obligation. What works is refusing the cookies, by the means listed above.
Opting out
- To stop personalised ads everywhere, not just here: adssettings.google.com.
- To stop Google Analytics from counting you anywhere: the opt-out browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
- To handle it locally: your browser’s privacy settings block or delete cookies, per site or across the board.
Refusing them
Your browser can delete any of this at any moment, without asking us. Keep the technical cookies if you want pages to behave; the others are optional.
Getting in touch
Questions go to the contact page.