Last updated: 2026-05-18
This page explains what cookies are, the ones we set on Factsmania, and how you can control them. It sits alongside our privacy policy.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store on your device. The next time you visit, your browser sends the cookie back, which helps the website remember things (like that you are the same visitor who looked at a page earlier). Cookies cannot run programs or carry viruses to your computer.
The cookies we use
We group cookies into three categories.
1. Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are needed for the Site to work. Things like remembering whether you closed a cookie banner, or keeping the cookie banner from popping up again on every page. You cannot turn these off, but they store no personal information.
2. Performance / analytics cookies
These cookies help us understand how many people use the Site and which pages are popular. We use Google Analytics for this. IP addresses are anonymised before being stored.
| Cookie | Provider | Purpose | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Google Analytics | Distinguishes one anonymous visitor from another | 2 years |
| _ga_* | Google Analytics 4 | Maintains session state for the visit | 2 years |
| _gid | Google Analytics | Distinguishes anonymous visitors over 24 hours | 24 hours |
| _gat | Google Analytics | Throttles request rate to limit data collection on busy sites | 1 minute |
You can opt out of all Google Analytics tracking using the official Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
3. Advertising cookies
The adverts on Factsmania are served by Google AdSense. They help to keep the Site free to use.
- If you are visiting from the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), you will only see non-personalised adverts. These ads are chosen based on the page you are reading, not your browsing history. The cookies set are only used for measuring ad performance and preventing fraud, not for behavioural tracking.
- If you are visiting from outside the UK and EEA, AdSense may serve a mix of personalised and non-personalised adverts. Personalised ads use cookies set by Google (such as IDE or NID) to remember which ads you have seen and to estimate what might interest you.
You can change your ad preferences in your Google Ad Settings. Google's full list of advertising cookies is at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.
How to manage or block cookies
All modern browsers let you view, block or delete cookies. The exact steps depend on which browser you use:
Blocking all cookies may stop parts of the Site from working as expected, but the main content (pages, maps, periodic table) will still be readable.
Do Not Track
Some browsers send a "Do Not Track" signal. There is no agreed industry standard for what to do with this signal, but we choose to honour it where it is technically possible: visits from browsers sending DNT will not be recorded in our analytics.
Changes to this policy
If we change which cookies we use, we will update this page and the date at the top.
More information
If you have any questions about how we use cookies, please contact us. For independent information about cookies and online privacy, the UK Information Commissioner's Office has a helpful page at ico.org.uk.