The short version
We use Google Analytics to count how many people read the guides and which ones they find useful. That is the only thing on this site that tracks anything. It does not run at all unless you have said yes, and you can change your answer whenever you like using the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page.
There are no adverts, no advertising pixels, no session recording, no heatmaps and no data sold to anybody. We do not have accounts, so we are not holding a password or an email address for you.
What we measure, if you agree
When you accept analytics, Google Analytics 4 records the sort of thing a visitor counter records:
- which pages were opened, and in what order
- roughly how long was spent reading
- whether you had been here before
- how you arrived — a Google search, a link from somewhere, an Instagram post, or typed in directly
- the country you were in, worked out from your IP address
- the general kind of device and browser — phone or laptop, Safari or Chrome
- a search term, if one was carried in the web address of the page you landed on
Alongside a guide page view we also send the guide’s title, its topic and its age range, so we can see which guides are actually being read rather than only which addresses were opened.
What we do not collect
We never send your name, your email address or your exact location to Google Analytics. We do not know who you are and we are not trying to work it out. Google Analytics 4 does not store full IP addresses, and IP addresses are not available to us at any point.
Searching is one thing worth being precise about. Typing in the search box on this site does not send anything anywhere — the search runs entirely in your own browser, against a list already downloaded with the page, and nothing you type leaves your device. The one exception is that a search term can appear in the web address itself, which happens when someone shares a link to a set of results rather than to a guide. If you open a link like that, Google Analytics records the term that was in the address. It has no way to tell that apart from any other part of a web address.
We look at those terms for one reason: to find questions parents are asking that we have not written a guide for yet. They are not connected to a person and we do not try to connect them to one.
We do not build a profile of you, we do not follow you to other websites, and nothing here is used for advertising. We have not enabled Google Signals or any advertising feature.
Why we measure it at all
There are hundreds of guides here and only so many hours to write them. Knowing which questions people actually arrive with tells us which guide to write next, and knowing when people leave a page after ten seconds tells us that guide is not answering the question it promised to. That is the whole purpose. It is editorial, not commercial.
Cookies
If you accept analytics, Google Analytics sets two cookies in your browser:
- _ga — a random number that lets Google tell a returning reader from a new one. It lasts two years.
- _ga_<id> — keeps track of the current visit so a single reading session is not counted as several. It also lasts two years.
Neither contains anything that identifies you personally. We also store one small item under the name mpc.consent in your browser, which is simply the answer you gave us so we do not ask again on every page. That one is not a cookie, is never sent anywhere, and stays on your device.
Nothing else on this site sets a cookie. If you decline, no analytics cookie is created at all.
Consent, and taking it back
Analytics storage is switched off before Google Analytics is allowed to load. Until you press Accept, no analytics cookie is written and no identifier is stored on your device. If you decline, Google Analytics is not loaded at all.
You can change your mind in either direction, as often as you like, using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page. Choosing Decline there also deletes the analytics cookies already in your browser for this site.
Your browser’s own settings can block or clear cookies too, and any of the usual privacy extensions will stop analytics loading regardless of what you tell us here. We are not going to work around that.
Who else is involved
Google Ireland Limited processes the analytics data on our behalf. What Google does with it is set out in Google’s privacy policy, and there is a specific page on how Google uses data from sites that use its services. Google also offer a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics everywhere, on every site, not just this one.
The site itself is hosted by Netlify and the guides are stored with Google Firebase. Like any web host, they keep short-lived server logs; we do not use those for analytics.
Our Instagram account
We link to our Instagram account from the footer of this site. That is an ordinary link: following it takes you to instagram.com, where Meta’s own privacy terms apply, not ours. We do not embed an Instagram feed here, we do not load any Meta script on this site, and clicking the link tells us nothing.
Behind the scenes we use a private, password-protected tool to draft posts from guides that are already published on this site. It works only with our own writing and our own illustrations. It does not read Instagram, it does not receive messages, and at the time of writing it cannot post anything — publishing is switched off. Nothing about you is involved at any point.
If that ever changes — if we start handling Instagram messages, for instance — we will describe it here before it starts, not after.
Your rights
If you are in the UK or the EU, you have the right to ask what data is held about you, to ask for it to be corrected or deleted, and to object to it being processed. Because we do not collect anything that identifies you, we usually cannot find “your” data to show you — but if you want the analytics record of a visit removed, get in touch and we will pass the request on to Google.
You also have the right to complain to your data protection regulator. In the UK that is the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Children
This site is written for parents, not for children. We do not knowingly collect anything from anyone under 16, and there is nothing here to sign up to.
Changes to this page
If we ever add something that collects more than this page describes, we will update this page and ask for your consent again before it runs. We will not quietly widen what is being collected under an old Accept.
Getting in touch
Anything on this page, or anything you would like removed, can go through the contact route on our About us page.