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Cookie Policy (UK)

Last updated: 8 October 2026

This page explains the cookies and similar technologies used on controlaltdeletetechbits.co.uk, what they do and how you can control them. For how personal data is handled more generally, see the Privacy Policy.

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files that a website stores on your device. Your browser’s local storage works in a similar way. Some of these are needed for the site to work. The rest are only used if you agree.

Your choices

When you first visit from the UK, the European Economic Area or Switzerland, a consent message from Google asks what you want to allow. You can choose Consent, Do not consent, or Manage options to pick individual purposes and partners.

Until you make a choice, no advertising or analytics cookies are set. If you choose Do not consent, Google may still show limited ads that do not use cookies for advertising or personalisation.

You can change your choice at any time using the privacy and cookie settings link at the bottom of the page. Clearing your cookies for this site will also bring the message back.

Google’s consent message

Google’s consent tool stores your choice so it does not ask again on every page.

  1. FCCDCF: remembers your consent choice. Lasts 13 months.
  2. FCNEC: used by Google’s consent tool, which Google describes as analytics. Lasts 365 days.

Advertising (Google AdSense)

This site shows ads from Google AdSense. With your consent, Google and its advertising partners use cookies to show ads, including personalised ads, to limit how often you see the same ad, to measure how ads perform and to prevent fraud.

  1. __gads: advertising and security. Lasts 13 months.
  2. __gpi: advertising and security. Lasts 13 months.
  3. __eoi: security. Lasts 6 months.

Google’s partners may set their own cookies. You can see every partner, and switch each one off, under Manage options and “List of partners” in the consent message. Google explains how it uses information from sites that show its ads at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and you can manage your Google ad settings at myadcenter.google.com.

Analytics (Google Analytics)

This site uses Google Analytics, through Google Site Kit, to understand which articles people read and how they find them.

  1. _ga: tells visits apart. Lasts 2 years.
  2. ga followed by an ID: keeps the state of your visit. Lasts 2 years.

These are only set if you consent. Without consent, Google Analytics sets no cookies. It may still receive basic signals, such as a page being viewed, without any identifier that links them to you.

When you allow analytics in the consent message, Google Analytics (through Site Kit) also records three Incident Room events: when an incident starts (difficulty, and whether it is the Daily incident), when it ends (the outcome, difficulty, Daily or not, the turn it ended on, the stars and a score band such as 1500), and when you finish the training. These events contain no names, no free text and nothing you type. If you do not allow analytics, Google’s consent mode decides what, if anything, is sent, as for the rest of the site.

Local storage used by the desktop and games

Tenant Defender saves your career, scores and sound settings in your browser’s local storage, in entries starting with cadtb.tenant-defender. This data stays on your device and is never sent to this site. It is part of the game you chose to play, so it does not need consent. To remove it, clear the site data for controlaltdeletetechbits.co.uk in your browser.

Incident Room keeps your settings (difficulty and coach tips), your best scores (with the date, difficulty and incident number of each), badges, Daily incident results and whether you have been offered or have finished the training in your browser’s local storage, under the name cadtb.incident-room.v1. It stays on your device, is never sent to this site, and you can remove it at any time by clearing this site’s data in your browser. The game sets no cookies.

Google’s ad and consent tools also keep small settings in local storage, under names such as google_adsense_settings.

Live player count

Tenant Defender and Incident Room can show how many people have each game open. When a game window is open, your browser sends a random identifier, created fresh for that window and held only in the browser’s memory, and the name of the game to this site every minute. The identifier stops being counted 90 seconds after the last message, or straight away when you close or minimise the game, and is deleted from the database shortly afterwards. It is not linked to you, we set no cookie and store nothing in your browser for this, and your IP address is not stored. A one-way hash of your IP address, made with a secret that is private to this site, is kept for 2 minutes only so that one device cannot add many players.

Embedded videos

Some articles include YouTube videos. YouTube may set its own cookies when a video loads or plays. These are covered by Google’s privacy policy.

Links to other sites

The Donate button opens Buy Me a Coffee in a new tab. Any cookies there are set by Buy Me a Coffee, not by this site.

Site administrators

If you log in to WordPress (site administrators only), WordPress and the site’s security plugin set cookies needed to keep you signed in and protect your account.

Managing cookies in your browser

You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. If you block all cookies, the consent message will not be able to remember your choice and will ask again.

Changes to this policy

This page is updated whenever the cookies used on the site change. The date at the top shows the last update.

Questions

If you have any questions about this policy, please get in touch through the contact form on this site.