Cookie Policy

Each category below serves a distinct purpose. Only the first is strictly necessary; everything else is your choice.

Independent technology journalism is funded by readers and by advertising. xSypher serves display advertising through Google AdSense and may work with additional third-party advertising partners, including demand-side platforms buying inventory through Google's ad exchange.

Google's use of advertising cookies. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website and other websites on the internet. Google's use of advertising cookies — most notably the DoubleClick cookie (also referred to as the DART cookie) — enables it and its partners to serve personalised advertisements to you based on your visits to xsypher.com and/or other sites across the internet. You can read Google's own explanation at policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

Personalised and non-personalised ads. Where consent has been granted through our banner or Google's consent framework, ads may be personalised. Where consent is declined or unavailable, ads are served in a non-personalised mode: Google still uses cookies for frequency capping, aggregated ad reporting and fraud prevention, but not to build an advertising profile across sites. Which mode applies is also recorded in your Google Ad Settings.

Opting out of personalised advertising does not reduce the number of ads you see; it means the ads are selected without an interest profile. xSypher does not sell your personal information, and we do not append email lists or reader identifiers to advertising audiences.

We measure readership to decide what to commission, not to profile individuals. Page views are counted in our own database by article, with no per-reader identifier stored — the same article read twice by the same person increments the same public counter.

We do not run Google Analytics, and we do not licence cross-site behavioural data. When optional cookies are accepted we additionally receive anonymous crash reports and performance timings so that a broken layout on an unusual device becomes a bug report instead of an invisible failure. Those reports never include the content you type into a comment or newsletter field.

Newsletter subscriptions are handled by our email provider, Resend, and stored in our database. Comments are stored with a hashed email address only. Neither is used for advertising.

You have the right to decide whether to accept or reject non-essential cookies, and to change that decision later. You can set or amend your web browser controls to accept, refuse or delete cookies entirely.

For general guidance on managing and deleting cookies, visit aboutcookies.org or allaboutcookies.org.

Nothing is kept longer than it is needed for the purpose it was set:

Comment submissions retain a hashed email and hashed IP for moderation and abuse prevention for as long as the comment is published.

For readers in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, non-essential cookies are only set on the basis of your consent, which you may withdraw at any time through the banner or by clearing your browser storage. Essential cookies are processed under the legitimate-interest basis described above.

For readers in California, we do not sell or share personal information in the sense defined by the CCPA/CPRA for monetary value. Where an advertising partner's cookie could constitute “sharing” for cross-context behavioural advertising, it is only loaded after you affirmatively accept, and you can opt out at any time via Google Ad Settings or by declining the banner. You will never receive a degraded experience for opting out.

Requests relating to access, deletion or correction of your data are handled under our Privacy Policy.