What Are Cookies Anyway?

Cookies are small text files that get stored on your device when you visit websites. Think of them as digital sticky notes that help the site remember things about your visit. Some stick around for a while, others disappear when you close your browser.

We also use similar technologies—things like web beacons and pixels. They work a bit differently but serve similar purposes. For simplicity, when we say "cookies" here, we're usually talking about all these tracking tools together.

The Cookies We Use

Not all cookies do the same job. Here's a breakdown of the different types you'll encounter on our site and what they actually do:

Why We Actually Need This Information

Look, we get it—tracking sounds invasive. But here's the reality of running a financial education platform. We need to understand what's working and what isn't. When we see that everyone's getting confused on a particular page, that tells us we need to rewrite it. When we notice people spending ages on our budget planning resources, we know to create more content like that.

Analytics help us serve the Irish market better. We can see if our content about ISAs or pension planning is actually useful. And yes, marketing cookies help us reach people who might benefit from learning about budget investing—but we try to keep it relevant rather than just noisy.

How Long Do These Stick Around?

Different cookies have different lifespans. Session cookies vanish when you close your browser—they're just there for your current visit. Persistent cookies hang around longer, sometimes for months or even years, depending on their purpose.

Third-Party Cookies

Some cookies come from services we use rather than directly from us. Analytics platforms, advertising networks, and embedded content can all place their own cookies. We try to be selective about which third parties we work with, but once you're on our site, some of these will show up.

These third parties have their own privacy policies. We don't control what they do with the data they collect, though we try to work only with reputable providers who take privacy seriously.

Managing Your Cookie Preferences

You're not stuck with our default settings. Most browsers let you control cookies pretty extensively. Here's how to adjust things in the major browsers:

Keep in mind that blocking all cookies will break some site functionality. You might not be able to log in, or preferences won't save. It's usually better to be selective about which types of cookies you block rather than shutting everything down.

Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers offer "Do Not Track" settings. Honestly, there's no industry standard for how to respond to these signals, and many sites (including ours) don't change behavior based on them. We know that's frustrating, but it's the current state of things. Your best bet is using the browser controls mentioned above.

Updates to This Policy

We'll update this policy when we add new tracking technologies or change how we use existing ones. Significant changes get reflected in the "last updated" date at the top. We won't email you about every minor tweak, so it's worth checking back occasionally if you're concerned about tracking.

Your Rights Under Irish and EU Law

Under GDPR and Irish data protection regulations, you have specific rights about how your data gets processed. You can request access to the information we've collected, ask us to delete it, or object to certain types of processing.

• Right to access: You can ask what data we hold about you
• Right to deletion: You can request we delete your personal data
• Right to object: You can opt out of certain types of processing
• Right to portability: You can request your data in a transferable format

These rights have limitations—we can't delete data we need for legal compliance, for example. But we take these obligations seriously and will respond to legitimate requests promptly.